The highlight of the Metro Washington Council’s annual Evening with Labor – set for April 4, 2020 at Martin’s Crosswinds -- are the awards recognizing outstanding achievement in the local labor movement. This year’s winners include Saul Schniderman (AFSCME 2910) for the Joslyn N. Williams Vanguard Award; ATU 689 and IUOE 99 won Organizing awards, and this year’s Golden Picket Sign winners include ATU 689/ATU 1764 (for the Transdev strikes) and DCNA and SEIU1199 (for the UMC/Howard Univ/East End Campaign). Community Services awards were won by IUPAT District 51 and its Finishing Trades Institute; Eastern Atlantic States Regional Carpenters Council, Sisters in the Brotherhood and its MACTC in Upper Marlboro; Plumbers and Gasfitters Local 5 and it's JATC and Apprenticeship Training Center. Andrew Washington (AFSCME Council 20) and Laura Fuchs (WTU 6) won DC COPE awards, and Tom Killeen (SMART 100) won the Suburban Maryland COPE award. The 2019 Outstanding Ally is Rev. Graylan Hagler. Nominations are now being accepted for the JC Turner Award; click here for the nomination form and criteria for nominations. photo: ATU 689 strike pickets in Herndon, VA "We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn’t a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters earn more—commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect." This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Hidden in the Fields Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez on Invisible Agricultural Child Labor in the American Southwest and the Limits of Citizenship, from the Tales from the Reuther Library podcast. Plus Lane Windham on the Willmar 8, who organized the first strike against a bank in U.S. history. Last week's show: (12/8): Collective actions December 20 Delegates to the AFL convention in Salt Lake City endorse a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote - 1899. The first group of 15 Filipino plantation workers recruited by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association arrive in Hawaii. By 1932 more than 100,000 Filipinos will be working in the fields - 1906 The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) takes effect today - 1970 Thousands of workers began what was to be a two-day strike (photo) of the New York City transit system over retirement, pension and wage issues. The strike violated the state’s Taylor Law; TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint was jailed for ten days and the union was fined $2.5 million - 2005 December 21 Powered by children 7 to 12 years old working dawn to dusk, Samuel Slater’s thread-spinning factory goes into production in Pawtucket, R.I., launching the Industrial Revolution in America. By 1830, 55 per cent of the mill workers in the state were youngsters, many working for less than $1 per week - 1790 Supreme Court rules that picketing is unconstitutional. Chief Justice (and former president) William Howard Taft declared that picketing was, in part, "an unlawful annoyance and hurtful nuisance..." - 1921 December 22 A group of building trades unions from the Midwest meet in St. Louis to form the National Building Trades Council. The Council disbanded after several years of political and jurisdictional differences - 1897 21 Chicago firefighters, including the chief, died when a building collapsed as they were fighting a huge blaze at the Union Stock Yards. By the time the fire was extinguished 26 hours after the first alarm, 50 engine companies and seven hook and ladder companies had been called to the scene. Until Sept. 11, 2001, it was the deadliest building collapse in American history in terms of firefighter fatalities - 1910 Amid a widespread strike for union recognition by 395,000 steelworkers, approximately 250 alleged “anarchists,” “communists,” and “labor agitators” were deported to Russia, marking the beginning of the so-called “Red Scare” - 1919 - David Prosten click here for latest listings
Transdev bus driver picket line (ATU 689): Daily, 4:00am – 5:00pm Gates of the Cinder Bed Road Division, 7901 Cinder Bed Road, Lorton, Virginia Union City Radio: 7:15a; WPFW-FM 89.3 PG/Montgomery COPE: Thu, December 19, 10am – 12pm UFCW 400; 8400 Corporate Dr., Suite 200, Landover, MD 20785 Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, December 19, 1pm – 2pm WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online Monthly NoVA Labor Meeting/Holiday Party: Thu, December 19, 7pm – 9pm NoVA Labor, 4536 B John Marr Drive, Annandale VA |