Verizon workers continue to mobilize for a new contract, more than a week after the old agreements covering nearly 40,000 CWA and IBEW members expired. "A new contract will not be won at the bargaining table," says CWA, urging its members to "Stay strong and keep mobilizing!" CWA 2108 members marked their first Militant Monday yesterday by wearing camouflage and waving red bandanas at worksites across DC; you can check out several videos on our website at dclabor.org.
On today’s Labor Calendar, the film “Cotton Road” screens tonight as part of the Bread & Roses series at the Takoma Park Busboys & Poets. Americans consume nearly 20 billion new items of clothing annually, yet few of us know how our clothes are made, much less who produces them. From South Carolina farms to Chinese factories, “Cotton Road” explores the grim realities of the global supply chain. The free screening starts at 6p; for up-to-date listings for local labor activities, go to dclabor.org and click on calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1884, Federal troops drove some 1,200 jobless workers from Washington D.C. Led by unemployed activist Charles "Hobo" Kelley, the group included young journalist Jack London and William “Big Bill” Haywood, a young miner-cowboy who helped found the IWW. In 2013, Maine lobster fishers formed a local of the Machinists union as they faced a 40-year low price for their catches, along with other issues. By October, some 600 had joined. Today’s labor quote is by Jack London, from his novel, Martin Eden: “As for me, you wonder why I am a socialist. I'll tell you. It is because socialism is inevitable; because the present rotten and irrational system cannot endure; because the day is past for your man on horseback. The slaves won't stand for it. They are too many, and willy-nilly they'll drag down the would-be equestrian before he gets astride. You can't get away from them, and you'll have to swallow the whole slave-morality. It's not a nice mess, I'll allow. But it's been a-brewing and swallow it you must.”
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For today’s local labor news and updates, go to dclabor.org; for up-to-date listings for labor activities, click on calendar.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1931, the Air Line Pilots Association was founded at a meeting in Chicago attended by 24 activists from across the country. In 1935, hundreds of Transport Workers Union members descended on a New York City courthouse, offering their own money to bail out their president, Mike Quill, and four other union leaders arrested while making their way through Grand Central Station to union headquarters after picketing the IRT offices in lower Manhattan. In 1939, President Roosevelt signed amendments to the 1935 Social Security Act, broadening the program to include dependents and survivors' benefits. In 1954, construction on the St. Lawrence Seaway began. Ultimately 22,000 workers spent five years building the 2,342 mile route from the Atlantic to the northernmost part of the Great Lakes. And in 2010, President Barack Obama signed a $26 billion bill designed to protect 300,000 teachers, police and others from layoffs spurred by budgetary crises in states hard-hit by the Great Recession. Today’s labor quote is by Mike Quill, when reporters asked him about a judge’s orders to stop a 1966 strike of bus and subway workers: “The judge can drop dead in his black robes, and we would not call off the strike. Personally, I don’t care if I rot in jail!” For today’s local labor news and updates, go to dclabor.org; for up-to-date listings for labor activities, click on calendar.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1890, Wobblie organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born. In 1894, Eugene Debs and three other trade unionists were arrested after the Pullman Strike. In 1919, Actors Equity was recognized by producers after stagehands honored their picket lines, shutting down almost every professional stage production in the country. Before unionizing, it was common practice for actors to pay for their own costumes, rehearse long hours without pay, and be fired without notice. In 1983, some 675,000 employees struck ATT over wages, job security, pension plan changes and better health insurance. It was the last time CWA negotiated at one table for all its Bell System members: divestiture came a few months later. The strike was won after 22 days. And in 1988, television writers, members of The Writers Guild of America, ended a 22-week strike with a compromise settlement. Today’s labor quote is by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: “What is a labour victory? I maintain that it is a twofold thing. Workers must gain economic advantage, but they must also gain revolutionary spirit, in order to achieve a complete victory. For workers to gain a few cents more a day, a few minutes less a day, and go back to work with the same psychology, the same attitude toward society is to achieve a temporary gain and not a lasting victory.” For today’s local labor news and updates, go to dclabor.org; for up-to-date listings for labor activities, click on calendar.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 2000, workers at Verizon, the nation’s largest local telephone company, launched an 18-day strike over working conditions and union representation. Today’s labor quote is by Louis Oswald: “I cleaned toilets inside and out, emptied wastebaskets and scrubbed the restroom floors, urinals and sinks. I never felt burdened with any sense of stigma. It’s a necessary job and when you do it well, you feel good about it.” Former janitor Louis Oswald wound up owning his own cleaning service. |
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