July 6 isn’t a national holiday but for working people across the United States it’s an important anniversary. The National Labor Relations Act was signed into law on that date in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and marked a critical step forward for working people’s right to join together in unions and to bargain collectively. But more than 80 years later, corporate interests are still ruthlessly fighting to deny workers our rights, and just as the labor movement helped secure passage of the NLRA, today we are demanding an even better deal that fully guarantees our fundamental economic rights and freedoms. To that end, Democrats in the House and Senate recently introduced the Workers’ Freedom to Negotiate Act, which would expand collective bargaining rights. Of course such a bill won’t get far in the current Congress, which is why unions will be working hard to elect more worker-friendly leaders this November.
On today’s labor calendar, catch “Your Rights at Work” at 2 o’clock this afternoon here on WPFW, when Damon Silvers and I will find out more about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s record on worker rights, and we’ll also check in with Diana Ramirez on the move by D.C. Council members to overturn the recently approved ballot initiative affecting tipped workers. That’s “Your Rights at Work” at 2pm today here on WPFW. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1933, the Screen Actors Guild held its first meeting. Among those attending was future horror movie star and union activist Boris Karloff. Today’s labor quote is by Fred Watson, one of the 1,186 miners summarily deported from Bisbee, Arizona on this date in 1917, sent into the desert in manure-laden boxcars; they had been fighting for improved safety and working conditions. Fred Watson, who said: “How it could have happened in a civilized country I’ll never know.”
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