This week's show features performances and conversation with the composer and some of the cast of "Love Songs from the Liberation Wars," the new labor jazz opera with performances coming up March 30-April 1. Union City Radio's Chris Garlock hosts and interviews composer Steve Jones and cast members Ayana Reed, Jazmin Gargoum, David Meredith, Lee Anderson and Monique Griffiths.
Composed by Steve Jones and directed by Elise Bryant, “Love Songs” is an original work inspired by the book “Civil Rights Unionism” by Robert Korstad. It tells the moving story of a strike led by African-American women at the R J Reynolds factory in Winston-Salem, NC, which was an early victory against Jim Crow segregation. The fully staged performances will take place Thursday March 30 at 8 pm, Friday March 31 at 8 pm, and Saturday April 1 at 3 pm and 8 pm. All performances at: Tommy Douglas Conference Center, 10000 New Hampshire Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20903; details and tickets here.
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In a time of heated rhetoric and divisiveness around immigration, Maryland’s unions, faith community and immigrant rights groups are leading the way forward on state-level immigration reform.
Two bills currently under consideration in Maryland would offer significant protections to immigrant workers and families—the Maryland Law Enforcement and Governmental Trust Act and the Regulation of Farm Labor Contractors and Foreign Labor Contractors Act. The measures proposed in these bills would help ensure that our law enforcement policies respect due process and protect civil rights in the workplace and community, and would expand protections within guest worker programs. In a letter to the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate, the Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO called on lawmakers to pass the Trust Act to "help prevent unscrupulous employers from manipulating the deportation machinery to undermine the exercise of workers’ rights." All too often, employers use the threat of deportation to keep workers silent about labor violations, and the treat of deportation often keeps immigrant families from engaging with law enforcement and other public services when they are needed. Immigrant and faith groups from around the state came out to support the Trust Act, which would create a firewall between immigration enforcement and labor inspectors, local police and state institutions. The Maryland and DC AFL-CIO, the Baltimore Teachers Union, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, the Maryland Catholic Conference and other faith groups also testified last week on behalf of the Foreign Labor Contractors Act, which would bring needed protections and reforms to guest worker programs in Maryland. On today's labor calendar, today's metro flyerings against rate hikes will be from 7-9am at the Farragut North station and then from 4:30 to 6:30 at the Anacostia station. For details and all the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1890, the leadership of the American Federation of Labor selected the Carpenters union to lead the 8-hour movement. Carpenters throughout the country struck in April; by May 1, some 46,000 carpenters in 137 cities and towns had achieved shorter hours. In 1894, a U.S.-China treaty prevented Chinese laborers from entering the U.S. In 1968, staffers at San Francisco progressive rock station KMPX-FM struck, citing corporate control over what music was played and harassment over hair and clothing styles, among other things. The Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and other musicians requested that the station not play their music as long as the station is run by strikebreakers. And in 2000, Boeing and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace come to terms on a new contract, settling the largest white-collar walkout in U.S. history. Today’s labor quote is by Ken Bernstein Maryland social studies teacher Ken Bernstein, who said "Too few Americans know labor history and how they have benefited from the efforts of unions. We have a 40-hour work week, defined benefits, higher wages, paid vacations and sick leave, largely as the result of union activity in the 20th century. We built a middle-class society in the period after World War II, also a period when the work force was, compared with today, heavily unionized." Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families; find out more at unionplus.org. Hosts: Chris Garlock and Ed Smith; JOIN US AT 202-588-0893 On today’s show: AFSCME Council 26 Executive Director Carl Goldman (right), on government worker rights on the job and the current GOP attacks on federal unions/workers. Plus listener calls and Producer Pete get's car repair advice from listeners. Labor Song: Tracy Chapman - Talkin' bout a Revolution CREDITS: 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. Find out more at unionplus.org. And we’re supported by you, our listeners: call 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739 or pledge online at wpfwfm.org. 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! photo by Chris Garlock A new report released Tuesday revealed the profound impact of Airbnb’s short-term rentals on the Washington, D.C. housing market.
Using data gathered from independent sources, “Selling The District Short,” commissioned by D.C. Working Families, presents a clear pattern showing Airbnb’s listings are dominated by illegal commercial hosts who are manipulating the residential rental market by decreasing the supply of available long-term housing units. Valerie Ervin, Senior Advisor at DC Working Families, said that “At a time when D.C. residents are struggling to find affordable housing, the commercialization of housing units across the city is taking away homes and apartments that working families badly need." The Metro Washington Council last month passed a resolution endorsing the Short-Term Rental Regulation and Affordable Housing Protection Act of 2017, now under consideration by the DC City Council. On today's labor calendar, transit activists will tell Metro "We will not pay more for less!" today from 7am – 9am at the Rosslyn Metro station, and then at 4:30 at the Foggy Bottom Station. On Your Rights At Work today at 1pm here on WPFW, our guest is AFSCME Council 26 Executive Director Carl Goldman, who will discuss government worker rights on the job and the current GOP attacks on federal workers and their unions. For details and all the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1948, the United Packinghouse Workers of America refused to accept a 9-cent wage increase and began a nationwide strike, shutting down 140 plants around the country. In 1960, the United Federation of Teachers was formed in New York to represent New York City public school teachers and, later, other education workers in the city. Today’s labor quote is by AFSCME Council 26 Executive Director Carl Goldman, based on a poem by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (NEE-MOOLER) First they came for the Environmental Protection Agency, but I didn’t work there so I said nothing, Then they came for the Department of Education, but I don’t work there so I said nothing, Then they came for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but I don’t work there so I said nothing, Then they came for the Department of Justice, but I don’t work there so I said nothing, Then they came for the Federal unions, but I was not a member, so I said nothing, Then they came for me, my rights and my job—but there was no one left to speak for me. Goldman will be honored as Outstanding Trade Unionist of the Year at the Metro Washington Council's annual Evening with Labor on March 25; tickets available at dclabor.org, click on Evening with Labor. Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families; find out more at unionplus.org. |
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