Transit workers have launched an online petition calling on local District officials to move forward on the DC Streetcar and rehire workers who want to unionize. "While the DC Streetcar has boosted economic development along the H Street corridor, it hasn’t fulfilled its promise of reconnecting neighborhoods or improving mobility," says ATU Local 689. "Instead of DDOT exercising oversight of the streetcar, it has outsourced responsibility to French-owned RDMT/McDonald Transit,” says the union. The result, they say, is “lack of transparency, poor design, constant delay, safety concerns, and a hostile work environment for employees, including the mass termination of eight workers for union activity." H Street-area residents deserve transit that works, and streetcar operators deserve the right to representation, the union adds. "The time for action on the streetcar is now,” said Local 689. “No more costly delays, no more worker intimidation. Fix it, staff it, start it!"
On today's labor calendar the Labor Film Poster Exhibit continues in the AFL-CIO lobby and then this afternoon from 4-5pm, sociologist William Julius Wilson will discuss Race and Class at the Library of Congress; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. In today's labor history, Italian activists and anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, widely believed to have been framed for murder, went on trial today in 1921. They eventually were executed as part of a government campaign against dissidents. On this date in 1945, the “Little Wagner Act” was signed in Hawaii, guaranteeing pineapple and sugar workers the right to bargain collectively. After negotiations failed, a successful 79-day strike shut down 33 of the territory’s 34 plantations and brought higher wages and a 40-hour week. And in 2004, nearly 100,000 unionized SBC Communications workers began a 4-day strike to protest the local phone giant’s latest contract offer. Today's labor quote is by sociologist William Julius Wilson: “Crime, family dissolution, welfare, and low levels of social organization are fundamentally a consequence of the disappearance of work.” William Julius Wilson, who said: “If you're not working, over time you're much more likely to develop attitudes and orientations and behavior patterns that are associated with casual or infrequent work. And then when you open up opportunities for people, you notice that these attitudes, orientations, habits and styles also change.” Help WPFW collect a $1,000 challenge grant, pledge today and mention Union City Radio and your contribution will go twice as far: call 202-588-9739. This is Chris Garlock, with Union City Radio’s Your Rights at Work tip of the day: It is illegal for an employer to ask whether you have a disability in a job interview. They cannot ask about your health history, or if you are pregnant, or if you’ve ever had a problem with alcohol or drugs. 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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