News: Metro Access operator Karen Reed last week gave new DC mayor Muriel Bowser a glimpse of the grim impact that outsourcing of public services has had on residents of the DC metro area. At a Washington Interfaith Network forum, Reed explained the safety concerns for riders and the financial struggle she endures as an employee of a private, for-profit company contracted by WMATA to provide transportation for the area’s most vulnerable citizens. “It would be a smoother ride for everybody,” said Reed, “if WMATA and First Transit would stop cutting corners and stop treating me and my fellow workers like disposable people.”
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1993, OSHA issued the confined spaces standard to prevent more than 50 deaths and 5,000 serious injuries annually for workers who enter confined spaces. In 1995, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled that bosses can fire workers for being gay. In 2003, some 14,000 General Electric employees struck for two days to protest the company's mid-contract decision to shift an average of $400 in additional health care co-payments onto each worker. And on this date in 2014, a 15-month lockout by the Minnesota Orchestra against members of the Twin Cities Musicians' Union ended when the musicians agreed to a 15 percent pay cut and increased health care cost sharing. They did win a revenue-sharing deal based on performance of the Orchestra's endowments. It was the nation's longest-running contract dispute for a concert orchestra. Today’s labor quote is by Molly Ivins: “Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts." "Molly" Ivins was an American newspaper columnist, author, political commentator, and humorist.
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