Hundreds of DC-area Metro workers, disability and senior rights advocates, and transit workers from across the country held a “Rally for Accessibility” at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority headquarters last Friday. “On May 1, 1886, American workers sacrificed their lives to demand that a legal day’s work last no more than eight hours,” said Jackie Jeter, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents many Metro and MetroAccess workers. “And, here we are, 129 years later, fighting the same fight against new opposition. Instead of greedy American private sector bosses, we’re fighting our own government agencies that give our taxpayer dollars away to foreign transit multinationals in return for poor, and sometimes no, service, and exploitation of public workers and riders.”
The DC LaborFest continues tonight with a screening of Cesar Chavez, starring the great Michael Pena as the legendary farmworker organizer; the film screens at 7 tonight at the AFI in Silver Spring, which will be introduced by Irv Hershenbaum of the United Farm Workers. In today's labor history, In what became known as the Haymarket massacre in 1886, a bomb was thrown as Chicago police started to break up a rally for strikers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. A riot erupted, and 11 police and strikers died, mostly from gunfire, and scores more were injured. Today's labor quote is by Albert Parsons, one of four Chicago radical leaders convicted of conspiracy and hanged following the Haymarket affair. The quote is from his final letter to his wife: “Our verdict this morning cheers the hearts of tyrants throughout the world, and the result will be celebrated by King Capital in its drunken feast of flowing wine from Chicago to St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, our doom to death is the handwriting on the wall, foretelling the downfall of hate, malice, hypocrisy, judicial murder, oppression, and the domination of man over his fellowman. The oppressed of earth are writhing in their legal chains. The giant Labor is awakening. The masses, aroused from their stupor, will snap their petty chains like reeds in the whirlwind.” YOUR RIGHT AT WORK: Tip #4 (click below) This is Chris Garlock, with Union City Radio’s Your Rights at Work tip of the day: Workers who work on government contracts have a right to a higher living wage rate. If you work for a D.C. contractor or subcontractor, as of January 1, 2015, the living wage rate is $13.80 an hour, and it will go up to reflect increases in the cost of living every year. Employees who work for most D.C. government contractors, subcontractors, or other businesses that receive substantial government assistance must receive D.C.’s living wage rate, but there are exceptions. If you work on federal contracts or subcontracts, there are several laws that may require you to be paid prevailing wages and benefits that are higher than the minimum wage, including the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act. Workers who work on federal contracts for construction or federal service contracts may be entitled to earn specific higher wages and benefits that depend on what their job is. Find out more about your rights at work from the Employment Justice Center, at DCEJC.ORG or call 202-828-9675.
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