Saqib Bhatti and and Stephen Lerner want to transform the work of labor unions. Instead of focusing on the limited gains offered by bargaining with individual employers, they say that “...unions need to start looking to the actors higher up the food chain, to the people who control the money in the public sector as well as the private sector ”.
Those people, of course, are the nation’s biggest investors. Bhatti is director of the ReFund America Project and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, and Lerner is a fellow at Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor and was an architect of the Justice for Janitors campaign. Bhatti and Lerner offer evidence and data to support their case, and provide examples of how a confident labor movement can change the economy in their article "Labor Must Take On Capital," which first appeared in Jacobin Online on August 9 and was republished by Portside. We have a link to it on our website at dclabor.org For the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1918, at the IWW War Trials in Chicago, 95 were sent to prison for up to 20 years. Many IWW members opposed US participation in World War I, arguing that war represents struggles among capitalists in which the rich become richer, and the working poor die at the hands of other workers. Today’s labor quote is from an IWW newspaper, the Industrial Worker, written just before the U.S. declaration of war in 1917: "Capitalists of America, we will fight against you, not for you! There is not a power in the world that can make the working class fight if they refuse."
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Chipotle Mexican Grill was ordered to pay $550,000 to a former employee of its Dupont Circle store after a jury ruled that she had been fired for being pregnant, according to a report in the Washington Post. Doris Garcia Hernandez, who worked at the Chipotle on M Street Northwest, says her supervisor began restricting access to drinking water and forbidding routine breaks after she informed him that she was pregnant in November 2011. She was fired a few months later, after leaving work early to go to a prenatal doctor’s appointment. “This is a victory for working women,” said Christine Tschiderer, an attorney for the Washington Lawyers’ Committee who helped represent Hernandez. “It sends a clear message to employers that pregnancy is not incompatible with the workplace.” Chipotle does not plan to appeal the court’s decision. We have a link to the complete Post report at dclabor.org
For the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1894, George Meany, founding president of the AFL-CIO, was born in the Bronx. Meany began his career in the labor movement as a plumber, rising to lead the New York State Federation of Labor, where he built a powerful political organization, passing one of the nation's first unemployment insurance laws and forging support for the reelection of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. Meany served as secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor from 1940 to 1952, succeeded as president of the AFL, and then continued as the first president of the AFL-CIO following the historic merger in 1955 until retiring in 1979. Meany modernized and expanded the national AFL-CIO, making the organization an influential voice in the nation's political and legislative arena. Meany, a staunch supporter of civil and equal rights his entire career, put the federation's muscle behind the civil rights movement, insisting that the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act call for an end to both workplace and community discrimination. Today’s labor quote is by George Meany "One cannot have a trade union or a democratic election without freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly. Without a democratic election, whereby people choose and remove their rulers, there is no method of securing human rights against the state. No democracy without human rights, no human rights without democracy, and no trade union rights without either." The best way to help the working families who lost their homes in last week’s apartment house blast in Silver Spring is to make a financial donation, says Community Services Agency Executive Director Kathleen McKirchy.
She says "It’s fast and it can be used locally to provide what people actually need." Toiletries, clothing and furniture are also needed; go to dclabor.org for full details on how to contribute. Thank you! Hundreds of new DC teachers joined the Washington Teachers Union last Thursday at the annual DCPS New Teacher Orientation. "There's a lot of interest by new teachers in the union," said Cheryl Miller, a longtime special ed teacher who's been involved in the union for many years. "They have a lot of questions about what we offer as a union, the benefits, teacher support, and the union contract. I always tell them the most important thing is that 'You are the union,' and urge them to get involved to make sure their voice is heard." For the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1248, workers laid the foundation stone of Germany’s Cologne Cathedral, beginning one of the world’s longest construction projects, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men. The job was declared completed in 1880—632 years later. In 2008, workers in the automotive department at a Walmart near Ottawa won an arbitrator-imposed contract after voting for UFCW representation, becoming the giant retailer's only location in North America with a collective bargaining agreement. Two months later the company closed the department. Three years earlier Walmart had closed an entire store on the same day the government announced an arbitrator would impose a contract agreement there. Today’s labor quote is by Will Rogers Will Rogers, who said “There is nothing fairer than workmen having unions of their mutual benefit.” The populist social commentator died in a plane crash on this date in 1935. Guests include:
David Stephens, ATU 689, on the latest issues around Metro, including the need for dedicated funding. Catherine Frazier, president of AFSCME Local 266 (based at Spring Grove Hospital Center), on AFSCME 3's recent press conference at which mental-health advocates said Maryland desperately needs more hospital staff. Jacqueline Lyons, General Vice President, WTU Local 6, on how Walmart gives a billion in supplies to charter schools but none to public schools, yet teachers -- who average $500 out of their own pockets annually for school supplies -- wind up shopping there because prices are low. Union is doing press conf at 10a on this issue. |
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