Senator Bernie Sanders joined with a broad array of labor, environmental, healthcare, consumer and other advocacy groups yesterday at a Capitol Hill rally. Originally planned to protest the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, the rally’s focus was broadened to promote a people’s agenda and a common commitment to stepping up grassroots mobilizations for economic and social justice and equality as the incoming Trump administration takes office. Under sunny skies, the activists celebrated the TPP’s apparent defeat, following months of protests by labor and progressive organizations that culminated in opposition to the trade deal by all three leading Presidential candidates. The successful movement to stop the TPP, said Jean Ross “indicates the power of a unified, community movement and grassroots activism that will have even greater urgency in the coming year.” Ross is a Registered Nurse and co-president of National Nurses United, which helped lead yesterday’s mobilization.
On our weekend labor calendar, there’s a Rally Against PhRMA Greed today at 4:30pm and on Sunday at noon there’s a rally to reinstate Julia Flores, an outspoken advocate for better working conditions for herself and her coworkers at Whole Foods for the last fifteen years. For full details and the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s this weekend’s labor history: On November 19, 1915, Joe Hill, labor leader and songwriter, was executed in Utah. On November 19, 1981, my union, the National Writers Union, was founded. November 20, 1816, was the first time the term “scab,” was used. The word, which refers to someone who crosses a picket line, was first used by the Albany Typographical Society. On November 20, 1884, American socialist leader Norman Thomas was born. And, on November 20, 1888, the time clock was invented by Willard Bundy, a jeweler in Auburn, New York. Bundy’s brother Harlow started mass producing them a year later and workers have been fighting them ever since. Today’s labor quote is by Norman Thomas American socialist leader Norman Thomas, who said “I am not a champion of lost causes, but the champion of causes not yet won.” Norman Thomas, who also said: “To us Americans much has been given; of us much is required. With all our faults and mistakes, it is our strength in support of the freedom our forefathers loved which has saved mankind from subjection to totalitarian power.”
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Hosts: Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
Also, if you miss our live show – or want to hear a past show – Your Rights At Work is now available as a podcast! Just search for Your Rights At Work on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts; subscribe and you’ll get our shows right on your phone! Guests: NNU national co-president Deborah Burger reports live from the TPP/Justice and Equality rally in Upper Senate Park. Metro Washington Council Executive Director Carlos Jimenez reports live from the DC City Council hearing on immigration rights. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, reports live from the TPP/Justice and Equality rally. Labor Song: Leonard Cohen medley The Union Makes Us Strong – Rare Songs, Live -England (1979) Everybody Knows Democracy FROM THE CAP FILES: THE CASE OF THE DEFENSIVE WORKER with attorney Lolita Martin. A major supermarket strike was averted at the last minute yesterday when negotiators for Giant and UFCW Local 400 reached a tentative agreement after a marathon bargaining session. The contract was being voted on yesterday afternoon and was expected to be approved after union members at Safeway approved their contract that morning. Local 400 said it had prevented takebacks, telling members "We were able to stand strong thanks to your support."
On today's local labor calendar, transit workers and their allies will speak out at an 11 am WMATA board meeting this morning against drastic cuts and layoffs they warn will harm the Metro system; at 1 pm there's a rally to celebrate the defeat of the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, in Upper Senate Park and also at 1 pm you can catch this week's edition of "Your Rights at Work" right here on WPFW. For full details and the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1916, to the huge relief of Post Office Department employees, the service set a limit of 200 pounds a day to be shipped by any one customer. Builders were finding it cheaper to send supplies via post than via wagon freight. In one instance, 80,000 bricks for a new bank were shipped parcel post. The new directive also barred the shipment of humans: a child involved in a couple’s custody fight was shipped—for 17¢— in a crate labeled “live baby.” In 1947, with many U.S. political leaders gripped by the fear of communism and questioning citizen loyalties in the years following World War II, the Screen Actors Guild voted to force its officers to take a quote unquote “non-communist” pledge. A few days earlier the Hollywood Ten had been called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Today’s labor quote is by Mother Jones, who said of Martin Irons, "The capitalist class hounded him as if he had been a wild beast." Martin Irons died on this date in 1900 near Waco, Texas. Born in Dundee, Scotland, he emigrated to the United States at the age of 14. He joined the Knights of Labor and in 1886 led a strike of 200,000 workers against robber baron Jay Gould's Union Pacific and Missouri railroads. The strike was crushed, Irons was blacklisted and he died broken-down and penniless. Transit workers and their allies are opposing drastic cuts and layoffs proposed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. They’ll be speaking out during the public comment portion of the November WMATA Board meeting, this Thursday at 11am. “The proposed cuts not only harm our membership,” says ATU Local 689, which is coordinating the effort, “but also the people that make use of the system throughout this region." The transit unions warn that the proposed cuts to the Metro system would limit access, harm the local economy and eliminate good-paying middle class jobs.
At tomorrow’s meeting, they’ll be pushing for adequate funding and including workers in Metro’s decision-making process and rejection of any fare hikes or service cuts. “We cannot cut our way to a better system,” said Local 689. On today's labor calendar, there’s a briefing on DC rent control and the implications for workers, starting at 10am at the AFL-CIO; details at dclabor.org, click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1927, a county judge in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, granted an injunction requested by the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Company forbidding strikers from speaking to strikebreakers, posting signs declaring a strike was in progress, or even singing hymns. In 1982, the National Football League Players Association ended a 57-day strike that shortened the season to nine games. The players wanted, but failed to win until many years later, a higher share of gross team revenues. Today’s labor quote is by A. Philip Randolph “Black and white workers did not fight each other because they hated each other, but they hated each other because they fought each other. They fought each other because they did not know each other. They did not know each other because they had no control or communication with each other because they were afraid of each other.” Asa Philip Randolph was a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the American labor movement, and socialist political parties. |
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