​Union City Radio for Thursday, August 31

Last week, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta announced that former President Ronald Reagan will be entering the Labor Department’s Hall of Honor, joining legendary labor heroes ranging from Mother Jones to Eugene Debs and Cesar Chavez. Acosta cited Reagan’s tenure as the president of the Screen Actors Guild to explain that the Gipper was a friend of the working class. Labor historian Joe McCartin joins us on today's edition of Your Rights at Work to explain why Reagan was in fact an enemy of organized labor throughout his presidency, starting with his firing of over 11,000 air traffic controllers in 1981. “More than any other labor dispute of the past three decades," says McCartin, "Reagan’s confrontation with the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or Patco, undermined the bargaining power of American workers and their labor unions.” Catch the show starting at 1pm today right here on WPFW 89.3 FM.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1991, over 300,000 unionists gathered in Washington, D.C., for a Solidarity Day march and rally for workplace fairness and healthcare reform. 

Today’s labor quote is by Anna Walentynowicz, the Polish shipyard worker whose firing made her a central figure in Poland's Solidarity movement, and who became known as the "mother of Solidarity." Anna Walentynowicz, who said 
"I was the drop that caused the cup of bitterness to overflow." 

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