Demonstrating the power of direct action, H Street Walmart manager Jack Hulme agreed to meet with a fired worker after unions and community groups turned out to support her. Arleja Stevens was fired last March for being absent five times because of pregnancy-related medical issues, including a trip to the emergency room. Stevens was denied excused absences despite providing a doctor’s notice, in violation of the DC Pregnancy Fairness Act. On Wednesday, members of UFCW Making Change at Walmart, Jobs With Justice, and the OPEIU Local 2 Social Justice Committee accompanied Stevens to deliver a copy of the Act to store manager Jack Hulme, who agreed on the spot to meet with Stevens and representatives from UFCW and DC JWJ Thursday morning. Maryland and DC both have laws granting rights to women for doctor visits and other workplace accommodations necessitated by pregnancy, and Walmart and other employers regularly discriminate against pregnant employees, the organizations charge. “I don’t like what they did to you,” one Walmart shopper told Stevens. “I just want my job back,” Arleja told her supporters.
On today's labor calendar, Verizon strike picket lines continue throughout the metro area; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for the latest list of locations and times. Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1935, The U.S. Supreme Court declared the Depression-era National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional, about a month before it was set to expire In 1959, The CIO-affiliated Insurance Workers of America merged with its AFL counterpart, the Insurance Agents International Union to form the Insurance Workers International Union. The union later became part of the United Food and Commercial Workers Today’s labor quote is by Bill Shorten Labor should not be about creating monuments on hills or statues in parks. Labor's monuments and statues are when a young person can find a job, when a person with disability can get access to the ordinary life that others take for granted. "Bill" Shorten is the current Leader of the Opposition for the Australian Labor Party
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