Today’s the deadline for Americans to file their tax returns but this year it’s also the day when millions of workers will take to the streets across the country to demand higher wages and an end to anti-worker trade deals. At least four actions are planned locally today, from the Stop The Other NRA Breakfast Action at 7:30a on Freedom Plaza to the Stop Fast Track rally at 11a on Capitol Hill, followed by two Fight for $15 events, one at 5p in Richmond and the other at 6p at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in DC. Complete details are at dclabor.org; click on calendar.
In today’s labor history, eight members of the Musicians union died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. According to survivors, they played their instruments until nearly the end. Five weeks later a concert was organized by the union to benefit the musicians' families. The evening ended with a rendering of "Nearer, My God, to Thee," the hymn being played as the ship went down. And on this date in 1955, the first McDonald’s restaurant opened, in Des Plaines, Illinois, setting the stage years later for sociologist Amitai Etzioni to coin the term "McJob." Today’s labor quote is by the Oxford English Dictionary, which defines a McJob as "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector."
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What happens when your red-state ideals are challenged by your blue collar world? That’s the subject of "Mercy Killers," a one-man show on stage tonight at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, that navigates the trials of an average American family faced with coping with a serious illness. It’s been called “a wonderfully executed piece of political theatre,” and one that takes an unblinking look at modern health care in America. Broadway veteran actor Michael Milligan brings his one-man show to the Shakespeare for just one show tonight; go to shakespearetheatre.org for tickets.
Today’s labor calendar also includes the latest in the Second Tuesdays at PERB series, this month focusing on Conducting Elections. The session starts at 10 am. And tonight at 5:30, the American Association of University Women will mark Equal Pay Day with an “Un-Happy Hour”; Equal Pay Day is when women’s pay finally “catches up” to men’s from the previous year. Go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. In today’s labor history, more than 100 Mexican and Filipino farm workers were arrested for union activities in 1930 in California’s Imperial Valley. And in 1939, John Steinbeck’s iconic novel “The Grapes of Wrath” was published. By the way, we’ll be showing John Ford’s now-classic film version of The Grapes of Wrath – starring Henry Fonda -- in next month’s DC Labor FilmFest. Today’s labor quote is by John Steinbeck, from The Grapes of Wrath: “and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.” John Steinbeck, who also wrote: “There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do.” Supporters of the Robin Hood Tax held a vigil outside Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen's office last Wednesday. The Robin Hood tax would establish a small tax on certain Wall Street transactions to raise hundreds of billions of dollars annually to reinvest in American families and communities, and curb casino-style high frequency trading. The local vigil was one of dozens at congressional offices across the country timed to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King’s commitment to economic equality. Read more at dclabor.org
On today’s labor calendar, a rally against Maryland Governor Larry Hogan's budget starts at 5pm at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis. As always, you can go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. In this week's Labor Quiz, the question is what the federal minimum wage—now $7.25 per hour— would actually be today if it had been increasing at the same rate worker productivity has been increasing since the late 1960s? Would it be $9.80; $12.77; $15.23 or $16.54 an hour? Go to unionist.com and click on Labor Quiz to submit your answer and you could be this week’s winner! Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1903, the International Hod Carriers and Building Laborers’ Union – which is now the Laborers’ International Union -- was founded in Washington, D.C. In 1919, labor leader and Socialist Party founder Eugene Debs was imprisoned for opposing American entry into World War I. While in jail he ran for president and received 1 million votes. And on this date in 1930, 17-year-old Jimmy Hoffa led his co-workers at a Kroger warehouse in Clinton, Indiana, in a successful job action. By refusing to unload a shipment of perishable strawberries, they forced the company to give in to their demands. Among other things: the “strawberry boys” had to report to work at 4:30 a.m. and stay on the job for 12 hours. They were paid just 32 cents an hour, and that only if growers arrived with berries to unload. Plus, they were required to spend three-fourths of any earnings buying goods from Kroger. Today's labor quote is by Gene Debs, who said: “Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” To quit or to commute? That’s the question that’s been weighing heavy on the minds of the workers and Local 400 members in the Portsmouth, Virginia Kroger store as they’re being forced to either relocate to the nearest union Kroger store, which is 50 miles away round trip, or quit. "All of us who work in the High Street store are members of the Portsmouth community,” wrote Shop Steward Laverne Wrenn in an op-ed for her local newspaper, The Virginia Pilot. "We live here and send our children to the neighborhood schools. Many of my co-workers walk or take the bus to work; they do not own a car. We have built our lives around this store and this community. But now Kroger is giving us just one month's notice to transfer to a store 25 miles away or lose our jobs." Read more at dclabor.org
On today’s labor calendar, I’ll be guest-hosting the Arise! show from 9-10am this morning right here on WPFW, focusing on "Art and Activism" with guests Elise Bryant, Ron Carver, poet Mark Nowak and more. And tonight you can catch a free screening of the new Ken Loach film, “The Spirit of '45”; starting at 7pm at American University with a reception beforehand at 6:30; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1880, Frances Perkins was born. Perkins was named secretary of labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, becoming the first woman to hold a cabinet-level office. In 1930, Dolores Huerta was born. Huerta was a co-founder, with Cesar Chavez, of the United Farm Workers . In 1997, dancers from the Lusty Lady Club in San Francisco’s North Beach ratified their first-ever union contract by a vote of 57-15, having won representation by SEIU Local 790 the previous summer. The club, which later became a worker-owned cooperative, closed in 2013. And on this date in 2006, tens of thousands of immigrants demonstrated in 100 U.S. cities in a national day of action billed as a campaign for immigrants’ dignity. Some 200,000 gathered in Washington, D.C. Today's labor quote is by Dolores Huerta: “Professional farmworkers who know how to do a number of different jobs, whether it be pruning or picking or crafting, they see themselves as professionals, and they take a lot of pride in that work. They don't see themselves as doing work that is demeaning.” Dolores Huerta, who said: “I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.” |
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