The multi-million-dollar DC Wharf development opened last Thursday with great pomp and circumstance, but a new report calls it a “massive taxpayer subsidy” that created low-wage jobs with minimal benefits.
While the District approved $300 million in public subsidies for the Wharf project, an analysis by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute said that “neither the developer nor the District’s economic development leaders took meaningful steps to ensure that the Wharf resulted in good-quality jobs or other benefits for DC residents.” Most construction workers at the Wharf were not represented by a union, and many of its non-union construction jobs paid less than $15 an hour, often with minimal benefits. The hotel, restaurant, and retail jobs at the newly opened Wharf also are likely to be non-union, and have similarly low pay and benefits. We have a link to the report on our website, dclabor.org On today's labor calendar, the film “From the Land of Gandhi” screens free tonight at 6 at the Takoma Busboys and Poets, part of the Films Across Borders series co-sponsored by the DC LaborFest. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1950, a strike begins by the mostly Mexican-American members of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union Local 890 in Bayard, New Mexico. Strikers' wives walked picket lines for seven months when their husbands were barred from picketing during the 14-month strike, inspiring the 1954 film "Salt of the Earth," originally banned by the U.S. government and now recognized as an American classic. Today’s labor quote is by William "Big Bill" Haywood, who said: “If the workers are organized, all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets and they have got the capitalist class whipped.” Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus, which is committed to improving the quality of life for all working families; find out more at unionplus.org.
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