Longtime Teamsters 639 President Thomas Ratliff heads up this year's Evening with Labor award-winners, earning the JC Turner Award for Outstanding Trades Unionist of the Year. Ratliff has continued Local 639's tradition of active organizing, hard bargaining and fights to the finish for his members. One of the biggest events on the annual local labor calendar, this year’s Evening with Labor is set for this Saturday; for tickets contact [email protected] Other awards include those for Organizing, the Golden Picket, COPE, Outstanding Ally, and the Community Services Award: go to dclabor.org and click on Evening with Labor to see the complete list of award-winners.
Today’s labor calendar includes tonight’s free screening of the film “Food Chains: The Revolution in America’s Fields” beginning at 5pm at the AFL-CIO, which includes a discussion with the film’s director. Go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for details and to RSVP. Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1830, the term “rat,” referring to a worker who betrays fellow workers, first appeared in print in the New York Daily Sentinel. The newspaper was quoting a typesetter while reporting on replacement workers who had agreed to work for two-thirds of the going rate. And in 1946, a four-month UAW strike at General Motors ended with a new contract. The strikers were trying to make up for the lack of wage hikes during World War II. Today's labor quote is by Eric Schlosser: "There is more interest in food than ever, yet there is almost no interest in the hands that pick that food." - Eric Schlosser, who’s featured in the film “Food Chains,” is an American journalist and author whose books include “Fast Food Nation” and “Chew On This”
0 Comments
News: DC Mayor Muriel Bowser joined UNITE HERE Local 25 and the D.C. United soccer franchise on Tuesday to announce a labor peace agreement between Local 25 and the team. “One of my top priorities is creating a pathway to the middle class,” said Bowser. “D.C. residents expect that hotel and restaurant workers should be treated fairly on the job,” said John Boardman, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of Local 25. The labor peace agreement provides a fair process for hotel and food service workers at the proposed stadium at Buzzard Point to join the union and negotiate a first contract. In return, the union agrees not to strike or picket at the stadium.
In today’s labor calendar, the AFL-CIO and the Labor Heritage Foundation host “We Were There: A Celebration of Women's History Month” tonight at 5:30pm. The free event features singer/songwriter Bev Grant and local performers from the labor community. Go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for details and to RSVP. Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1901, greedy industrialist turned benevolent philanthropist Andrew Carnegie pledged $5 million dollars for the construction of 65 branch libraries in New York City—barely 1 percent of his net worth at the time. He established more than 2,500 libraries between 1900 and 1919 following years of treating workers in his steel plants brutally, demanding long hours in horrible conditions and fighting their efforts to unionize. Carnegie made $500 million when he sold out to J.P. Morgan, becoming the world’s richest man. Today's labor quote is by Sam Gompers: “Yes, accept his library, organize the workers, secure better conditions, and particularly reduction in hours of labor, and then workers will have some chance and leisure in which to read books.” Gompers, the longtime leader of the American Federation of Labor, is buried only a few yards away from industrialist Andrew Carnegie, at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. News: “As long as Mexican workers don’t have rights, workers in America are under threat.” That’s what Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, president of the Mexican mine and metalworkers’ union Los Mineros, told the AFL-CIO Executive Council recently. Gómez argued that low wages and repression of workers in Mexico hurts U.S. workers by reducing exports to Mexico and creating unfair incentives to relocate plants from the United States. “Workers in the U.S. and Mexico have to fight together, even harder, for justice and against inequality,” Gomez said. While the Los Mineros union has doubled the real wages of its members in the past decade, most Mexican workers face repression when they try to join democratic unions. “That’s why we must work together to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership and demand real labor reforms in both of our countries” Gómez said.
Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1811, Luddites smashed 63 textile machines near Nottingham, England. The Luddites were 19th-century English textile artisans who protested against new machinery which threatened to replace the artisans with less-skilled, low-wage laborers. In 1950, Transport Workers Union members at American Airlines won an 11-day national strike, gaining what the union said was the first severance pay clause in the industry. Today's labor quote is by Albert Einstein, who said: “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” News: The Metro Washington Council is re-launching its Organizing Roundtable with a special session on March 23 featuring organizers from Morocco and Hong Kong. “From labor to civil rights to the women’s movement, social movements have brought about the most significant changes for racial, economic, and gender justice,” says Metro Council president Jos Williams, who will chair the event, which is open to local union and community organizers. The Roundtable – co-sponsored by the Solidarity Center – will focus on movement building and will run from 10a-12p at the Solidarity Center. RSVP to [email protected]
Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1919, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the espionage conviction of labor leader and socialist Eugene V. Debs, who was jailed for speaking out against World War I. In 1941, New York City bus drivers, members of the Transport Workers Union, went on strike. After 12 days of no buses—and a large show of force by Irish-American strikers at the St. Patrick’s Day parade—Mayor Fiorello La Guardia ordered arbitration. And on this date in 1968, United Farm Workers leader César Chávez broke a 24-day fast, by doctor’s order, at a mass in Delano, California’s public park. Several thousand supporters were at his side, including Senator Robert Kennedy. Chavez called it “a fast for non-violence and a call to sacrifice” Today's labor quote is by Gene Debs: “What can Labor do for itself? The answer is not difficult. Labor can organize, it can unify; it can consolidate its forces. This done, it can demand and command.” |
Categories
All
Union City Radio is proud to be supported by UnionPlus, which has been working hard for union families since 1986.
Union City Radio is part of The Labor Radio/Podcast Network
Listen now...UC Radio airs weekdays at 7:15a on WPFW 89.3 FM; subscribe to the podcast here. |