Over the past six years, Washington has been a hotbed for organizing wins by local transit workers. More than 1,500 transit workers have joined the Amalgamated Transit Union in DC, Maryland and Virginia since 2013.
ATU says the workers have organized because they saw that the union has been effective at winning strong contracts with high wages, pensions, healthcare and other benefits. And just as important, workers rejected several attempts to break their union, thanks to solidarity painstakingly built up over time. On today’s labor calendar, locked out Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians will be back out on the picket line today from 8am to 9:30am; for details and all the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1905, the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World – also known as the I.W.W., or Wobblies -- concluded in Chicago. Charles O. Sherman, a former American Federation of Labor organizer, was elected president. Today’s labor quote is by labor organizer Ella Reeve "Mother" Bloor, born on this date in 1862 in Staten Island, NY. Her activities included investigating child labor in glass factories and mines, and working undercover in meat packing plants to verify the nightmarish working conditions that author Upton Sinclair had revealed in "The Jungle." Ella Reeve Bloor, who said: “It is not enough to say that something good, something beautiful is being born. We must help it become a reality - not a dream.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re planning to go to the movies this summer, you can save up to 37% off tickets with Union Plus Movie Discounts at national chains. Visit unionplus.org/movies.
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(audio) “Unions are actually more popular with the public than they have been in years because people are finally connecting the dots that coming together is more powerful, especially when you’re in a union and you have the protection of a union…”
That’s AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler on the latest edition of State of the Unions, the AFL-CIO’s podcast, talking about this moment for collective action: (audio) “I think most people see...that this rugged individualism that has been the storied narrative of America forever is broken and that the economy isn't working for most working people, so coming together in a union is the right remedy.” Catch “State of the Unions” wherever you listen to podcasts. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1934, the Battle of Rincon Hill took place during the West Coast Longshoremen's Strike in San Francisco. Some 5,000 strikers fought 1,000 police, scabs and national guardsmen. Two strikers were killed, and 109 people injured. The incident, known as "Bloody Thursday," led to a general strike. Today’s labor quote is by New York Senator Robert Wagner, who sponsored the National Labor Relations Act, signed into law on this date in 1935 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Robert Wagner, who said that "The national labor relations bill which I now propose is novel neither in philosophy nor in content. It creates no new substantive rights. It merely provides that employees, if they desire to do so, shall be free to organize for their mutual protection or benefit." Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re thinking about hitting a theme park with your family this summer, visit unionplus.org/entertainment to get savings at America’s favorite theme parks. Source: Senator Robert F. Wagner, Speech on the National Labor Relations Act (February 21, 1935). Congressional Record, 74th Cong., 1st sess., Vol. 79, 2371-72. This is Chris Garlock, with labor’s contribution to “The House I Live In” WPFW’s daylong “Sonic Contemplation on the Meaning of America.” (audio; Bev Grant “Bones in the Desert”) That’s singer Bev Grant with “Bones in the Desert,” a brand-new song about our southern border, and today I’m thinking about Oscar Alberto Martinez and his daughter, Angie Valeria. Oscar was 25 and Angie Valeria was just 23 months old when they drowned trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, swept away by the high waters of the Rio Grande. I cannot – and must not -- forget the heart-breaking image of the young father and his daughter, lying face down along the riverbank, the tiny girl tucked inside his black shirt and her arm draped over his neck. Oscar and Angie Valeria were from El Salvador, where the president, Nayib Bukele, took responsibility and connected the dots explaining why so many are risking so much – including their lives – to reach our country. Our land of opportunity, our land of freedom. Our land of borders and children in cages. “We haven’t been able to provide anything, not a decent job, not a decent school,” Bukele said. “What if there’s a little girl who had a decent school here, a decent healthcare system for her and her family, a decent house with water supply, a job for his parents, for his mother and his dad, a decent job.” Or as Bev Grant put it, “Climate change and political intervention on the part of the US government over many years has created the crises driving people to our borders.” Like it or not, this world is the house we all live in. As Benjamin Franklin one of the Founding Fathers of our nation – put it so eloquently, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” (audio; Bev Grant “Bones in the Desert”) Frustrated with poor wages, low hours, unfair treatment and weak benefits, Challenger paratransit bus drivers in Gaithersburg have unanimously voted to authorize a strike if they fail to reach a fair and just contract.
Represented by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1777 since last September when they voted in the union by an overwhelming margin, the paratransit bus operators have been in contract talks for almost a year. Challenger bus workers, who only drive 30 hours per week, are the lowest-paid paratransit bus operators in the region. “This strike vote sends a loud and clear message to Challenger that these drivers demand to be paid fairly and treated with the respect and dignity they deserve,” said ATU International Vice President Natalie Cruz. “This is a ‘Fight for 40’ - forty hours a week. We will settle for nothing less.” In today’s labor history, on this date in 1835, children working in the silk mills in Paterson, New Jersey went out on strike for an 11-hour day and 6-day week. A compromise settlement resulted in a 69-hour work week. Today’s labor quote is by feminist and labor activist Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born in Hartford, Connecticut on this date in 1860. Her landmark study, "Women and Economics,” was radical: it called for the financial independence of women and urged a network of child care centers. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who said: “The first duty of a human being is to assume the right functional relationship to society - more briefly, to find your real job, and do it.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re thinking about hitting a theme park with your family this summer, visit unionplus.org/entertainment to get savings at America’s favorite theme parks. |
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