The DC City Council on Tuesday declared April 5th "Jos Williams Day" in honor of the recently-retired president of the Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO. Councilman Jack Evans, who presented the proclamation, noted that when he circulated the motion "it came back immediately with everyone's signature" and the Council unanimously thanked the longtime labor leader "for his numerous contributions to the District of Columbia and her citizens." A clearly moved Williams expressed his appreciation for the honor and spoke about his "love for the best city in the world in which to live, work and play." He thanked the members and leaders of the local labor movement, “along with our community and religious allies” for their hard work on behalf of the District’s residents, and pledged to continue to “work for this city” adding that he’s looking forward to the day when we’re proud to call this the 51st state,” drawing loud applause and cheers.
On today’s labor calendar, catch “Your Rights at Work” today at 1pm here on WPFW 89.3 FM and then at 4pm the Coalition of Labor Union Women will host their Biennial Working Women’s Award Celebration and Reception out at the Tommy Douglass Conference Center in Silver Spring. Complete details, of course, at dclabor.org; click on Calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1947, some 300,000 members of the National Federation of Telephone Workers, soon to become CWA, struck AT&T and the Bell System. Within five weeks all but two of the 39 federation unions had won new contracts. In 2000, fifteen thousand union janitors went out on strike in Los Angeles. Today’s labor quote is by a Justice for Janitors striker during the 1990 strike in Los Angeles: ““I wasn’t robbing a bank or selling drugs, I’m simply asking for an increase in pay but the police beat us as if we were garbage.”
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