Today is Black Friday, the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season and a day for big sales, both online and in bricks-and-mortar stores.
Personally, I can’t handle the crowds and the shopping frenzy but hey, a deal is a deal so if you are heading out today – or going online – remember to shop union whenever possible, either at stores where the workers are union members, or buying products that are made by union members. That way your money is going to support companies who pay their workers a living wage. Find out more using the Union Label and Labor 411 apps or check out their websites at unionlabel.org and labor411.org. In 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. Today’s labor quote is by W.E.B. DuBois, who said: "What a world this will be when human possibilities are freed, when we discover each other, when the stranger is no longer the potential criminal and the certain inferior!" Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. This year, choose 100% union-made apparel and gear for the holidays! Visit the Union Plus Online store and take advantage of a limited time 20% off discount. Use code 2019COM at checkout. Stand with unions this season; visit shopunionplus.org.
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This is Chris Garlock, with the latest labor news, updates and history from the Metro Washington Labor Council.
Thanksgiving is one of the two biggest holidays of the year. For many of us, it’s a welcome time to relax with family and friends. But a few retail chains want to turn it into another shopping day instead. Saying "Enough is enough," our friends at Labor 411 have compiled a Dirty Dozen list of the retail chains who have decided to open on Thanksgiving, putting profits over people and forcing their workers to clock in today instead of being at home with their families. We join Labor 411 in urging you to vote with your wallets and refuse to shop today. The Dirty Dozen are: Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond and DSW; Gamestop, JC Penney and Kmart; Macy's, New York and Company and Old Navy; and Sears, Target and Walmart. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1953, some 400 New York City photoengravers working for the city’s newspapers, supported by 20,000 other newspaper unionists, began what would become an 11-day strike, shutting down the papers. Today’s labor quote is by William Sylvis, founder of the National Labor Union, born on this date in 1828. William Sylvis, who said: “Our cause is a common one. It is war between poverty and wealth. … This moneyed power is fast eating up the substance of the people. We have made war upon it, and we mean to win it. If we can, we will win through the ballot box; if not, then we shall resort to sterner means.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. This year, choose 100% union-made apparel and gear for the holidays! Visit the Union Plus Online store and take advantage of a limited time 20% off discount. Use code 2019COM at checkout. Stand with unions this season; visit shopunionplus.org. Workers are fed up. Right here in the metro DC area, Giant and Safeway workers rallied yesterday in front of dozens of supermarkets, while airport workers staged a sit-in at National Airport, and bus drivers in Lorton have been on strike for more than a month.
The number of striking workers in the U.S. jumped to nearly 500,000 last year, the highest in 40 years. That number will undoubtedly be even higher this year, led by strikes by 48,000 autoworkers at GM and tens of thousands of teachers in Los Angeles and Chicago. The particular issues of each strike vary but after decades of watching corporations and the rich accumulate ever more money and power, perhaps the Chicago teacher’s slogan sums up worker’s sentiments best: “When We Fight, We Win.” In today’s labor history, on this date in 1936, 1,200 workers sat down at Midland Steel in Detroit, forcing recognition of the United Auto Workers. Today’s labor quote is from the pro-labor musical revue, “Pins & Needles,” which opened on Broadway on this date in 1937 with a cast of members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. The show ran on Friday and Saturday nights only, because of the casts’ regular jobs. It ran for 1,108 performances before closing. Here’s Barbra Streisand, singing "Not Cricket To Picket": Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. This year, choose 100% union-made apparel and gear for the holidays! Visit the Union Plus Online store and take advantage of a limited time 20% off discount. Use code 2019COM at checkout. Stand with unions this season; visit shopunionplus.org. After more than two months of contract negotiations with both Giant and Safeway, UFCW Local 400 reports that "neither company has put an offer on the table that provides us wages we can live on, schedules we can depend on, healthcare we can afford, and a retirement we can count on."
Dozens of actions at local supermarkets took place Sunday and more are planned for today, as local shoppers prepare for Thanksgiving. And on one of the busiest travel days of the year, airline catering workers at Reagan National Airport plan to protest and sit-in today at 5:30, calling on American Airlines to “take urgent and necessary steps to ensure that workers who cater its flights are able to escape poverty and access medical care.” On today’s labor calendar, demonstrations at Giant and Safeway locations throughout the metro area will take place from 11 am to 1pm today and then again from 4 to 6pm; we’ve got the complete list of locations on our website at dclabor.org. The airline worker protest will be at National Airport, in American Airlines Terminal C on the North Terrace departures level. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1910, six young women burned to death and 19 more died when they leapt from the fourth-story windows of a blazing factory in Newark, New Jersey. The floors and stairs were wooden; the only door from which the women could flee was locked. Today’s labor quote is by Harry Bridges, the longshore union leader, who said: “I would have worked with the devil himself if he'd been for the six hour day and worker control of the hiring hall.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. This year, choose 100% union-made apparel and gear for the holidays! Visit the Union Plus Online store and take advantage of a limited time 20% off discount. Use code 2019COM at checkout. Stand with unions this season; visit shopunionplus.org. |
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