Last week, a single judge in Texas ignored 78 years of legal precedent and took money out of the pockets of millions of working people across the country. How did he do it? By blocking a long overdue update of the overtime rule designed to restore overtime protections for an estimated 4.2 million workers, while making it harder for employers to deny overtime to another 8.9 million workers already eligible for overtime. 
These workers, the majority of whom are women, earn modest salaries, work long hours and have just been told that they will still be denied fair pay. The updated rule was scheduled to take effect tomorrow, but has now been blocked by Judge Amos Mazzant, who argued that the Labor Department does not have legal authority to set a minimum salary threshold. 
But the Labor Department has been exercising that authority since 1938. In fact, it has increased the threshold seven times, most recently in 2004 under President George W. Bush. Congress has amended the overtime law several times and never objected to the minimum salary threshold, and no court had previously ruled that the salary threshold violated congressional intent.
The labor movement joined the Labor Department and many others in denouncing this extreme decision and will continue to fight for overtime protections.

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1854, “Fighting Mary” Eliza McDowell, also known as the “Angel of the Stockyards,” was born in Chicago. As a social worker she helped organize the first women’s local of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union in 1902. 
In 1930, Mother Jones died at the Burgess Farm in Adelphi, Maryland. Mary Harris Jones—better-known as “Mother Jones”—was the most dynamic woman ever to grace the American labor movement. Employers and politicians around the turn of the century called her “the most dangerous woman in America” and rebellious working men and women loved her fiercely. She was absolutely fearless and tireless advocate for working people, especially coal miners. A founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World—the Wobblies—she feared neither soldiers’ guns nor the ruling class’s jails as she helped organize workers in steel, railroading, textiles and mining, crusaded against child labor, fought to organize women, and was even involved in the Mexican revolution.

Today's labor quote is by Mother Jones
Mother Jones, who said “I’m not a lady, I’m a hell-raiser!”

At a noontime rally today with hundreds of low-wage airport workers, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre will join elected officials and clergy as contracted service workers at National Airport and Dulles announce plans to hold a strike vote over the holiday season against Huntleigh Corporation.
The crowd will demand that the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority ensure contractors pay their workers $15 an hour. The rally, which is one of 20 happening at airports nationwide, is organized by SEIU 32BJ and starts at noon in DCA's historic lobby.

Also on today’s labor calendar, check out today’s talk on “Sugarcane Workers in Nicaragua & Human Rights” at 2:30pm at Georgetown University.
And tonight at 6:30 there’s a “Fight For $15 Solidarity Vigil” at the Montgomery County Council Building in Rockville. Go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar for complete details.

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1934, clerks, teamsters and building service workers at Boston Stores in Milwaukee struck at the beginning of the Christmas rush. The strike won widespread support—at one point 10,000 pickets jammed the sidewalks around the main store—but ultimately was lost. Workers returned to the job in mid-January with a small pay raise and no union recognition.
In 1999, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that medical interns can unionize and negotiate wages and hours.

Today's labor quote is by George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO from 1955 to 1979
“While strikes sometimes cause public inconvenience, they are an inherent part of the liberties we all enjoy – free speech, freedom of association, the right of contract. The exercise of liberties in a democratic society is not only healthy; it is vital.”

The entire American labor movement is now in the cross hairs of the Trump administration and the GOP-controlled Congress. That's according to AFSCME Council 26 Executive Director Carl Goldman, responding to reports that the incoming administration is drawing up plans to take on federal workers. 
Goldman says he believes "this war has little to do with the canards that it is too hard to fire federal workers or that they don’t work hard enough. Rather, it is about defunding the parts of the federal government that have the most progressive missions."
Trump, says Goldman, "wants to eliminate any government regulations or programs that affect the profits of corporate American and/or strengthens the 99%."
The threat was a major focus of discussion at last week's Metro Washington Labor Council Executive Board and Delegate meetings and plans are in the works for further discussion.
Goldman says that AFSCME Council 26 is "now going full steam ahead with our development of a grass roots fight back."

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1828, National Labor Union founder William Sylvus was born.
In 1908, 154 men died in a coal mine explosion at Marianna, Pennsylvania.  Engineer and General Superintendent A.C. Beeson told the local newspaper he had been in the mine a few minutes before the blast and had found it to be in perfect condition.
And in 1953, some 400 New York City photoengravers working for the city’s newspapers, supported by 20,000 other newspaper unionists, began what was to become an 11-day strike, shutting down the papers.

Today's labor quote comes from my old boss, Jim Hightower
American syndicated columnist, progressive political activist, and author Jim Hightower, who said:
"What created democracy was Thomas Paine and Shays' Rebellion, the suffragists and the abolitionists and on down through the populists and the labor movement, including the Wobblies. Tough, in your face people... Mother Jones, Woody Guthrie... Martin Luther King and Caesar Chavez. And now it's down to us." 

On this "Black Friday," the busiest shopping day of the year, let's all take a deep breath and spare a thought for the retail workers -- many of them overworked and underpaid -- who will be working hard today to help us find that perfect bargain.
And while we're at it, let's give thanks to everyone who's on the job today, the day after Thanksgiving, keeping things running for those fortunate enough to have the day off.

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1883, some 10,000 New Orleans workers, Black and White, participated in a solidarity parade of unions comprising the Central Trades and Labor Assembly. The parade was so successful it was repeated the following two years.
In 1946, teachers struck in St. Paul, Minnesota, the first organized walkout by teachers in the country. The month-long “strike for better schools” involving some 1,100 teachers—and principals—led to a number of reforms in the way schools were administered and operated.  
And in 1983, Canadian postal workers, protesting a Post Office decision to offer discounts to businesses but not individuals, announced that for one week they would unilaterally reduce postage costs by about two-thirds. 

Today's labor quote is by Barack Obama
"It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label."