Four big unions with tens of thousands of members who are public workers – AFSCME, the Service Employees and the nation’s two teachers unions – are trading information and tips on how to combat the impact of a looming anti-union ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. And even though the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia may postpone the court’s decision on Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, the four will keep working jointly on public relations and legal strategy, says Paul Booth, top assistant to AFSCME President Lee Saunders. The case was a big topic at the AFL-CIO’s recent Executive Council meeting in San Diego.
More than one-third of public workers, including teachers, fire fighters and state and local workers, are unionized, and their numbers are nearly half of all union members nationwide. Eliminating funds from those members – the stated objective of the right wing sponsors of the Friedrichs case – would drastically hurt the nation’s union movement and its ability to defend all workers, union and non-union alike. On today's labor calendar, At noon there’s a picket line supporting Norma Escobar, an activist fired without reason or warning from DeCarlo's Restaurant at 4822 Yuma St NW. Then at 5 pm the AFL-CIO and the DC Labor FilmFest are hosting a special free screening of the award-winning labor documentary "A Day’s Work" at the AFL-CIO. The film tells the tragic story of a young man killed on his very first day as a temporary employee, raising serious concerns about the consequences of employers’ shift to a disposable, temporary workforce, revealing a hidden epidemic endangering millions of workers. We'll have the film's producer, Dave DeSario, on "Your Rights at Work" today at 1pm here on WPFW 89.3 FM. As always, you can go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar for complete details. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1873, William Green was born in Coshocton, Ohio. Green is best known for having succeeded Samuel Gompers as president of the American Federation of Labor, serving from 1924 to 1952. In 1906, the local lumber workers' union in Humboldt County, California founded the Union Labor Hospital Association to establish a hospital for union workers in the county. The hospital became an important community facility financed and run by the local labor movement. In 1915, Congress approved the Seamen’s Act, providing the merchant marine with rights similar to those gained by factory workers. Action on the law was prompted by the sinking of the Titanic three years earlier. Among other gains: working hours were limited to 56 per week and minimum standards of cleanliness and safety were put in place. And in 1931, the Davis-Bacon Act took effect. It requires contractors on federally financed or assisted construction projects to pay wage rates equal to those prevailing in local construction trades. Today’s labor quote is by William Green “As labor is free, so all are free.” The son of a Welsh immigrant coal miner, William Green went to work in the coal mines in 1879 at the age of 16, and rose to lead the United Mine Workers before succeeding Sam Gompers as president of the AFL-CIO in 1924.
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