Dozens of MetroAccess workers launched a “practice picket” at their bus garage Wednesday, saying that a private company contracted by WMATA to provide the service is abusing workers and demanding forfeiture of their basic human rights. The company, Transdev, is one of four private contractors that operate the MetroAccess service on WMATA’s behalf. According to the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents more than 400 Transdev employees at this location, the company pays poverty wages. This sort of low-paying work combined with Transdev’s other inhumane demands, the union says, creates a toxic workplace with high turnover, resulting in poorer service for riders.
If you missed last night’s Joe Hill concert in DC, you can catch another one tonight in Baltimore. The concerts mark the 100th anniversary of labor martyr Joe Hill’s death; Hill was executed by a Utah firing squad in 1915 after being convicted of trumped-up charges. Tonight’s concert at the Unitarian Church starts at 7:30 pm. For complete details, go to dclabor.org and click on calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1968, the United Auto Workers and the Teamsters formed the Alliance for Labor Action, later to be joined by several smaller unions. The ALA's agenda included support of the civil rights movement and opposition to the war in Vietnam. It disbanded after four years following the death of UAW President Walter Reuther. The U.S. minimum wage increased to $6.55 per hour on this date in 2008. The original minimum, set in 1938 by the Fair Labor Standards Act, was 25¢ per hour. And on this date in 2009, it rose to $7.25 per hour, where it remains to this day, despite a grassroots movement of raise minimum wages on the local level across the country. Today’s labor quote is by Benjamin Todd Jealous: “No person can maximize the American Dream on the minimum wage.” Benjamin Todd Jealous, who said “In a democracy there are only two types of power: there's organized people and organized money, and organized money only wins when people aren't organized.” Benjamin Todd Jealous is an American political and civic leader and former president of the NAACP.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Union City Radio is proud to be supported by UnionPlus, which has been working hard for union families since 1986.
Union City Radio is part of The Labor Radio/Podcast Network
Listen now...UC Radio airs weekdays at 7:15a on WPFW 89.3 FM; subscribe to the podcast here. |