Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO

LABOR CALENDAR

2/26/2021

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Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report

A Woman's Work: The NFL's Cheerleader Problem: Fri, February 26, 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Missed yesterday's Your Rights At Work show? Catch The Hardhat Riot here. EPI Policy Analyst Margaret Poydock on the story behind the 2020 decline in the number of striking workers; David Paul Kuhn on his book THE HARDHAT RIOT: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution.

MWC joins call for sanitation worker vaccinations

2/26/2021

The Metropolitan Washington Council this week joined with AFSCME District Council 20 in calling for DC Mayor Muriel Bowser to immediately move sanitation workers into the current phase of eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines and to recognize their essential work. “Our sanitation workers have been doing the essential work of keeping the city clean and safe, facing increased risk and exposure to the virus every single day with little recognition of their service,” said Robert Hollingsworth, Executive Director of District Council 20. “Ever since the pandemic began,” he added, “they rose to the call and never quit showing up and ensuring that our community is kept safe and essential services continue to run.”
photo: DC sanitation worker Olivia French; photo courtesy WAMU

Solidarity Center Report: Jordan Teachers 'Will Not Back Down' in Face of Assault on Union

2/26/2021

Teachers in Jordan are “insisting on their legal rights to have an association” and will not give up after the government dissolved their union in July and imprisoned union activists, says Kefah Abu Farhan, a board member with the Jordan Teacher Association (JTA). “Teachers, male and female, stress day after day that these measures are not acceptable for us and we will not back down until the teachers' association goes back to its legal standing,” said Abu Farhan, speaking recently with the Solidarity Center. Read more at Solidarity Center.

PLUS: Upcoming Event: Essential: Women's Work Is the Backbone of the Global Economy
Join Solidarity Center and the Coalition of Labor Union Women for a special International Women's Day event March 8: Essential: Women's Work Is the Backbone of the Global Economy. Six women from around the world will share inspiring stories of women on the front lines! Register here.
photo: Teachers in Jordan oppose the government's move to shut down their union. Credit: Education International

Labor Quote: MWC resolution

2/26/2021

Today’s labor quote is from the resolution passed this past Tuesday by the Metro Washington Council, which harkens back to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was killed in Memphis in 1968 while standing with sanitation workers, which notes that, like the conditions that led to that strike: “The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic crisis have highlighted critical gaps in public service workers' rights to healthy, fair, and equitable treatment.”

photo: Black garbage collectors in Memphis often rode this way to stay out of the rain. On February 1, 1968, two workers were killed when their truck malfunctioned and crushed them. Their deaths helped spark a strike by black sanitation workers in Memphis. Photo courtesy University of Memphis Libraries

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