SEIU 32BJ yesterday endorsed the One Fair Wage Campaign in D.C. to support tipped workers. The union, which represents more than 20,000 property service workers in the DC area, helped lead the Fight for $15 campaign and says it’s now endorsing the One Fair Wage campaign to ensure that D.C. restaurant workers aren’t forced to rely on tips to make up the difference for unlivable poverty wages. Jaime Contreras, Executive Vice President of SEIU 32BJ, said that “these unsustainable conditions drove thousands of working men and women out of the industry, after many got sick and even died keeping our economy alive during the pandemic.”

On this date in 1981, Dolly Parton hit number one on the record charts with "9 to 5," her anthem to the daily grind.

This week’s Labor History Today podcast: The Bread Uprising. Last week's episode: MLK at the AFL-CIO in 1961. ​
 
January 28
First U.S. unemployment compensation law enacted, in Wisconsin – 1932 

January 29
Responding to unrest among Irish laborers building the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Pres. Andrew Jackson orders first use of American troops to suppress a labor dispute - 1834

Six thousand railway workers strike for union and end of 18-hour day - 1889 

Sit-down strike (photo) helps establish United Rubber Workers as a national union, Akron, Ohio - 1936 

Newly-elected President Barack Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, making it easier for women and minorities to win pay discrimination suits - 2009

January 30
The Paris Peace Conference establishes the Commission on International Labour Legislation to draft the constitution of a permanent international labor organization, founding the International Labour Organization (ILO).  Today, as part of the United Nations, the ILO is charged with drafting and overseeing international labor standards. -1919

- David Prosten

In the eight years she’s worked at nursing homes, LaToya Francis, 34, – a member of 1199SEIU Maryland/DC – has been yelled at, kicked at and had feces thrown at her for little more than the minimum wage. She endured it because she loved being a certified nursing assistant. But she’s not sure she can hold out much longer. That’s the lede for Rebecca Tan’s excellent story in last Friday’s Washington Post about how low-wage nursing home workers here and across the country, essential but underpaid and overworked, are “quitting in droves.” Says Francis, “I’ve never, ever felt this disrespected.”
photo: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post