Over a thousand striking workers and their supporters took to the streets of downtown DC Thursday afternoon as the strike by 40,000 CWA and IBEW members entered its 37th day. The afternoon started with a massive picket line outside the F Street Verizon Wireless store, which was essentially brought to a standstill for hours.
The picket was followed by a march to the White House and a rally at Lafayette Park, where -- amid a sea of red CWA t-shirts -- local elected officials and labor allies pledged their ongoing support to the striking workers. Negotiations for a new contract continued last week. Protesting the suspension of three NIH shuttle workers, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1764 members demonstrated outside the Medical Center Metro station in Bethesda Friday morning. They called on NIH to stop union busting and demand that private contractor W&T Travel Services bargain in good faith. “The NIH and W&T are stomping on our free speech rights,” said ATU Local 1764’s Sesil Rubain. “These suspensions were retaliation and the NIH turned a blind eye to this blatant and illegal union busting.” Three NIH shuttle workers had been suspended by W&T earlier in the week for wearing union buttons. On today's labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for the latest list of Verizon strike picket lines. In the latest in the AFL-CIO's Brown Bag Lunch Series, Carmen Berkley and Maria Robalino shine a light on the plight of mass incarceration and advocate for making our criminal justice system fairer, today at noon at the AFL-CIO. The DC LaborFest continues tonight with a screening of the 1971 classic film "Joe Hill," introduced by Linda Zachrison, Cultural Counselor for the Embassy of Sweden. Complete details at dclabor.org, click on Calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1903, an estimated 100,000 textile workers, including more than 10,000 children, went out on strike in the Philadelphia area. Among the issues were 60-hour workweeks, including night hours, for the children. In 1934, ten thousand strikers at the Auto-Lite plant in Toledo, Ohio repelled police who had come to break up their strike for union recognition. The next day, two strikers were killed and 15 wounded when National Guard machine gun units opened fire. Two weeks later the company recognized the union and agreed to a 5 percent raise. And in 1946, a U.S. railroad strike started; it was later crushed when President Truman threatened to draft strikers. Today’s labor quote is by John Dewey "No system has ever existed which did not in some form involve the exploitation of some human beings for the advantage of others." John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer.
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. |