Welcome to Union City Radio for Wednesday, August 5. This is Chris Garlock, for the Metro Washington Council.
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, police used clubs to rout 1,500 jobless men who had stormed the plant of the Fruit Growers Express Company in Indiana Harbor, Indiana, demanding jobs. In 1933, during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the National Labor Board to enforce the right to collective bargaining. Ultimately declared illegal by the Supreme Court, it was replaced two years later by the National Labor Relations Board. On this date in 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act took effect. The first law signed by President Clinton, it allows many workers time off each year due to serious health conditions or to care for a family member. Today’s labor quote is by Franklin D. Roosevelt: “It is now beyond partisan controversy that it is a fundamental individual right of a worker to associate himself with other workers and to bargain collectively with his employer.”
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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: The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers was formed on this date in 1876. It partnered with the CIO’s Steel Workers Organizing Committee in 1935; both organizations disbanded in 1942 to form the United Steelworkers. In 1919, 15,000 silk workers struck in Paterson, New Jersey for the 44 hour week. And in 1997, 185,000 Teamsters began a successful 15-day strike at United Parcel Service over excessive use of part-timers. Today’s labor quote is by Frederick Douglass: “Men are whipped oftenest who are whipped easiest.” 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: Uriah Smith Stephens was born in Cape May, New Jersey on this date in 1821. A tailor by trade, in 1869 he led nine Philadelphia garment workers to found the Knights of Labor. In 1981, 15,000 air traffic controllers struck. President Reagan threatened to fire any who do not return to work within 48 hours, saying they "have forfeited their jobs" if they do not. Most stayed out, and were fired August 5. In 1986, Florence Reece died in Knoxville, Tennesee at 86. She was a Mine Workers union activist and author of "Which Side Are You On?", written after her home was ransacked by Harlan County county sheriff J.H. Blair and his thugs during a 1931 strike. Today’s labor quote is by Florence Reese, from the beginning of her song “Which Side Are You On?: “Come all of you good workers, Good news to you I'll tell Of how the good old union Has come in here to dwell. Which side are you on, Tell me, which side are you on?” |
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