Members of AFGE – the American Federation of Government Employees -- and union allies rallied Wednesday against an anti-union “contract” Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is trying to impose on her workers, warning that it could spread to other federal workers. AFGE Secretary-Treasurer Joe Flynn said “This administration won’t stop until every union has been busted and every union contract has been ripped up.” Virginia congressman Don Beyer agreed, noting that the DeVos’ “contract” is just part of the Trump administration’s wider war against unions in general.

On this weekend’s labor calendar, THE NEW BABYLON -- about the revolt of workers and laborers in Paris in 1871 -- screens tonight and tomorrow afternoon at the AFI Silver, with live accompaniment by the PostClassical Ensemble.
For details, and the latest labor events, go to dclabor.org, and click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1990, Harry Bridges, the Australian-born dock union leader, died at age 88. He helped form and lead the International Longshore and Warehouse Union for 40 years.

Today’s labor quote is from “The Ballad of Harry Bridges,” sung here by Arlo Guthrie:
There was only a company union, the bosses had their way.
A worker had to stand in line for a lousy dollar a day.
When up spoke Harry Bridges, "Us workers got to get wise,
Our wives and kids will starve to death if we don't get organized."
Oh, the FBI is worried, the bosses they are scared,
They can't deport six million men, they know.
And we're not going to let them send Harry over the sea,
We'll fight for Harry Bridges and build the C. I. O.

Arlo Guthrie-The Ballad of Harry Bridges; lyrics by Lee Hays, Millard Lampell and Pete Seeger

Longtime labor communicator and progressive activist Carolyn Jacobson died March 23. She created the Contraceptive Equity program and the Cervical Cancer Prevention program for union women, following her retirement from the Bakery Workers Union. She was a founder and permanent member of the Board of the Berger Marks Foundation which supported union womens' leadership development and women as organizers. “Our sister was an ardent feminist, a tremendous supporter of women’s health, a funny human being and a loyal friend,” said Connie Cordovilla. You can read much more about Carolyn on our website at dclabor.org
For the latest labor events, go to dclabor.org, and click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1948, the “Battle of Wall Street” took place as police charged members of the United Financial Employees’ Union, who were on strike against the New York Stock Exchange and New York Curb Exchange.  Forty-three workers were arrested in what was to be the first and only strike in the history of either exchange.

​Today’s labor quote is by AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, who said:
“It's Wall Street. We're trying to change the status quo, and they liked the status quo. They've been benefiting from it by getting rich by it.”

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After three weeks on the picket lines, CWA members have claimed victory in their strike against Frontier Communications. The workers won their main demand of job security for every member as “a result of the solidarity and commitment each and every  member showed during this strike,” said the union.

Today’s labor calendar is jam-packed, starting with a symposium at 9:30 this morning on the Fair Labor Standards Act 80 Years Later, a briefing on "How to get Americans Workers a Raise" at 10am, and then a lunchtime discussion on whether the Janus Case threatens public sector labor relations. A Rally for Dept of Education employees starts at noon, and the day wraps up with a 6:30 pm meeting of the Chesapeake Bay Organizing Committee of the Coalition of Labor Union Women.
Complete details on all these events are on our website, dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1935, members of the Gas House Workers’ Union in St. Louis began the first strike against a public utility in the United States.
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Today’s labor quote is by Martin Luther King, Jr., who on this date in 1968, led a march of striking sanitation workers, members of AFSCME Local 1733, in Memphis, Tennessee. Martin Luther King, who said:
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

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The workers of Revolution Messaging have formed a union, winning voluntary recognition of their efforts about an hour after they announced their plans. They will join the Washington-Baltimore local of The NewsGuild-CWA, which will represent them in collective bargaining. There will be approximately 60 people in the bargaining unit. Revolution Messaging is a media agency dedicated to digital storytelling for progressive causes.

On today’s labor calendar, the Bread and Roses series continues at the Shirlington Busboys and Poets tonight with “55 Strong”: Lessons from the West Virginia Teachers’ Strike, starting at 6pm; complete details on our website, dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that undocumented workers do not have the same rights as Americans when they are wrongly fired.
You can hear more about this on this week’s edition of our Labor History Today podcast, available on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts, just search for Union City Radio.

​Today’s labor quote is by Mother Jones, who was ordered to leave Colorado on this date in 1904, where state authorities accused her of “stirring up” striking coal miners.
Mother Jones, who said:
“I will tell the truth wherever I please.”

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus, which provides unique products and discounts for working families. Check them out at unionplus.org!

Some nurses at Johns Hopkins Hospital are working to form a union, claiming overwork and low pay contribute to high turnover — a situation ICU nurse Kate Phillips describes as “unsafe.” “When we don’t have a voice or a way to stand up to the administration, they can basically make all the decisions and they don’t look at things from the perspective of patient care like we do,” added Phillips. The nurses, who reached out to National Nurses United for help, need a majority of the hospital’s 3,200 nurses to sign cards in order to hold a union vote.

On today’s labor calendar, the Metropolitan Washington Council’s, Prince George’s and Montgomery County Committee on Political Education meet this morning starting at 9am for primary election candidate interviews; complete details, as always, on our website, dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1868, San Francisco brewery workers began a 9-month strike as local employers followed the union-busting lead of the National Brewer’s Association and fired their unionized workers, replacing them with scabs. Two unionized brewers refused to go along, kept producing beer, prospered wildly and induced the Association to capitulate. One contract benefit since having unionized two years earlier, and certainly worth defending, was free beer for the workers.
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Today’s labor quote is by Martin Luther King Jr., who said:
“We may all have come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.”

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus, which provides unique products and discounts for working families. Check them out at unionplus.org!

Over a thousand teachers in Prince George's County Public Schools missed class on Monday, with some purposely calling out sick to protest problems in the school system, including unauthorized raises for employees in the District's central office. “Just hearing about the secret raises, that’s a real slap in the face to teachers,” said teacher Samantha Bardoe. While the teachers' union told members not to call out sick, the Prince George’s County Educators’ Association did vote on a “Work to Rule” Action for two weeks, which means teachers should not do anything beyond bare minimum duties.

Lots on today’s labor calendar, including a noontime Rally to Close the "Carried Interest" Loophole and then tomorrow the March For Our Lives at noon at the US Capitol and a Frontier Communications strike rally starting at 1pm in Charleston, West Virginia. Complete details on our website, dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1970, five days into the Post Office’s first mass work stoppage in 195 years, President Richard Nixon declared a national emergency and ordered 30,000 troops to New York City to break the strike. The troops didn’t have a clue how to sort and deliver mail and a settlement came a few days later.

​Today’s labor quote is from the founding mission statement of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, founded on this date in 1974. The Coalition’s four goals were – and continue to be -- organize the unorganized; promote affirmative action; increase women's participation in their unions; and increase women's participation in political and legislative activities.

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus, which provides unique products and discounts for working families. Check them out at unionplus.org!

SPECIAL 2-HOUR EDITION! Click on top for Hour 1 and bottom for Hour 2.
Hosts:  Chris Garlock and Ed Smith 
Also, 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!

Today’s guests: 
HOUR 1 (1-2p)
Elissa McBride, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer, on her recent discussion with women leaders on the pervasive harassment both women and men confront at work and strategies to fight back. 
Elizabeth Hempowicz, Project on Government Oversight (POGO) on the whistleblower at the Department of Housing and Urban Development who says she was demoted in part for refusing to spend more than was legally allowed to redecorate Secretary Ben Carson's new office.
HOUR 2 (2-3p)
Roy Gross, Director of Operations at the Atlas Theater and DC rep for Actors Equity on what makes DC one of the nation’s “best cities for live theatre.” 
Judy Conti, Government Affairs Director, National Employment Law Project, on how restaurant workers won ownership of their tips. 
Plus listener calls!

Labor Songs: 
Dixie Chicks: Not Ready To Make Nice 
Warren Zevon; Lawyers Guns and Money
BK Anderson - Minimum Wage
The Triumphs - Workin'

CREDITS: Produced by Pete Pocock and Chris Bangert-Drowns; engineered by Mike “The Man” 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.

Just hours after hundreds of teachers, other school employees and supporters rallied in Annapolis on Monday, the State Senate passed the “Fix the Fund” Act, which would guarantee that money from casinos goes to funding education — an unfulfilled decade-old promise. Maryland delegates must now pass the same version before voters decide its fate in November.

On today’s labor calendar, there’s a special 2-hour edition of Your Rights At Work today from 1 to 3pm here on WPFW. Elissa (E-Lee-Sa) McBride, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer, will report on a recent discussion with women leaders on the pervasive harassment both women and men confront at work and strategies to fight back. We'll also be joined by Roy Gross, DC rep for Actors Equity, on their recent report revealing that DC is a top union theater town.
Complete details, as always, on our website, dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1990, a 32-day lockout of major league baseball players ended with an agreement to raise the minimum league salary and to study revenue-sharing between owners and players.

​Today’s labor quote is by Mark Twain, a lifelong member of the International Typographical Union – which is now part of the Communication Workers of America – who on this date in 1886 praised the Knights of Labor ’s commitment to fair treatment of all workers, regardless of race or gender.
Mark Twain, who said of the Knights of Labor:
“This king is born the enemy of them that scheme and talk and do not work…He will see to it that there is fair play, fair wages, fair working hours.”

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus, which provides unique products and discounts for working families. Check them out at unionplus.org!

Striking Frontier Communications workers are continuing to picket this week, despite being slapped with a temporary restraining order last week as the company requested an injunction —  something CWA member Kyla Clark called “a major scare tactic.”
“We are strong, we are united, and we are committed to the fight for good jobs and quality service in West Virginia,” said CWA District 2-13 Vice President Ed Mooney. The strike is now in its third week, with “tremendous support” from residents and business owners across West Virginia and as far away as Frontier headquarters in Connecticut, Mooney added.

On today’s labor calendar, the Frontier Communications strike picket runs from 6am to 12pm at 22001 Loudoun County Parkway in Ashburn, Virginia.
Complete details, as always, on our website, dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1857, women’s rights advocate and labor activist Alice Henry was born in Melbourne, Australia. She came to the U.S. in 1905 and worked for twenty years for the National Women’s Trade Union League of America in Chicago, lecturing, organizing, directing the education department, writing two books on women in the labor movement, and editing the League’s official journal.

​Today’s labor quote is by Alice Henry, who said:
“If you give suffrage to men and not women you are putting women on a relatively lower plane. Society will go backward if women don't get to vote."

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SEIU members have zeroed in on the Maryland capitol in their fight for voting rights and living wages. SEIU 1199-sponsored legislation allowing Marylanders to register to vote on Election Day passed the House of Delegates last week after intense lobbying from workers. While a similar measure passed the State Senate last year, the union says “we cannot take anything for granted,” and urges supporters to call their State Senators. Meanwhile, SEIU 32BJ members, alongside BWI Airport contracted workers, testified for a $15/hour living wage at the State Senate last week. “All workers who keep our airports running, clean, and secure deserve living wages,” the union said.

Today’s labor calendar is jam-packed, with transit workers rallying against privatization at noon, the APRI Baltimore chapter meeting at 5pm, the “We Were There” Women's History Month Special performance at 6pm at the Takoma Busboys and former labor activist Kim Jong-hoon speaking on “Korea at the Crossroads: War, Peace and North-South Talks” tonight at 6pm at the Brookland Busboys and Poets.
Complete details, as always, on our website, dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1865, Michigan authorized the formation of workers’ cooperatives. Thirteen were formed in the state over a 25-year period as labor reform organizations advocated "cooperation" over "competitive" capitalism. Participants envisioned a world free from conflict where workers would receive the full value of their labor and freely exercise democratic citizenship in the political and economic realms.

Today’s labor quote is by William Shakespeare, who said:
“Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts.”

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus, which provides unique products and discounts for working families. Check them out at unionplus.org!