Hundreds of low-wage workers rallied in Virginia’s state capitol last Wednesday, advocating for driver licenses for all, healthcare for all, and a $15 minimum wage. And thousands of union activists flooded the West Virginia statehouse that same day as Republican lawmakers wasted no time in attacking workers' rights, making a right-to-work-for-less bill the first measure introduced in the Senate as the state legislature opened on January 13.
On today’s labor calendar, today is Martin Luther King Day. The campaign for a federal holiday in King's honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade and Peace Walk starts at 10am this morning in southeast DC at Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Milwaukee Place, where hundreds of participants in the AFL-CIO's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil and Human Rights Conference will join the march. And there’s also an MLK "I Have A Dream" Annual March that starts at 9am at the Douglass Community Center in Leesburg, VA, which NOVA Labor members will be joining. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1909, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a governor and officers of a state National Guard may imprison anyone—in the case at hand, striking miners in Colorado—without probable cause “in a time of insurrection” and deny the person the right of appeal. And in 1978, "Take This Job and Shove It," by Johnny Paycheck, was listed by Billboard magazine as the most popular song in the U.S. Today’s labor quote is by Martin Luther King, Jr: “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” Martin Luther King, who also said: “We do not boycott to put anyone out of business. We are boycotting to put justice into business.”
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