Labor activists and allies plan to turn out in force tonight to support union workers at Montgomery County's Department of Liquor Control. "We can’t let 350 union jobs and $35 million in annual revenue slip away," says UFCW Local 1994's Gino Renne. Although the county has opposed the push to privatize the DLC, proponents -- led by Delegate Charles Williams Frick -- are trying to end-run local opposition by pushing state legislation. Recent reports reveal that the main proponents of privatization have received large campaign donations from major players in the liquor industry.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1854, “Fighting Mary” Eliza McDowell, also known as the “Angel of the Stockyards,” was born in Chicago. As a social worker she helped organize the first women’s local of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union in 1902. In 1930, Mother Jones died at the Burgess Farm in Adelphi, Maryland. Mary Harris Jones—“Mother Jones”—was the most dynamic woman ever to grace the American labor movement. Employers and politicians around the turn of the century called her “the most dangerous woman in America” and rebellious working men and women loved her fiercely. Mother Jones was an absolutely fearless and tireless advocate for working people, especially coal miners. A founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World—the Wobblies—she feared neither soldiers’ guns nor the ruling class’s jails. In 1999, unionists and activists shut down World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, Washington. Today’s labor quote is by Mother Jones, who said: “I’m not a lady, I’m a hell-raiser!” Mother Jones, who also said, “My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong.”
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