Local transit workers won two major victories recently. After the Amalgamated Transit Union filed a grievance against private contractor First Transit over its violation of DC’s paid sick days law, First Transit agreed to bring its policies into compliance with the law, retract disciplinary points from current employees, and re-hire workers who were unjustly fired. And after years of bargaining attempts, MetroAccess Call Center workers employed by private contractor MV Transportation ratified a new contract this week that includes pay raises, hourly guarantees for full-timers, and more. Workers at both companies are members of ATU Local 1764.
On today’s Labor Calendar, there’s a lecture on "The Poetry of Everyday Life" this afternoon from 4 – 5pm at the Library of Congress James Madison Building; the lecture is followed by two short films, "Boom and Bust - America's Journey on the Erie Canal" and "The Grand Generation," starting at 5pm. Then at 7pm, NoVA Labor is holding a Common Sense Economics workshop in Annandale, Virginia. For complete details on these and other upcoming local labor activities, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1986, deranged postal service carrier Patrick “Crazy Pat” Henry Sherrill shot and killed 14 coworkers, and wounded another six, before killing himself at an Edmond, Oklahoma postal facility. Supervisors had ignored warning signs of Sherrill’s instability, investigators later found; the shootings came a day after he had been reprimanded for poor work. The incident inspired the objectionable term “going postal.” Today’s labor quote is from the Bible, Proverbs 31, verses 8 and 9: ‘Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of the helpless. Speak for them and be a righteous judge. Protect the rights of the poor and the needy.”
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. |