Almaz Memgesteab has been working in the USDA cafeteria for 10 years. She left Eritrea to escape violence when she was just 14 years old. Almaz has become a leader in her union's fight for a contract because, she says, “to me, the most important thing is to provide the best opportunities for education for my children." Along with other Unite Here Local 23 members and supporters, Alamaz rallied at the Library of Congress last Friday.
She never had the opportunity to have the kind of education that she wanted, and she recently had to tell her son that he had to switch to a different school because she couldn’t live near the school he wanted. “It makes me so mad that after working all these years I don’t have enough money to be the kind of mother that I want to be!" Almaz says. " I’m fighting because I know we deserve better.” On today’s labor calendar, Democracy Awakening’s Congress of Conscience Day of Action starts at 8:30 this morning; folks are gathering in front of Union Station. Then at noon catch a book discussion about “The Devil Is Here in These Hills” at the AFL-CIO, and tonight at 6:30 the Metro Washington Council meets at 6:30pm, also at the AFL-CIO. For details and all the latest local events, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1912, West Virginia coal miners struck, defending themselves against the National Guard. In 1941, after a four-week boycott led by Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., bus companies in New York City agreed to hire 200 black drivers and mechanics. Today’s labor quote is by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. “I am the product of the sustained indignation of a branded grandfather, the militant protest of my grandmother, the disciplined resentment of my father and mother, and the power of the mass action of the church.”
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