Despite last year’s Republican takeover of the West Virginia legislature, UFCW Local 400 decided early on that that it was not going to let ‘right to work’ come to the state. Local 400 met early on with the state AFL-CIO and other allies to build a strong coalition to fight back. The local represents 35,000 workers in the retail, food, health care, law enforcement, food processing, service and other industries in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Local 400 mobilized, organizing a lobby day in February, and “continued the fight through the end of the legislative session, educating members in the stores, getting them to make phone calls, write letters, and volunteer to fight back.” Joined by UFCW Local 23, Local 400 turned out for a massive rally on March 7 that provided the final push to defeat both ‘right to work’ and charter schools this year. Despite winning this battle, Local 400 warns that “the war on workers in West Virginia continues, and we will continue to take the lead in fighting back.”
In today’s labor calendar, check out a Panel Discussion on Gender-Based Violence in the Workplace at 3:30pm today at the Solidarity Center and then tonight at 7pm the Tri-County COPE meets in the American Legion Hall in La Plata; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. Today's labor quote is by Joseph Faherty: “The merchandizers of ‘right to work’ are fond of packaging their proposal in the name of individual liberty. What right-to-work has meant wherever it has appeared is lower wages and benefits, a diminished standard of living and substandard legal protection for workers and their families.” Joseph Faherty is a former president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO
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