After their first look at the actual text of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership “free trade” agreement – known as the TPP -- union leaders last week gave the 12-nation treaty an initial thumbs down as being too pro-corporate and not guaranteeing workers’ rights.
The U.S. and the other TPP nations – including several with notoriously bad labor and human rights records, such as Vietnam and Brunei – formally released the text on November 5, triggering a mandated congressional review that will stretch into next year. The review gives workers time – but not much – to mobilize against the TPP. Then, lawmakers will be forced to vote not on the TPP itself, but on legislation to implement it. And fast-track trade authority bars lawmakers from either changing the TPP’s terms or revising implementing legislation President Obama will send to Capitol Hill. “The threats of this expansive new agreement outweigh its benefits -- for good jobs, for democracy, for affordable medicines, for consumer safety, and for the environment,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “The hardworking families of the AFL-CIO will join with our allies to defeat the TPP.” On today's Labor Calendar, the AFL-CIO will host its Toys for Tots Kickoff and Veteran's Day Observance this morning at 10am at its 16th Street headquarters. And tonight at 6pm, sing-along with the DC Labor Chorus at the Takoma park Busboys & Poets at this month’s Bread and Roses. Go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1933, a sit-down strike began at the Austin, Minnesota Hormel plant with the help of a Wobbly organizer, leading to the creation of the Independent Union of All Workers. Labor historians believe this may have been the first sit-down strike of the 1930s. Workers held the plant for three days, demanding a wage increase. Some 400 men crashed through the plant entrance and chased out nonunion workers. One group rushed through the doors of a conference room where Jay Hormel and five company executives were meeting and declared: “We’re taking possession. So move out.” Within four days the company agreed to binding arbitration. Today’s labor quote is by writer Upton Sinclair: “For 75 years big business had been sitting down on the American people.” Sinclair was a novelist, playwright, muckraker, socialist and winner of the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
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DC nurse BJ Richardson-Robin joined other registered nurses last week at a demonstration at the White House against fracking. "As nurses, we know that fracking is an extreme and unsafe method of extracting fossil fuels that pollutes our drinking water, and negatively impacts our environment and climate,” said Richardson-Robin, a member of National Nurses United. “We experience it in our communities, and most importantly, witness the impacts on the health of our patients. Nurses urged President Obama to take a strong stand against climate change and fracking at an upcoming conference in Paris.
For this week’s line-up of area labor events, go to dclabor.org and click on calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1935, the Committee for Industrial Organization, or CIO, was founded by eight unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The eight wanted more focus on organizing mass production industry workers. The CIO merged with the American Federation of Labor in 1955 to become the AFL-CIO. And in 1952, Philip Murray, first president of the United Steelworkers Organizing Committee, first president of the United Steelworkers of America, and president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations for 12 years following the death of John L. Lewis, died at age 66. Today’s labor quote is by Houcine Abassi, Secretary-General of the Tunisian General Labor Union, which recently won the Nobel Peace Prize: “The Nobel Prize is not given just to us, but to all the labor movements in the world.”
Local musician and longtime labor organizer Joe Uehlein performs live in-studio and chats about his upcoming Joe Hill show (11/19 at the Takoma Park Busboys & Poets) and the connection between music and organizing with Union City Radio’s Chris Garlock.
Click above to listen to the show and below to see Joe open the show with "Three Chords and the Truth" (first video) and perform "You Can't Giddy-Up By Saying Whoa" (second video). Teamsters locals 730 and 639 have agreed to suspend their protests over the threatened closure of the Safeway Distribution Center in Upper Marlboro. Maryland State Senator Anthony Muse on Wednesday asked representatives of Safeway and Collington Services -- which operates the center -- along with the Teamsters, to participate in discussions aimed at saving jobs at the center. The companies have until November 10 to respond to Muse’s request and the Teamsters agreed to suspend protests until then “as a sign of good faith,” reports Local 730 president Ritchie Brooks. However, if the companies “do not provide an adequate response,” Brooks said, “protest activities will resume and expand.”
On today's Labor Calendar, local musician and longtime labor organizer Joe Uehlein performs live in-studio and chats about his upcoming Joe Hill show with me tonight at 5pm on WPFW's "Live@5" Labor Edition. And at 8pm tonight, catch a performance of “Waiting for Lefty,” one of the most celebrated and significant plays of the modern American theatre. The Clifford Odets play deals with the cynical exploitation of the working classes and is on stage at the Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center; there are also performances tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon. Go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1887, French transport worker and socialist Eugene Pottier died in Paris at age 71. In 1871, Pottier wrote “L’Internationale,” the anthem to international labor solidarity. Today’s labor quote is from singer Billy Bragg’s adaptation of Pottier’s lyrics: Stand up all victims of oppression For the tyrants fear your might Don't cling so hard to your possessions For you have nothing if you have no rights Let racist ignorance be ended For respect makes the empires fall Freedom is merely privilege extended Unless enjoyed by one and all |
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