Contract bargaining talks are now underway for over 10,000 janitors in the metro DC area and their union, SEIU Local 32BJ, is conducting activities all week throughout the area. “Our biggest fight this year is to create more fulltime opportunities for our members,” says Local 32BJ Vice President and Area Director Jaime Contreras. “We are going to fight, united we are stronger,” said Victoria Dominguez, who cleans offices in both D.C. and Northern Virginia.
On today’s labor calendar, there’s a Justice for Janitors rally and march in DC at 4pm starting at McPherson Square; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details. Here’s today’s labor history: Twenty-one young women and girls making cartridges at the Washington, D.C. arsenal during the Civil War were killed in an accidental explosion on this date in 1864. Most of the victims were Irish immigrants. A monument was erected in the Congressional Cemetery, where 17 of the workers were buried. In 1873, Susan B. Anthony went on trial in Canandaigua, New York for casting her ballot in a federal election the previous November, in violation of existing statutes barring women from the vote. And on this date in 1903, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones led a rally in Philadelphia to focus public attention on children mutilated in the state's textile mills. On this date in 1972, nine firefighters were killed and eight more injured when a large section of Boston’s Hotel Vendom collapsed on them. The firefighters were performing cleanup when the collapse occurred, having successfully fought a fire at the luxury hotel earlier in the day. Today’s labor quote is by Susan B. Anthony: “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union...”
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