 “I’ve seen too many excellent coworkers leave, because they feel they have no choice but to move on to different jobs in different industries to finally get the pay and respect that everybody deserves in the workplace.”
 January 31
12,000 pecan shellers in San Antonio, Tex. – mostly Latino women – walk off their jobs at 400 factories in what was to become a three-month strike against wage cuts. Strike leader Emma Tenayuca (in photo above) was eventually hounded out of the state - 1938 After scoring successes with representation elections conducted under the protective oversight of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, the United Farm Workers of America officially ends its historic table grape, lettuce and wine boycotts - 1978 Union and student pressure forces Harvard university to adopt new labor policies raising wages for lowest-paid workers - 2002 February 1 John J. Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009, dies at age 86. The son of Irish immigrants — his father was a bus driver, his mother a domestic worker — Sweeney worked for the Intl. Ladies Garment Workers then the Service Employees, where he served as president, before his time at the AFL-CIO - 2021 Led by 23-year-old Kate Mullaney, the Collar Laundry Union forms in Troy, N.Y, raises earnings for female laundry workers from two dollars to 14 dollars a week - 1864 25,000 Paterson, NJ silk workers strike for eight-hour work day and improved working conditions. 1,800 were arrested over the course of the six-month walkout, led by the Wobblies. They returned to work on their employers’ terms - 1913 - David Prosten Is Power Design getting a free pass? That’s what DC Jobs with Justice has been trying to find out for more than two years. Despite finding that Power Design has hired unlicensed electrical contractors to perform work in the District of Columbia – as alleged by DC JWJ -- DCRA’s Board of Industrial Trades summarily dismissed JwJ’s complaint. This week, Mayor Bowser and DCRA Director Chrappah responded to JwJ’s suit, arguing that JwJ has no right to the Board’s reasons for dismissing their complaint and not taking disciplinary action against the company. Power Design paid $2.75 million to workers and the District after the D.C. Office of the Attorney General sued them for wage theft. DC JWJ says using unlicensed electrical subcontractors in the District puts residents, workers and the general public at risk.  click here for latest listings:
Union City Radio: 7:15am daily WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report Coalition to Repeal Right to Work: Fri, January 28, 7pm – 8pm FILM: Nae pasaran (London Labour Film Festival); Thru Feb 4, 2022 Building a Diverse, Equitable Infrastructure Workforce: Mon, January 31, 1pm – 2pm; RSVP HERE Missed this week’s Your Rights At Work radio show? Catch the podcast here. Erica Smiley (Jobs with Justice) and Sarita Gupta (Ford Foundation's Future of Work) on their new book, “The Future We Need, Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century,” plus 1199SEIU organizer James Crosby on “Low-wage workers prop up the nursing home industry. They’re quitting in droves.” |