Dozens of MetroAccess workers based out of Gaithersburg, Maryland, picketed WMATA subcontractor Challenger Transportation earlier this week.
The workers voted unanimously to join the Amalgamated Transit Union last year and have been trying to negotiate a fair first contract ever since.
In June, the MetroAccess workers – members of ATU Local 1777 -- voted to authorize a strike and Tuesday’s practice picket was one of several steps the union said it will take to ensure members are “strike ready” should Challenger Transportation continue to refuse to settle a fair deal.
On the Labor Day weekend calendar, there are all kinds of events, from the 4-day Greenbelt Labor Day Festival to the annual Gaithersburg Labor Day Parade and more; and don’t forget to tune in right here on WPFW from 8am to 12 noon on Monday for our annual “Workers Rising” Labor day special, co-hosted by me and Elise Bryant, with labor music, special guests and more;
for complete 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 1834, delegates from several East Coast cities met to form the National Trades' Union, uniting craft unions to oppose "the most unequal and unjustifiable distribution of the wealth of society in the hands of a few individuals." The union faded after a few years.   

Today’s labor quote is by President Franklin Roosevelt, whose Wealth Tax Act, increasing taxes on rich citizens and big business and lowering taxes for small businesses, passed on this date in 1935.
Franklin Roosevelt, who said:
“Taxes, after all, are the dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.”

Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Union members get exclusive savings on award-winning SimpliSafe with the new Union Plus Home Security Program. Protect what matters most. Visit unionplus.org/homesecurity. 

Broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Mark Gruenberg
 
Guests:
SHAWNA BADER-BLAU, Executive Director, Solidarity Center
Topic: Solidarity Center Report: Landmark Pact to End Gender Violence at Lesotho Garment Factories
More than 10,000 garment workers who make jeans and knitwear for US corporations will be covered in a landmark program that will address gender-based violence and harassment in factories in Lesotho, a country in southern Africa.  Lesotho-based unions and women’s rights groups, Levi Strauss, The Children's Place and Kontoor (Wrangler and Lee), and international worker rights organizations, including the Solidarity Center, negotiated with the factory owner, Nien Hsing Textiles, to mandate education and awareness trainings for all employees and managers, an independent reporting and monitoring system and remedies for abusive behavior.
Find out more at the Solidarity Center. 
See below for video of Shawna Bader-Blau describing the GBVH program

JASON WALSH, Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance
Topic: Latest campaigns at the Alliance and how the labor and environmental movements are working together to save both jobs and the environment.
 
Music: "We Belong to the Union!" - Australian Union Song
Union song written by Tim O'Brien describing solidarity within the labor unions of Australia.
In honor of Vanessa Seagrove, Assistant Secretary of Unions, New South Wales, Australia, who’s one of our special guests Monday here on WPFW on our “WORKERS RISING” LABOR DAY SPECIAL, Monday, September 2, 2019, 8a-12 noon EDT, WPFW 89.3 FM, hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant. 

Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella. Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus.

Broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM
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.
 
On today’s show: Labor lawyers Bob Samet from Ashcraft & Gerel and David Schloss from Koonz McKenney join us to launch the new “Case of the Week” feature, we preview the upcoming annual Labor Day show (Monday, Sept 2, 8a-12 noon), and get an update on the AFL-CIO’s Labor Day press conference. Plus listener calls.

Music: Warren Zevon: Lawyers, Guns and Money

Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella
Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus, FIND OUT MORE AT UNIONPLUS.ORG

For more than three decades, Roger Wendell “Buck” Hill walked DC’s streets delivering mail by day but at night he was “The Wailin’ Mailman,” a saxophonist who accompanied such greats as Miles Davis, Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie.
Hill, a longtime member of Letter Carriers Branch 142, was honored Tuesday at a noontime ceremony – kicked off, of course, with live jazz -- at the Reeves Municipal Center when a 70-foot-tall mural of him wearing his Letter Carrier uniform and playing his sax was unveiled on a building at 14th and U Streets NW as the city declared August 27 “Buck Hill Day.” 
Hill was so popular for his personality, his work and his sax playing that when he first tried to retire, the Postal Service wouldn’t let him do so.
Hill played his sax in Europe early in his career, but “wanted to stay in DC to care for his family and because he could always come home,” his daughter-in-law told Union City Radio.
Now, with the mural on the wall at 14th and U, Buck will never leave home, though his music, of course, belongs to the world. Here he is, playing Someone Like That In Your Life (audio)

On today’s labor calendar…
Locked-out Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians picket at 8:30 this morning…
and tune in at 1pm this afternoon for this week’s edition of Your Rights At Work. We’ll launch a brand-new feature and preview my Labor Day special, and take listener calls, as usual.
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 1996, dancers at San Francisco’s  Lusty Lady Club voted to unionize. Their first union contract guaranteed work shifts, protection against arbitrary discipline and termination, automatic hourly wage increases, sick days, a grievance procedure, and removal of one-way mirrors from peep show booths. The club closed on Labor Day 2013.

Today’s labor quote is by Ramona Falls, organizer for Minneapolis’ chapter of Sex Workers Outreach Project, after the Minneapolis City Council recently passed an ordinance that will improve working conditions for adult entertainers. Ramona Falls, who said:
“I think this is a welcome first step towards building a community in which sex workers can expect transparency and accountability in their workspaces and from their elected representatives.”

Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Union members get exclusive savings on award-winning SimpliSafe with the new Union Plus Home Security Program. Protect what matters most. Visit unionplus.org/homesecurity.