Labor hailed the news Wednesday that Secretary of Labor nominee Andy Puzder had withdrawn his nomination after it became clear he did not have the votes to win confirmation. AFGE president J. David Cox Sr. called the withdrawal "a victory for working people everywhere," while AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said "Working people rejected Puzder because he routinely violated labor law, disrespected workers, opposed a living wage and used his position of authority to enrich himself at the expense of working people." Trumka added that Puzder's defeat was "a reminder of the collective power of working people and a clear message to President Trump that it’s time to change course completely." Benjamin Jealous, founding chair of Good Jobs Defenders, said that “Defeating Puzder’s nomination is a big victory,” but Jealous also warned that “The Republican war on workers didn’t start with Andy Puzder, and it doesn't end now.”
In local labor news, UFCW 1994/MCGEO reports that Montgomery County workers have reached a tentative agreement on a new 2-year contract. Union members will vote on the proposed deal at ratification meetings to be announced. On today's labor calendar, "Brother Outsider" screens tonight at 7pm in Takoma Park; the film is about the civil rights hero Bayard Rustin, who among many other things was the chief architect of the historic 1963 March on Washington. And on Sunday from 4-7pm there’s a fundraiser to support the production of the DC area premiere of the labor jazz opera “Love Songs from the Liberation Wars: the 1940's Tobacco Workers Struggle.” Complete details, as always, are on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history, On this date in 1937, sixty-three sit-down strikers, demanding recognition of their union, were tear-gassed and driven from two Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation plants in Chicago. Two years later the U.S. Supreme Court declared sit-down strikes illegal. The tactic had been a major industrial union organizing tool. In 1992, union members at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, struck in sympathy with graduate student teaching assistants who were demanding the right to negotiate with the university. The battle to win recognition of their union continues to this day. Just last month, graduate students in nine departments at Yale were given the right to hold union elections by the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board. Today’s labor quote is by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, speaking at a rally of Yale graduate students in 2014: “It takes a brave bunch of people to step forward. A brave bunch of people to argue the case. A brave bunch of people to say that we have gone this far, we will go no further without our rights being guaranteed, protected and of course recognized.” Help keep Union City Radio on the air by pledging at 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739, or you can pledge online at wpfwfm.org. Whatever you give, thank you! Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org.
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