A hospice worker, a young mother and a McDonalds worker were among the more than 100 community and labor activists who turned out Tuesday morning in front of the Wilson Building for a spirited rally urging returning lawmakers to “Put people first” by immediately resuming work to pass fair scheduling and paid family leave legislation. While scheduling and family leave were put on hold before the summer recess, speakers pointed out that they couldn’t so easily do the same with their lives. Kimberly Mitchell, a Ward 7 resident who works at Macy’s downtown, spoke powerfully and personally about the twin crises affecting many workers and why both bills must pass. “While the Council was out,” she said, “I had MRIs done to confirm my worst nightmare: the brain tumor my doctors have been monitoring for two years has spread. My hours at work were cut yet again this summer and on a part time, unpredictable salary with no paid medical leave and a teenage daughter to support, I still don’t know how I’m going to afford the medical care I urgently need.”
Read more about the campaigns on our website at dclabor.org, where you can also find out about the latest local labor events and actions by clicking on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1896, militia were sent to Leadville, Colorado to break a miners’ strike. In 1912, Mother Jones led a march of miners' children through the streets of Charleston, West Virginia. And in 1991, members of five unions at the Frontier Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas began the longest successful hotel strike in U.S. history. All 550 workers honored the picket line for the entirety of the 6-year, 4-month, 10-day fight against management’s insistence on cutting wages and eliminating pensions. Today’s labor quote is by Mother Jones, from the speech she made on this day in 1912 to striking coal miners in Charleston: “…this crime, starvation and murder of the innocents, so they can fill the operators’ pockets, and build dog kennels for the workers. Is it right?”
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