Legislation granting Fast Track trade authority to President Obama was introduced in the U.S. Senate late last week. It’s being strongly opposed by organized labor and our allies. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka called on Congress to reject Fast Track, saying that such deals “have wide-ranging impacts and shouldn’t be negotiated behind closed doors and then rubber-stamped.” The current Trans-Pacific Partnership deal now under discussion would cover 40 percent of the world’s GDP. Trumka said that “A deal this big should be debated in a full and open manner like every other piece of legislation.” Fast Track would make it easier to ram through complicated trade deals without significant oversight from members of Congress or the public, just a simple "Yes" or "No" vote with no amendments allowed.
Call your senators—855-790-8815—and tell them to say no to Fast Track. Go to dclabor.org for more details. On today’s labor calendar, there’s a march and rally against Fast Track today that starts at 11:30a at the AFL-CIO at 16th and I and rallies up at noon at the Office of the United States Trade Representative a few blocks away. Then at 6:30 tonight catch up all the latest local labor news at the Metro Washington Council Delegate Meeting at the AFL-CIO. Go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. In today’s Labor Quiz, thousands of workers are killed on the job in America every year and hundreds of thousands more are injured or made sick. Since OSHA was approved by Congress in 1970, how many criminal convictions has the agency secured against employers found guilty of failing to obey its health and safety rules? Is it zero, 12, 120, 1,200 or 12,000? Go to unionist.com and click on Labor Quiz and you could be next week's winner! Here's today's labor history: in 1912, nearly 10,000 demonstrators celebrated textile workers’ win of a 10-percent pay hike and grievance committees after a one-month strike in Lowell, Massachusetts. On this date in 1914, the Ludlow Massacre took place when the Colorado state militia, using machine guns and fire, killed about 20 people—including 11 children—at a tent city set up by striking coal miners. And in 1980, United Auto Workers members ended a successful 172-day strike against International Harvester, protesting management demands for new work rules and mandatory overtime provisions. Today's labor quote is by Woody Guthrie, from his song “Ludlow Massacre” It was early springtime when the strike was on/They drove us miners out of doors, Out from the houses that the Company owned/We moved into tents up at old Ludlow. You struck a match and in the blaze that started/You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns, I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me/Thirteen children died from your guns. I never will forget the look on the faces/Of the men and women that awful day, When we stood around to preach their funerals/And lay the corpses of the dead away. Click here to hear Woody sing this song.
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With last Thursday’s introduction of Fast Track authority in the US Senate, the battle against the unfair trade deal has taken on a new urgency and much of the struggle’s focus will be in the metro area, on Capitol Hill as well as on local members of Congress who are still undecided on the issue. Among the DC-area Fast Track actions, NOVA Labor will be running phonebanks all week in Annandale and there’s a Fast Track Town Hall in Bethesda on Friday; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details, which we’ll update as more info comes in.
Also on today’s labor calendar, check out the Capital Bikeshare Town Hall Meeting tonight at 6pm at the DC Public Library on 7th St NW. In today’s labor history, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed the Taylor Law on this date in 1967, permitting union organization and bargaining by public employees, but outlawing the right to strike. And in 1997, some 12,500 Goodyear Tire workers struck nine plants in what was to become a three-week walkout over job security, wage and benefit issues. Today’s labor quote is by essayist and novelist Pico Iyer: “’Globalization' has become the great tag phrase, but when we talk about it, it's nearly always in terms of the global marketplace or communications technology - either data or goods that are whizzing around. We forget that people are whizzing around more and more. On them, it takes a toll.” Working families and their allies rallied outside Congress on Wednesday in opposition to Fast Track trade authority. The legislation, which was expected to be introduced in Congress this week, would make it easier to ram through complicated trade deals without significant oversight from members of Congress or the public. The Capitol Hill rally was part of a larger week of action led by the AFL-CIO that will culminate in events across the country this weekend.
Also on Wednesday, tens of thousands of Walmart workers, fast-food, retail and other low-wage workers engaged in a massive nationwide strike in their fight for $15 dollars an hour, consistent full-time hours and the right to join a union. Since the Black Friday Walmart strikes and the fast-food workers strikes began more than two years ago, the movement has gained support around the globe and now includes retail workers, home care providers, airport workers and adjunct professors. Read more at dclabor.org On today’s labor calendar, Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, will discuss her new book, The Age of Dignity, at the AFL-CIO at 12:30pm and at 1pm there’s a rally in Waldorf, to tell Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer to oppose Fast Track; his colleague Chris Van Hollen came out against the bill earlier this week. Go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. Here's today's labor history: In 2013, an explosion at a West Texas fertilizer plant killed 15 people and injured nearly 300 when 30 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate—stored in sheds without sprinkler systems—caught fire. Of those killed, ten were emergency responders. Today's labor quote is by Ai-jen Poo: “ One thing I’ve learned: in the face of all kinds of indignities, domestic workers take so much pride in their work and love the children they care for.” Ai-jen Poo, who said, “Domestic workers are at the whim of their employers” From local organizing to international solidarity, UFCW Local 400 has been on the move. Recent member sign-up training seminars for Kroger shop stewards in Roanoke and Richmond resulted in dozens of new members for the union, which represents over 40,000 workers in the greater metro Washington area and recently opened a new Richmond office. UFCW Local 400 also recently stood in solidarity with Dunnes workers, who are striking against the retail store based in Ireland. Local 400’s members include many in retail jobs. Find out more at ufcw400.org
On today’s labor calendar, the Prince George’s and Montgomery County COPE meet at 10am in Largo, Maryland and former AFL-CIO president John Sweeney will become the eighth American labor leader honored with a plaque in the historic Presidents Room at AFL-CIO headquarters tonight at 5pm. Complete details are at dclabor.org; click on calendar. In today’s labor history, employers locked out 25,000 New York City garment workers in 1916. The International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union called a general strike and after 14 weeks, 60,000 strikers won union recognition and the right to strike. And on this date in 2000, an estimated 20,000 global justice activists blockaded meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund here in Washington, D.C. Today’s quote is by Nelson Mandela, who said: “Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom." |
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