If you – or someone you know – is a TPS – Temporary Protected Status -- recipient and are wondering what’s going on with the TPS lawsuits and upcoming termination dates, Working Families United, a coalition of seven unions, is hosting a legal clinic this Sunday to get you the answers you need. Find out your options and hear what other TPS holders and unions are doing right now to protect TPS. Individual consultations will be provided to answer specific questions and screen for qualifications for any other status or form of relief; RSVP to reserve your spot by emailing [email protected]

On our weekend labor calendar,
The film “Daughters of the Dust” screens free tomorrow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the film is a languid look at the Gullah culture of the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia where African folk-ways were maintained well into the 20th Century and was one of the last bastions of these mores in America. 
Jews United For Justice's annual Labor Seder is this Sunday starting at 5pm;
Complete details, as always, on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, the “Battle of Wall Street,” took place on this date in 1948, 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 (now known as the American Stock 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 Harry Bridges, the Australian-born dock union leader who died at age 88 on this date in 1990. Harry helped form and lead the International Longshore and Warehouse Union for 40 years.
Harry Bridges, who said: “The most important word in the language of the working class is ‘solidarity’”

​Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Thinking about buying or refinancing a home? The Union Plus Mortgage Program provides top-notch service and is union-owned. Visit unionplus.org/mortgage.

Broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM
Hosted by Chris Garlock
DC’s call-in show about worker rights: those you have, those you don’t, how to get them and how to use them.
 
HOUR 1: 1-2P
Painters DC 51’s Roxie Mejia (below left) on Sunday’s legal clinic for union workers with TPS; PAI’s Mark Gruenberg with latest labor news headlines. Plus listener calls.

HOUR 2: 2-3P
Two historic 1970 strikes: APWU’s Clint Burelson (below right) on the wildcat by 200,000 postal workers and Len Shindel on the strike by 150 Garrett County roads workers in western MD. Plus listener calls.

Music
DC Labor Chorus: None of Us Are Free
Bev Grant and the Brooklyn Women's Chorus: We Were There

Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella. Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus.

(audio) “There is much more separation in the U.S. economy between what high paid blue collar workers make and what high paid white collar workers make.”
That’s Congressman Marc Veasey of Texas, on the latest episode of the AFL-CIO’s “State of the Unions” podcast. Marc is one of the co-chairs of the House Blue Collar Caucus…
(audio) “And so in order to erase those discrepancies and those gaps we need to really be able to address income inequality. And I like what our good friend Joe Kennedy talked about in an interview that he did recently...the capitalism of today isn't the same capitalism of yesterday. It used to be when companies like General Motors and others would do very well that the company always put that money back into the workers...it wasn't all about what the shareholders wanted. And now there seems to be so much more of an emphasis on shareholders in this country.”
Catch “State of the Unions” on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.

On today’s labor calendar, we’ll re-visit two historic strikes on today’s edition of Your Rights At Work, starting at 1pm here on WPFW. Both took place in 1970, one by 200,000 postal workers, the other by 150 Garrett County Roads Department workers in Western Maryland. Plus all the latest labor news and your calls.
And at 3pm, catch a performance of We Were There, either at the AFL-CIO or broadcast live right here on WPFW.
Complete details, as always, on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1935, members of Gas House Workers’ Union Local 18799 began what would become a 4-month strike against the Laclede Gas Light Company in St. Louis. The union later said the strike was the first ever against a public utility in the United States.

Today’s labor quote is by Martin Luther King, Jr., who led a march of striking sanitation workers, members of AFSCME Local 1733, in Memphis, Tennessee on this date in 1968. Violence during the march persuaded him to return the following week to Memphis, where he was assassinated.
Martin Luther King, who said:
“It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.”

Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Thinking about buying or refinancing a home? The Union Plus Mortgage Program provides top-notch service and is union-owned. Visit unionplus.org/mortgage.

“Oh my God, it felt like heaven.” So said Loan Cao, a UFCW Local 400 member who works at Giant Food, after learning she had won her grievance. A member of Local 400 for 29 years, Loan works at Giant Food #795 in Springfield, Virginia. She was fired suddenly last December, accused of doing something wrong when she was closing the store one night, but another employee who did the same thing received no discipline. With the help of her Local 400 representative, Bertha McKiver, Loan immediately filed a grievance, and eventually, the company settled, agreeing to reinstate Loan and writing her a back pay check for almost $7,000 dollars. She started work again on February 2. “When Giant told me I was fired, I was numb and couldn’t cry,” Cao said. “But when Bertha called me to say I got my job back, this time I cried and cried. I never expected my union to help me so well. I’m so very thankful.”
You can see a photo of Cao on our website at dclabor.org.

On today’s labor calendar, catch a free screening of the film “Trafficked in America” this afternoon at 3pm at the AFL-CIO,
then at 7 tonight there’s a UC Strike Support Protest and Politics & Prose; Complete details, as always, on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

In 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.

Today’s labor quote is by Mother Jones, who was ordered to leave Colorado on this date in 1904; state authorities there accused her of “stirring up” striking coal miners. Mother Jones, who said:
“You will not be serfs, you will march, march, march on from milestone to milestone of human freedom, you will rise like men in the new day and slavery will get its death blow. It has got to die.”

Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Thinking about buying or refinancing a home? The Union Plus Mortgage Program provides top-notch service and is union-owned. Visit unionplus.org/mortgage.

(audio) “I think that people really do want their voices and their ideas heard.”
That’s Congressman Marc Veasey of Texas, on the latest episode of the AFL-CIO’s “State of the Unions” podcast. Marc is one of the co-chairs of the House Blue Collar Caucus…
(audio) “And I would really like to see more attention put on listening tours and really connecting with people in some of these areas to make sure that they understand that we're not taking their vote for granted...that we do value their job and what they do for a living and that we want to hear from them...that we're listening to them and that we're going to take some of the things that they tell us and actually come here to Washington D.C. and put them in action.”
Catch “State of the Unions” wherever you listen to podcasts.

On today’s labor calendar, the film Councilwoman -- about a hotel housekeeper in Rhode Island who was elected to the Providence City Council – screens tonight at 6 at the LaborFest’s monthly series at the Shirlington Busboys and Poets;
Complete details, as always, on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

In 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. By the way, one of the contract benefits won by the union was free beer for workers.  

Today’s labor quote is by Henry Edward Manning, an English cardinal in the 19th Century, who said:
Every man has a right to work or to bread.                 

Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Thinking about buying or refinancing a home? The Union Plus Mortgage Program provides top-notch service and is union-owned. Visit unionplus.org/mortgage.

After strong campaigning by Fight for $15, SEIU and their allies, Maryland is apparently heading for an increase in the state minimum wage to $15 an hour – despite Governor Larry Hogan’s veto threat. That’s because both houses of the state legislature passed the $15 minimum wage hike by veto-proof margins. Maryland would thus join what is now a large number of states and major cities that have gotten tired of waiting for Congress to raise the federal hourly minimum of $7.25, and gone ahead and done it themselves. The federal minimum hasn’t budged in a decade.

Today’s labor calendar is jam-packed, with a conversation with ACORN founder Wade Rathke starting at 5pm at Georgetown, Union Night in Annapolis starting at 6, a discussion at GW on The Dignity of Work at 6, and a Benefit Concert for Quality Care and Patient Advocacy at 6:30 in Baltimore; complete details, of course, at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1894, the first “Poor People’s March” on Washington took place, when jobless workers -- known as “Coxey’s Army” -- demanded creation of a public works program.

Today’s labor quote is by Chris Llewelyn, from her poem, “White Light (After Sonya Levien),” from “Fragments from the Fire: the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire of March 25, 1911,” which won the Walt Whitman Award in 1986.

It's not easy to teach us union.
Garment girls shift like sand, start
too young in the trade, wait for

Prince Charming to take em away.
When I arrived from Russia
my cheeks like apples.  And look now!

But talk about a dreaming fool!
Me, thirteen in the Golden Land
longing to work at Life and Love.

Be what you call a builder of bridges.
I'd go back, show all Moscow
a great American lady.

My first position: feeding kerchiefs
to machine.  First English sentence:
"Watch your needle -- 3,000 stitches

A minute."  I was some swift kid in
those days:  seventy-two-hundred
an hour, eighty-six-thousand pieces

A day, four dollars in the pay
envelope -- and that the busy season.
For three months my pay was bread.

I yearned to earn wages, save my
little sister's passage, I was so
lonely in America.  Soon like the rest

I grieved at my machine, swore I'd
marry any old man just to get out.
One by one the others left to marry

And returned to Triangle.  I saw
my future in a white heat light
no dreams could soften.

Thanks to the folks at Friday’s Folklore for sharing that poem; to sign up for Friday’s Folklore, just click here.

Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Thinking about buying or refinancing a home? The Union Plus Mortgage Program provides top-notch service and is union-owned. Visit unionplus.org/mortgage.

This is Chris Garlock, with the latest labor news, updates and history from the Metro Washington Labor Council.

​DCNA nurses met with Nigerian health care workers recently to share their similar experiences at work. Common labor issues in nursing included nurse-patient ratios, lack of deference from management and activist campaigns. They also discussed some of the differences in the health care systems in the United States and Nigeria including private vs. public sector, the nurse’s role vs. other health care workers, and workers’ rights laws.

On today’s labor calendar, tune in at 9 this morning when I’ll be hosting Arise. Our guests will include novelist Wiley Cash on his New York Times bestseller, set during the Loray Mill Strike, and historian Paul Shackel, whose article on “How a 1897 Massacre of Pennsylvania Coal Miners Morphed From a Galvanizing Crisis to Forgotten History” was just published on Smithsonian.com. That’s 9 to 10am right here on WPFW.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1998, the bitter six-and-a-half-year UAW strike at Caterpillar ended. The strike and settlement, which included a two-tier wage system and other concessions, deeply divided the union.

Today’s labor quote is by Mark Twain, a lifelong member of the International Typographical Union, which is now part of the Communications Workers of America. On this date in 1886, Twain praised the Knights of Labor as a new aristocracy in the paper entitled “The New Dynasty,” in which he said:
“We need not fear this king. 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 Union Plus. The Union Plus Mortgage Program is union-owned and provides exclusive benefits for first time home buyers, union members and retirees. Visit unionplus.org/mortgage.

This is Chris Garlock, with the latest labor news, updates and history from the Metro Washington Labor Council.
DCNA nurses met with Nigerian health care workers recently to share their similar experiences at work. Common labor issues in nursing included nurse-patient ratios, lack of deference from management and activist campaigns. They also discussed some of the differences in the health care systems in the United States and Nigeria including private vs. public sector, the nurse’s role vs. other health care workers, and workers’ rights laws.

On today’s labor calendar, tune in at 9 this morning when I’ll be hosting Arise. Our guests will include novelist Wiley Cash on his New York Times bestseller, set during the Loray Mill Strike, and historian Paul Shackel, whose article on “How a 1897 Massacre of Pennsylvania Coal Miners Morphed From a Galvanizing Crisis to Forgotten History” was just published on Smithsonian.com. That’s 9 to 10am right here on WPFW.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1998, the bitter six-and-a-half-year UAW strike at Caterpillar ended. The strike and settlement, which included a two-tier wage system and other concessions, deeply divided the union.

Today’s labor quote is by Mark Twain, a lifelong member of the International Typographical Union, which is now part of the Communications Workers of America. On this date in 1886, Twain praised the Knights of Labor as a new aristocracy in the paper entitled “The New Dynasty,” in which he said:
“We need not fear this king. 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 Union Plus. The Union Plus Mortgage Program is union-owned and provides exclusive benefits for first time home buyers, union members and retirees. Visit unionplus.org/mortgage.

Hosted by Chris Garlock on WPFW 89.3FM

Guests: 
Novelist Wiley Cash on “The Last Ballad” and the Loray Mill Strike 
Working History’s Beth English interviews award-winning New York Times bestselling author Wiley Cash. His novel, The Last Ballad, explores the complexities of southern class, race, and gender relations against the backdrop of the 1929 Loray Mill strike, one of the most notable strikes in U.S. labor history. The Working History podcast is put out by the Southern Labor Studies Association.

Anthropologist Paul Shackel on How a 1897 Massacre of Pennsylvania Coal Miners Morphed From a Galvanizing Crisis to Forgotten History (smithsonian.com). 

Produced by Chris Garlock, engineered by “Magic” Mike Nasella

This is Chris Garlock, with the latest labor news, updates and history from the Metro Washington Labor Council.

(audio) "Anytime we've made real social progress as a country it is getting people...lower income...working class...whether they be white, black, Hispanic, Asian, various mixed ethnicities...to realize that they come together...that's how you make real social and economic progress. And the other side also knows this and they are pretty shrewd at figuring out ways to try to divide people along ethnic lines or other lines because if people focus on their common economic interests...that's when we make real progress.”
That’s Congressman Brendan Boyle on the latest episode of the AFL-CIO’s “State of the Unions” podcast. Brendan comes from a union family and now co-chairs the House Blue Collar Caucus, formed in the aftermath of the 2016 election to better connect with blue collar workers.
(audio) “It's not just an economic issue as well because when you do have losses in those areas, especially if that happens with an older workforce that doesn't see a future, you end up then having an increase in alcoholism...an increase in substance abuse...an increase in suicides. The stories I know just from folks laid off at the time that my dad was, a number of his personal friends who ended up unfortunately turning to the bottle or other ways to ease their pain. In a couple of instances suicide...we can't just look at those issues in a silo and not recognize the economic component and that connection.”
Catch “State of the Unions” wherever you listen to podcasts.

On today’s labor calendar, tune in at one o’clock this afternoon for this week’s “Your Rights At Work” where we’ll check in on the latest labor news and take your calls about workplace rights; that’s one o’clock today, here on WPFW 89.3FM.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1857, women’s rights advocate and labor activist Alice Henry was born in Melbourne, Australia. Henry came to the United States in 1905 and worked for twenty years for the National Women’s Trade Union League of America in Chicago, directing the education department and editing the League’s official journal.

Today’s labor quote is from the preface to Alice Henry's book, The Trade Union Woman, published in 1915:
“There is a mightier force at work…That is the spirit of independence expressed in many different forms, markedly in the new desire and therefore in the new capacity for collective action which women are discovering in themselves to a degree never known before.”  

Union City Radio is supported by Union Plus. The Union Plus Mortgage Program is union-owned and provides exclusive benefits for first time home buyers, union members and retirees. Visit unionplus.org/mortgage.