President Obama’s fellow Democrats derailed one of his major second-term priorities on Tuesday, voting to hold up consideration of “fast track” trade authority unless related measures are guaranteed to proceed alongside it. “That’s good news for America’s working families, domestic producers, and communities,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Though he acknowledged that this was just a temporary victory, Trumka said that if Congress is serious about creating jobs, reviving U.S. manufacturing and raising wages, it needs to use its leverage to reshape the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Congress “must remove special legal privileges for foreign investors,” Trumka said, “add enforceable rules to prevent currency manipulation, strengthen rules of origin and redouble efforts to ensure workers everywhere—from Hannibal, Missouri., to Hanoi, Vietnam—can organize and bargain collectively.”
On today's labor calendar, six days before the current contract expires, postal workers across the country will hold events today organized around the theme "I Stand with Postal Workers." Locally they’ll gather at 11am at the Brentwood postal facility in Northeast DC. At noon there’s a rare chance to tour the Ben Shahn frescos and murals at the VOA; and tonight at 5:30 the Labor Heritage Foundation holds its Solidarity Forever Awards at the AFL-CIO. For more details, go to dclabor.org and click on calendar. In today's labor history, Milwaukee brewery workers began a 10-week strike on this date in 1953, demanding contracts comparable to East and West Coast workers. The strike was won because Blatz Brewery accepted their demands, but Blatz was subsequently ousted from the Brewers Association. Today's labor quote is by artist Ben Shahn: “I felt very strongly the whole social impact of that depression, you know, and I felt very strongly about the efforts that this Resettlement Administration was trying to accomplish; resettling people, helping them, and so on.” Ben Shahn, who said: “When you talk about war on poverty it doesn't mean very much; but if you can show to some degree this sort of thing then you can show a great deal more of how people are living.” This is Chris Garlock, with Union City Radio’s Your Rights at Work tip of the day: D.C. workers have the right to demand any wages they are owed. You can file a claim with the DC Department of Employment Services’ Office of Wage-Hour if you believe that your employer has not paid you all the wages you are owed. You also can choose to write your employer a letter demanding your wages or sue your employer in court. 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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