Legislation granting Fast Track trade authority to President Obama was introduced in the U.S. Senate late last week. It’s being strongly opposed by organized labor and our allies. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka called on Congress to reject Fast Track, saying that such deals “have wide-ranging impacts and shouldn’t be negotiated behind closed doors and then rubber-stamped.” The current Trans-Pacific Partnership deal now under discussion would cover 40 percent of the world’s GDP. Trumka said that “A deal this big should be debated in a full and open manner like every other piece of legislation.” Fast Track would make it easier to ram through complicated trade deals without significant oversight from members of Congress or the public, just a simple "Yes" or "No" vote with no amendments allowed.
Call your senators—855-790-8815—and tell them to say no to Fast Track. Go to dclabor.org for more details. On today’s labor calendar, there’s a march and rally against Fast Track today that starts at 11:30a at the AFL-CIO at 16th and I and rallies up at noon at the Office of the United States Trade Representative a few blocks away. Then at 6:30 tonight catch up all the latest local labor news at the Metro Washington Council Delegate Meeting at the AFL-CIO. Go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. In today’s Labor Quiz, thousands of workers are killed on the job in America every year and hundreds of thousands more are injured or made sick. Since OSHA was approved by Congress in 1970, how many criminal convictions has the agency secured against employers found guilty of failing to obey its health and safety rules? Is it zero, 12, 120, 1,200 or 12,000? Go to unionist.com and click on Labor Quiz and you could be next week's winner! Here's today's labor history: in 1912, nearly 10,000 demonstrators celebrated textile workers’ win of a 10-percent pay hike and grievance committees after a one-month strike in Lowell, Massachusetts. On this date in 1914, the Ludlow Massacre took place when the Colorado state militia, using machine guns and fire, killed about 20 people—including 11 children—at a tent city set up by striking coal miners. And in 1980, United Auto Workers members ended a successful 172-day strike against International Harvester, protesting management demands for new work rules and mandatory overtime provisions. Today's labor quote is by Woody Guthrie, from his song “Ludlow Massacre” It was early springtime when the strike was on/They drove us miners out of doors, Out from the houses that the Company owned/We moved into tents up at old Ludlow. You struck a match and in the blaze that started/You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns, I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me/Thirteen children died from your guns. I never will forget the look on the faces/Of the men and women that awful day, When we stood around to preach their funerals/And lay the corpses of the dead away. Click here to hear Woody sing this song.
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. |