George Washington University students, workers, faculty, staff and community allies turned out last Friday afternoon to support dining workers at GW as the university transitions from Sodexo to Restaurant Associates.
The GWU Progressive Student Union organized the rally and march to, quote “demand job retention for the over 40 dining hall workers on our campus," unquote, delivering 2,000 pledges, and demanding that the administration act quickly to secure employment for the workers. "The action this afternoon was such a strong show of solidarity and community between workers and students!" reported the Progressive Student Union. "Thank you to all who showed up to hold GW accountable. We look forward to hearing from the administration in the next week...until the University makes concrete commitments to these members of our community, this effort is far from over." On today’s labor calendar, the Betty Dukes Foundation hosts a Women's and Worker's Rights Rally at the National Press Club today starting at 12 noon; today marks the fifth anniversary of WALMART VS DUKES, the largest civil rights class action lawsuit to be heard by the United States Supreme Court. The Dukes class action law suit represented 1.6 million women. For details on this and other local labor activities, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1852, Ohio made it illegal for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day. In 1918, Sam Walton, founder of the huge and bitterly anti-union Walmart empire, was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. He once said that his priority was to “Buy American,” but Walmart is now the largest U.S. importer of foreign-made goods—often produced under sweatshop conditions. In 1948, the “Battle of Wall Street” took place, during which police charged members of the United Financial Employees’ Union, striking against the New York Stock Exchange and New York Curb Exchange (now known as the American Stock Exchange). Forty-three workers were arrested in what was to be the first and only strike in the history of either exchange. Today’s labor quote is by Betty Duke “We, the women of Wal-Mart, will have our day in court. [Wal-Mart] will answer our charges—that they have treated us unfairly and we deserved better.”
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