Less than a week after Senate food vendor settled a dispute regarding retaliation against workers who went on strike, a supervisor at Restaurant Associates allegedly reprimanded a worker who spoke out about her low wages. After Kim, a worker in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, told The Guardian she had to resort to dancing in a strip club for extra money because she could not make ends meet on her $10.33-an-hour wages from Restaurant Associates, she said her supervisor reprimanded her for speaking out. The altercation prompted Good Jobs Nation, a coalition of labor groups that has been organizing the federal worker strikes, to file a charge against Restaurant Associates, which runs food services in the Senate and Capitol Visitor Center, on Kim’s behalf.
On today’s labor calendar, the Communication Workers will rally in Annapolis today starting at 11am to tell Verizon and Wall Street "We Won't Settle for Anything Less" as they battle for a fair contract. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1919, Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski were murdered by coal company guards on a picket line in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania. Sellins -- a contemporary of Mary Harris "Mother" Jones -- was a United Mine Workers of America organizer and Starzeleski was a miner. In 1970, the Women’s Strike for Equality was staged in cities across the U.S., marking the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment, under which women won the right to vote. A key focus of the strike—in fact, more accurately a series of marches and demonstrations—was equality in the workplace. An estimated 20,000 women participated, some carrying signs with the iconic slogan, “Don’t Iron While the Strike is Hot.” Another sign: “Hardhats for Soft Broads”. And in 2003, more than 1,300 bus drivers on Oahu, Hawaii, began what was to become a 5-week strike. Today’s labor quote is by singer Anne Feeney, from her song “Fannie Sellins”: “"She fought with tireless energy, no duty would she shirk / Though murderers cut short her life - we carry on her work."
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