Hundreds of protesters flooded the plaza in front of the new Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue last Thursday, chanting and waving picket signs calling on the hotel owner – Donald J. Trump – to negotiate with workers at his Las Vegas hotel.
A huge banner reading “SHAME ON TRUMP” dwarfed the gilded Trump hotel sign as activists and leaders from what seemed like every union and local in the nation’s capital chanted “Up up with the workers, down down with Trump!” and “Hey Trump you can't hide, we can see your greedy side!” The picket was organized by the AFL-CIO and the Metro Washington Council to support workers at Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas whom Trump has refused to negotiate with despite their majority vote to join a union. A delegation attempted to deliver a letter calling on Trump to negotiate but were locked out of the posh 263-room hotel in the historic Old Post Office building. "Donald Trump you're rich and rude,” chanted the protesters. “We don't like your attitude." More protests against Trump around these worker issues are expected in the new few weeks; we'll keep you posted on our website at dclabor.org, where you'll also find all the latest local labor calendar listings, like tonight's Labor Council meeting at the AFL-CIO. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1814, a huge vat ruptured at a London brewery, setting off a domino effect of similar ruptures, and what was to become known as The London Beer Flood. Nearly 1.5 million liters of beer gushed into the streets drowning or otherwise causing the deaths of eight people, mostly poor people living in nearby basements. In 1939, labor activist Warren Billings was released from California's Folsom Prison. Along with Thomas J. Mooney, Billings had been pardoned for a 1916 conviction stemming from a bomb explosion during a San Francisco Preparedness Day parade. He had always maintained his innocence. And in 1950, the "Salt of the Earth" strike began by the mostly Mexican-American members of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union Local 890 in Bayard, New Mexico. Strikers' wives walked picket lines for seven months when their husbands were enjoined during the 14-month strike against the New Jersey Zinc Company. Today’s labor quote is from The Bible, Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."
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