Circus workers of the world, unite! Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this week’s show: A rollicking hour with former union clowns Murray Horwitz and Chris Bricker; both were graduates of the Ringling College of Clowns, Class of 1971 and went on to become professional clowns and then union reps at the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus. Horwitz went on to become an American playwright, lyricist, NPR broadcaster, and arts administrator, and Bricker is a longtime labor organizer and saw-playing member of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 1000, the acoustic travelling musicians union. Emma Goldman, women's rights activist and radical, born in Lithuania. She came to the U.S. at age 17 - 1869 Congress passes the National Labor Relations Act, creating the structure for collective bargaining in the United States - 1935 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that state and local public-sector unions cannot require nonunion members to pay anything to support the collective bargaining, grievance-handling and other costs of union work on their behalf. Voting with the 5-4 majority was Neil Gorsuch, who had just been named to the court by President Donald Trump - 2018 Labor history courtesy Union Communication Services. click here for latest listings Union City Radio: 7:15a M-F; WPFW-FM 89.3 Baltimore Symphony Musicians picket line: Tue, June 25, 7:30am – 10:30am Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, 1212 Cathedral St, Baltimore, MD 21201 photo: Former BSO music director David Zinman pays a visit to the locked-out BSO musicians' picket line on Monday; photo by Tim Smith. Recognize any of these folks? Tue, June 25, 11am – 1pm The Metro Washington DC labor council has donated its historical archives to the University of Maryland and they’re in the process of scanning, sorting, and digitizing everything; included in the materials are a lot of old photos from the 1940's through the 1970's, and we need some help identifying folks in these photos. For more details or to RSVP; contact [email protected], or call 202-262-0773. No Vote Until NAFTA 2.0 is Fixed! Tue, June 25, 12pm – 2pm House Triangle• Capitol Driveway SE, Washington, DC 20004; RSVP HERE Stop the Merger of OPM and GSA! Tue, June 25, 12pm – 1pm Triangle Park (San Martin Statue), 20th and Virginia, NW Pride at Work/OUTreach Movie Night: Movie: "Do I Look Gay?" Tue, June 25, 6pm – 8pm 4536 B John Marr Drive, Annandale, VA Frank Russo, President, NoVa Pride at Work: 571-278-6186 UPCOMING UFCW 400 Week of Action at Shoppers: June 26-28 Multiple locations; click here DC Just Pay Coalition Outreach Blitz: June 28-30 Multiple locations; click here As the lockout of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians enters its second week – and support pours in from around the country -- picketing continues every morning this week, from 7:30 to 10:30 am. There are also two noontime labor rallies in downtown DC today. The first is “No Vote Until NAFTA 2.0 is Fixed!” on Capitol Hill; Trump wants a vote on the revised NAFTA as soon as possible, but if enacted as-is, the deal would lock in high medicine prices and fail to stop NAFTA’s ongoing outsourcing of jobs and pollution. Also at noon, in Triangle Park at 20th and Virginia, NW, federal workers will rally to “Stop the Merger of OPM and GSA!” Trump’s plan to dismantle the Office of Personnel Management and transfer critical functions to the White House would undermine the civil service as a federal workforce that works for the American people. You can also visit afge.org/SaveOPM and add your name to those taking a stand against dismantling OPM. There were tears, and there was laughter. As ATU 726 president Danny Cassella joked, “This isn’t really a memorial service, it’s a training session. Larry finally figured out how to get you all in the same room. You can pick up your packets on the way out.”
Larry, of course, was Lawrence J. Hanley, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) president who died on May 7 at the age of 62. And the ATU’s Tommy Douglas Conference Center was packed to the rafters Monday with union leaders and members who came, as many of those who spoke – like retired CWA president Larry Cohen -- insisted, “not just to mourn Larry’s loss, but to celebrate his life and legacy.” The ATU’s entire leadership was there, as were all three top officers of the AFL-CIO and many other labor leaders, and among the crowd were many rank and file transit union members, who all seemed to feel a personal connection to the one-time bus driver who rose to lead their union. “Just as he did as a bus driver,” said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, “Larry was always taking people with him.” The list of distinguished speakers who memorialized Hanley stretched over two pages in the service’s program book, and they all sounded the same common themes to his life: vision, commitment, fighting spirit, and perhaps most important of all, a sense of humor. Jeff Rosenberg, ATU’s Director of Government Affairs, recalled that Hanley would often break the ice with an audience by asking “Did anybody lose a stack of hundred-dollar bills wrapped in a rubber band? Here’s the rubber band.” Rosenberg also revealed that Hanley was a huge Billy Joel fan and considered “Allentown” one of the best songs ever. “Larry’s sole concern and overriding focus was for the men and women of both his union and for all of us in the labor movement,” said Metro Washington Council president Jackie Jeter, former president of ATU 689 and an ally in Hanley’s leadership challenge back in 2010. “His ideas, dreams and vision inspired many of us to take on leadership roles and strive to attain those goals.” |