"When working people are under attack, what do we do?" asked Carl Goldman. "Stand up, fight back!" thundered back the crowd of nearly a thousand Saturday night at the 40th annual Evening with Labor.
The longtime organizer and AFSCME Council 26 Executive Director was named Trade Unionist of the Year to a standing ovation from an enthusiastic crowd clearly pumped up by the collapse of the GOP/Trump attempt to repeal Obamacare and Goldman urged them to continue the fight to defend federal workers. "Trump and the Congressional majority and their corporate backers are out to kill us and the rest of the labor movement," Goldman warned. Solidarity and resistance were the watchwords of the night, repeated by speaker after speaker, from Metro Washington Council president Jackie Jeter -- "Our fight is a bigger fight" -- to AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler -- "One word: 'unity'" -- as well as political leaders like Maryland U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. Check out photos of the event on our Facebook page at Metro Washington AFL-CIO. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1935, members of Gas House Workers’ Union Local 18799 began what was to become a 4-month recognition strike against the Laclede Gas Light Co. in St. Louis. The union later said the strike was the first ever against a public utility in the U.S. In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a march of striking sanitation workers, members of AFSCME Local 1733, in Memphis, Tennessee. Violence during the march persuaded him to return the following week to Memphis, where he was assassinated. Today’s labor quote is by Martin Luther King Jr. “The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over the nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society." Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus, which is committed to improving the quality of life for all working families; find out more at unionplus.org.
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