Labor hailed the news Wednesday that Secretary of Labor nominee Andy Puzder had withdrawn his nomination after it became clear he did not have the votes to win confirmation. AFGE president J. David Cox Sr. called the withdrawal "a victory for working people everywhere," while AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said "Working people rejected Puzder because he routinely violated labor law, disrespected workers, opposed a living wage and used his position of authority to enrich himself at the expense of working people." Trumka added that Puzder's defeat was "a reminder of the collective power of working people and a clear message to President Trump that it’s time to change course completely." Benjamin Jealous, founding chair of Good Jobs Defenders, said that “Defeating Puzder’s nomination is a big victory,” but Jealous also warned that “The Republican war on workers didn’t start with Andy Puzder, and it doesn't end now.”
In local labor news, UFCW 1994/MCGEO reports that Montgomery County workers have reached a tentative agreement on a new 2-year contract. Union members will vote on the proposed deal at ratification meetings to be announced. On today's labor calendar, "Brother Outsider" screens tonight at 7pm in Takoma Park; the film is about the civil rights hero Bayard Rustin, who among many other things was the chief architect of the historic 1963 March on Washington. And on Sunday from 4-7pm there’s a fundraiser to support the production of the DC area premiere of the labor jazz opera “Love Songs from the Liberation Wars: the 1940's Tobacco Workers Struggle.” Complete details, as always, are on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history, On this date in 1937, sixty-three sit-down strikers, demanding recognition of their union, were tear-gassed and driven from two Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation plants in Chicago. Two years later the U.S. Supreme Court declared sit-down strikes illegal. The tactic had been a major industrial union organizing tool. In 1992, union members at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, struck in sympathy with graduate student teaching assistants who were demanding the right to negotiate with the university. The battle to win recognition of their union continues to this day. Just last month, graduate students in nine departments at Yale were given the right to hold union elections by the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board. Today’s labor quote is by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, speaking at a rally of Yale graduate students in 2014: “It takes a brave bunch of people to step forward. A brave bunch of people to argue the case. A brave bunch of people to say that we have gone this far, we will go no further without our rights being guaranteed, protected and of course recognized.” Help keep Union City Radio on the air by pledging at 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739, or you can pledge online at wpfwfm.org. Whatever you give, thank you! Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org.
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Last year, NIH shuttle bus driver Russell Hebron got fired for wearing a union button on his uniform. But he and his union, ATU local 1764, fought back and won. "When I got fired, my wife was nervous,” Hebron says. “But I didn’t feel bad, because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong." Other activists have been harassed or fired as well.
“It’s a revolving door, but we still have our union, and we’re still trying to win,” says Hebron. “We want justice — at NIH and beyond… along with my union family, we’re not stopping until we make it right.” Read more at dclabor.org On today's labor calendar, this morning at 8:30 – just over an hour from now – workers will rally on Capitol Hill against Andy Puzder, President Trump's nominee to be Labor Secretary. Puzder has a track record of killing jobs and cutting pay and there's growing bipartisan opposition to his nomination; confirmation hearings start today. On today’s edition of Your Rights at Work – 1pm here on WPFW – our guest is Dr. Daina Ramey Berry, author of “The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation.” Complete details are on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history, On this date in 1870, Leonora O’Reilly was born in New York. The daughter of Irish immigrants, she began working in a factory at 11, joined the Knights of Labor at 16, and was a volunteer investigator of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. She was a founding member of the Women’s Trade Union League. In 1926, a 17-week general strike of 12,000 New York furriers began, in which Jewish workers formed a coalition with Greek and African American workers and became the first union to win a 5-day, 40-hour week. And on this date in 2011, all public schools in Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin were closed as teachers called in sick to protest Governor Scott Walker’s plans to gut their collective bargaining rights. Today’s labor quote is by Leonora O’Reilly "... just so soon as a party loses sight of the good of the whole and works for 'party' right or wrong, it becomes a menace to the community ..." Help keep Union City Radio on the air by pledging at 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739, or you can pledge online at wpfwfm.org. Whatever you give, thank you! Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org. Hosts: Chris Garlock and Ed Smith; JOIN US AT 202-588-0893
If you miss our live show – or want to hear a past show – Your Rights At Work is now available as a podcast! Just search for Union City Radio on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts; subscribe and you’ll get our shows right on your phone! On today's show, Dr. Daina Ramey Berry, author of “The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation,” a groundbreaking look at slaves as commodities through every phase of life, from birth to death and beyond, in early America. Plus we take listener calls on your rights at work. Help keep Union City Radio on the air by pledging at 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739, or you pledge online at wpfwfm.org. And during WPFW’s Winter Fund Drive, you can wrap your ears around the largest and most comprehensive collection of historic audio ever compiled by Pacifica Radio Archives, now available for the very first time on a single USB memory stick. With nearly one thousand hours of meticulously curated audio, covering dozens and dozens of topics, you’ll be inspired, challenged, entertained, and educated. All that, for just a $200 donation; call 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739 or pledge online at wpfwfm.org. And whatever you give, thank you! Produced by Sid Dawson, engineered by Mike Nasella; Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org. Fairfax County Connector transit workers recently unanimously authorized a strike against MV Corporation, which their union says “refuses to budge on our fair wage demands.” ATU 1764 is also in bargaining for workers at the Metro Access call center in Hyattsville, Maryland, which is also run by MV. According to ATU 1764’s Sesil Rubain, the company has been taking a hard line at the bargaining table while “running roughshod” over the members in the workplace. “We have put MV on notice that ‘time’s up!’ on both sides of the river,” says Rubain.
On today's labor calendar, join the demand to Free Jailed Bangladeshi Unionists and Workers today at noon at the Bangladesh Embassy in Northwest DC. Complete details are on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history, On this date in 1934, U.S. legislators passed the Civil Works Emergency Relief Act, providing funds for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which funneled money to states plagued by Depression-era poverty and unemployment, and oversaw the subsequent distribution and relief efforts. In 1950, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, expelled half a dozen unions for quote unquote “Communist tendencies” during the Second Red Scare, popularly known as "McCarthyism" after its most famous supporter, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, which targeted many in the labor movement. Today’s labor quote is by Susan B. Anthony “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union...” Susan B. Anthony, who also famously said “Failure is impossible.” The suffragist, abolitionist and labor activist was born in Adams, Massachusetts on this date in 1820 and is buried in my hometown, Rochester, New York. Help keep Union City Radio on the air by pledging at 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739, or you can pledge online at wpfwfm.org. Whatever you give, thank you! Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org. |
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