While the government shutdown has been over for weeks, thousands of area workers continue to feel the effects. So Community Services Agency Executive Director Sonte DuCote was “ecstatic” when AFGE Local 12 Executive Vice President LaRhonda Gamble and Local 12 retiree Linda Hale stopped by earlier this week to deliver gift cards donated by an anonymous Local 12 donor. "Generous donors like this are truly a blessing," said Gamble. "CSA is truly grateful,” DuCote added. “This enhances our capacity to help those workers still living with the after-effects of the prolonged shutdown. Thank you!” “If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.” Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this week’s show: labor archivist Ben Blake talks about efforts to “document the now” during the recent government shutdown, and political science professor Marissa Martino Golden reveals that even with a president attempting to turn agency policy 180 degrees, most career civil servants are focused on doing their jobs. Interviews by Alan Wierdak and Patrick Dixon. Legendary labor leader and socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs becomes charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. Five years later he is leading the national union and in 1893 helps found the nation’s first industrial union, the American Railway Union - 1875 Birth of John Steinbeck in Salinas, Calif. Steinbeck is best known for writing The Grapes of Wrath, which exposed the mistreatment of migrant farm workers during the Depression and led to some reforms - 1902 Thirty-eight miners die in a coal mine explosion in Boissevain, Va. - 1932 Four hundred fifty Woolworth’s workers and customers occupy store for eight days in support of Waiters and Waitresses Union, Detroit - 1937 The Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes, a major organizing tool for industrial unions, are illegal - 1939 Mine disaster kills 75 at Red Lodge, Mont. - 1943 Labor history courtesy Union Communication Services. click here for latest listings
Union City Radio: 7:15a; WPFW-FM 89.3 Film/Discussion: Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution (DC LaborFest/Shirlington) Tue, February 26, 6pm – 8pm Busboys and Poets (Shirlington) | 4251 South Campbell Avenue | Arlington, VA 22206 (map) FREE; RSVP here Tri-County COPE Tue, February 26, 7pm – 9pm AMERICAN LEGION, 6330 CRAIN HWY, LA PLATA, MD UPCOMING Evening With Labor (NOTE NEW LOCATION!) Sat, March 2, 7pm – 11pm Martin's Crosswinds 7400 Greenway Center Drive Greenbelt, MD 20770 Reception 7-8; dinner and program 8-9:30; dancing 9:30-11. ORDER TICKETS HERE by 5p TODAY |