In last week’s Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka says that “a narrow five-justice majority, emboldened by a stolen seat, overturned four decades of commonsense precedent.” Trumka called it “the latest misguided action by the most corporate-friendly court in our history,” driven by “a dark web of corporations and wealthy donors dead set on destroying unions and silencing workers.”
But Trumka says he’s optimistic, and here’s why. “All over the country,” he said, “workers are organizing and striking as we haven’t seen in years. In April, 15,000 workers joined or formed unions in a single week. That’s on top of the more than a quarter million new members who joined our ranks last year, and 75 percent of them are under the age of 35.” All of this, Trumka noted, “despite the fact that too many of our labor laws have been written to undermine the freedom to organize.” “Janus or no Janus,” Trumka said, “American workers are demanding a voice. We are standing up and speaking out for a better life. We are demanding a fair share of the wealth we help create. We are marching and organizing and bargaining and voting. And we simply will not allow a corporate-controlled Supreme Court to stop us from doing our job.” On today’s labor calendar, "The Workers Cup" movie continues at the Angelika Pop-Up; details and all the latest labor calendar postings are at dclabor.org; click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1835, children employed in the silk mills in Paterson, New Jersey went on strike for an 11-hour day and 6-day week. A compromise settlement resulted in a 69-hour work week. Hear more on this week’s Labor History Today podcast, available on your favorite podcast platform, just search for Union City Radio. Today’s labor quote is by feminist and labor activist Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born on this date in 1860, who said: “Only as we live, think, feel, and work outside the home, do we become humanly developed, civilized, socialized.”
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