On a clear, sunny day last September, school bus driver Renita Smith – a member of ACE-AFSCME Local 2250 -- was driving her after-school bus route in College Park when the instrument panel suddenly started beeping.
Just as Renita was getting ready to call the problem in to her supervisor, she smelled smoke. She immediately pulled over, seeing flames in her rearview mirror. As the fire intensified, Renita led all 20 children safely off the bus. Then, she went back onto the bus — its windows melting around her — checking every aisle for a sleeping child, making sure all of them had gotten off. “I knew I had to go back on the bus to make sure I got all my babies,” she said. That’s the “never quit” spirit that AFSCME members bring to their jobs every day, whether they’re bus drivers, first responders or other public service workers. And they do it without expectation of special recognition. “Serving my community means that you’re not being selfish,” says Renita. “You’re thinking of how to do something for others and not expect anything in return.” On today's labor calendar, transit workers and their allies will flyer against Metro rate hikes and service cutbacks, from 7-9a at the Silver Spring Metro station and then from 4:30 to 6:30 pm at the Union Station Metro station. For complete details and all the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1886, Mark Twain, a lifelong member of the International Typographical Union (now part of CWA), spoke in Hartford, Connecticut, extolling the Knights of Labor’s commitment to fair treatment of all workers, regardless of race or gender. In 1990, a 32-day lockout of major league baseball players ended with an agreement to raise the minimum league salary and to study revenue-sharing between owners and players. And in 1998, a bitter six-and-a-half-year UAW strike at Caterpillar ended. The strike and settlement, which included a two-tier wage system and other concessions, deeply divided the union. Today’s labor quote is by Mark Twain “When all the bricklayers, and all the machinists, and all the miners, and blacksmiths, and printers, and hod-carriers, and stevedores, and house-painters, and brakemen, and engineers, and conductors, and factory hands, and horse-car drivers, and all the shop-girls, and all the sewing-women, and all the telegraph operators; in a word all the myriads of toilers in whom is slumbering the reality of that thing which you call Power...when these rise, call the vast spectacle by any deluding name that will please your ear, but the fact remains a Nation has risen.” 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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