This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Black labor in Richmond. Last week's episode: The Irish Immigrant Miners’ Memorial.
February 25 Labor organizer and civil rights activist Edgar Daniel Nixon dies. While working as a Pullman porter, Nixon organized the Montgomery local of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and served as its president for many years. He was a key organizer of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and co-founder of the Montgomery Improvement Association. 1987 February 26 Bethlehem Steel workers strike for union recognition, Bethlehem, Penn. - 1941 A coal slag heap doubling as a dam in West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek Valley collapsed, flooding the 17-mile long valley. 118 died, 5,000 were left homeless. The Pittston Coal Co. said it was "an Act of God." - 1972 A 20-week strike by 70,000 Southern California supermarket workers ends, with both sides claiming victory - 2004 February 27 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 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 450 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 - David Prosten click here for complete and latest listings Union City Radio: 7:15am daily WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report Wednesdays with Warner: Wed, February 23, 8:15am – 9:15am Windmill Hill Park, 500 S. Lee St., Alexandria, VA Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, February 24, 1pm – 2pm WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online. Nine to Five, Then & Now: One Fair Wage Action Fundraiser: Thu, February 24, 5pm – 8pm $50-$150; click here for tickets. Join Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage for a screening of 9 to 5 and a post-film discussion about the making of the film and the issues facing working women from 1980 until the present day. Support the still-laid-off Merriweather Lakehouse Hotel (former Sheraton) workers: Thu, February 24, 5:30pm – 6:30pm Meet in the grassy area by the Merriweather Lakehouse Hotel at 10175 Little Patuxent Parkway. (map) Arlington Dems Labor Caucus: Thu, February 24, 6pm – 7pm Film: A. Phillip Randolph: For Jobs And Freedom: Thu, February 24, 7pm – 9pm Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) - DC Chapter Pride at Work: Thu, February 24, 7:15pm – 8:15pm The Starbucks union organizing drive continued to gain momentum in the DMV as three more Virginia stores filed for NLRB elections on Monday, bringing that state’s total to 10. Today, Virginia AFL-CIO President will join U.S. Senator Tim Kaine in Richmond to visit workers at two Starbucks in Richmond to support their recent efforts to unionize. “The company reaps in record-breaking, behemoth profits year after year, yet fails to provide a happy living wage for its hardest workers who serve coffee around the world under the siren every day,” said the Starbucks Workers United Organizing Committee of Farmville, Virginia in a letter to Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson. Senator Kaine and President Crouse-Mays will visit the following Richmond stores on Wednesday: 11:25 AM Forest Hill (6980 Forest Hill Avenue, Richmond, VA 23225), 12:10 PM Carytown (3555 West Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23221).
Here are the stores in Virginia that are unionizing: Richmond: Carytown - 3555 West Cary St, Richmond; Huguenot Village - 2059 Huguenot Road, N. Chesterfield; Westchester Commons - 15605 WC Commons Way, Midlothian; N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard & Myers - 1017 N Boulevard, Richmond; Forest Hill & Cherokee - 6980 Forest Hill Ave, Richmond; Midlo & Carmia Way - 11136 Midlothian Tpke, North Chesterfield; Willow Lawn : 1601 Willow Lawn Drive, Richmond. Roanoke: 8 Old Whitmore Ave, Roanoke (Bridges) Farmville: 2003 South Main Street, Farmville Springfield: 7475 Huntsman Blvd, Springfield (Huntsman Square) Supporters of laid-off Merriweather Lakehouse Hotel (former Sheraton) workers who are entitled to recall rights will gather on Thursday (see Calendar). They’ll also join in celebrating the passage of CB 10, "Howard County Hospitality Workers’ Right to Return." “This has been a long struggle, and we will welcome the hotel workers - represented by Local 7 UNITE HERE - as they return from a delegation to their former employer asking that they be recalled for any and all available jobs in accordance with newly passed CB10,” says David LeGrande, Vice-Chair, Our Revolution Howard County. “After the event, you can join us in leafleting to make sure hotel customers, neighbors, and local shoppers know not to eat, meet, or sleep at the Merriweather Lakehouse Hotel until these workers are back to work with their union rights and contract intact.” |