(audio) “This is enormous. This isn't just...New England that this is affecting right now. This is affecting every worker, every blue collar worker in America right now at this very moment. And it's awesome to be a part of something that big…” That’s Kristen Johnson, a deli manager and UFCW Local 1445 shop steward at the Stop & Shop in Somerville, Massachusetts, talking about why she --- and 31,000 of her fellow workers --are on strike, on the latest State of the Unions podcast from the AFL-CIO. (audio) “We've been bargaining since January, and the fact that their shareholders met and decided they needed an 11% raise because of all the hard work that those shareholders do for their customers and their communities, they needed that raise. And, let's take it from the little guy that's working in the stores...face-to-face with our customers in our community every day. And...the company preaches…’we care about our community’...Their actions prove the total opposite of what they're saying.” The Stop & Shop strike is now in its second week; you can hear more on the State of the Unions podcast, available on your favorite podcast platform. For the latest listings of labor events, go to dclabor.org, and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1911, more than 6,000 immigrant workers—Germans, Dutch, Lithuanians and Poles—put down their tools in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the nation’s “Furniture City,” and struck 59 factories for four months in what was to become known as the Great Furniture Strike. Today’s labor quote is by Kristen Johnson, the striking Stop & Shop deli manager, who said: “They're realizing they have a voice, and ‘I don't have to be afraid to show it and to let people know how I feel.’ That there are other people out there that will support you and that will have your back. They may not even know you or they may be on the other side of the country, but they're supporting you. And, they understand what you're fighting for.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re thinking about a spring road trip, don’t leave town without your Union Plus car rental savings! Union members save up to 25% on rental rates. Visit unionplus.org/carrental.
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Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith 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 Dr. Katie Wells and Katui Attoh, co-authors of "The Uber Workplace in DC: Who’s in the Driver’s Seat?" Georgetown study showing that ride-hail platform drivers in the metro DC region face financial debt, threats from customers, constantly changing rules that make calculating their earnings nearly impossible, and work hours that may make them a public safety hazard. Gabe Acevero, Maryland Assembly Delegate (39th District) & UFCW 1994/MCGEO organizer the Fight for $15 and other worker issues during the recently-concluded MD Assembly session; plus an update on the ongoing strike by 31,000 UFCW members in New England. Mark Gruenberg, editor, Press Associates Union News Service with the latest labor news, including National Nurses United gets specific in Medicare For All campaign. HOUR 2: 2-3P More from Gabe Acevero and Mark Gruenberg, plus lots of listener calls on Uber and Lyft and labor news: New survey says performance reviews are useless, RUTGERS faculty union cancels strike and PAIRIN Launches New Hiring Tool to Help Companies Hire Smarter Through Predictive Behavioral Science. Music: "Mr. Cab Driver"; Lenny Kravitz Produced by Chris Garlock and Peter Pocock; engineered by Michael Nasella. Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. The Letter Carriers’ 27th annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is coming up on Saturday, May 11. The latest “State of the Unions” podcast features Christina Vela Davidson, Assistant to the President for Community Services at the Letter Carriers…
(audio) Tim Schlittner: Christina you’ve mentioned your situation growing up and how this is personal to you. Can you talk a little bit about what it’s like to be in a house where you’re not sure if you’re going to have enough money for food to just talk about the human impact of this drive? Christina Vela Davidson: Yeah. I grew up with seven sisters and three brothers and some of them were old enough that they were already going out of the house you know because they were grown. And I had a single mom, so my mom raised us...(emotional)...sorry. Tim Schlittner: It’s okay. Christina Vela Davidson: But she did everything she could to get us there. So one or two times we had to go to the food bank. I remember we would go to West Texas to work the fields and I remember us going to get food from the food bank and my mom...she brought back chips and a lot of blueberry yogurt and cheese and some potatoes and stuff. So you make what you get and we would have flour...you know we’d make tortillas and stuff like that...but growing up with a big family and stretching the food that you have...it makes you humble to what I have now. And I instill that in my children and let them know...they know how I grew up and how hard I’ve worked to get to where I am...so it keeps me on the straight line. And being a veteran also...everything happens for a reason...but I’m stronger now than ever.” Hear more from Christina on the State of the Unions podcast, available on your favorite podcast platform. On today’s labor calendar, tune in here at WPFW at 1 o’clock this afternoon for this week’s edition of “Your Rights At Work;” our guests this week include Katie Wells on ”The Uber Workplace in DC: Who’s in the Driver’s Seat?” And of course, get all the latest local labor events at dclabor.org; click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1912, West Virginia coal miners struck and defended themselves against the National Guard. Today’s labor quote is by Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr. On this date in 1941, after a four-week boycott led by Rev. Powell, bus companies in New York City agreed to hire 200 Black drivers and mechanics. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who said: “A man's respect for law and order exists in precise relationship to the size of his paycheck.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re thinking about a spring road trip, don’t leave town without your Union Plus car rental savings! Union members save up to 25% on rental rates. Visit unionplus.org/carrental. The Amalgamated Transit Union and its D.C. Local 689 is blasting a reported plan hatched by right-wingers to rivatize Washington’s Metro system, including the buses and the subway. The Metro board has already turned over one garage, in suburban Virginia to privatizers. Privatizing would cut service to Metro’s hundreds of thousands of daily riders, the union said. The subway, despite recent declines, is among the three busiest in the U.S., and Metrobus carries hundreds of thousands more.
“If you sit in the windowless boardroom of” Metro headquarters, “you’d think ‘privatization’ is a silver bullet that will magically eliminate costs and restore ridership to its heyday,” said Local 689 president Raymond Jackson. “Nothing could be further from the truth.” The solutions are expanded and improved service, like in Seattle and Houston, he said. That means more investment in repairs and upgrades – and in union workers and their wages. “Transit experts know how to fix this,” he said. So does Jackson’s local, which made the same recommendations last year, and so does Metro staff, unlike its management, he added. Get the latest local labor events at dclabor.org; click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date 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. For today’s labor quote is by Dwight D. Eisenhower, who said: “Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re thinking about a spring road trip, don’t leave town without your Union Plus car rental savings! Union members save up to 25% on rental rates. Visit unionplus.org/carrental. |
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