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AFL-CIO Affirms the Right of Everyone to Make Their Own Health Care Decisions

Lawmakers Stand with NABET-CWA Contract Workers in the U.S. House of Representatives Demanding Equal Pay

Community Services Agency receives 2022 UPO Award

 

Labor Calendar: [link removed] click here for complete and latest listings

WTU Rally for a Fair Contract Now! Tue, June 28, 10:00am - 2:30pm
Freedom Plaza, Washington, DC
Three years without a contract is too long! Support WTU Local 6.

Metro Washington Council Delegate meeting: Tue, June 28, 5pm - 7pm

[link removed] REGISTER HERE; Last meeting before the summer break!

Labor, Democracy, and the Common Good: Where Do We Stand and What Must be Done? Tue, June 28, 7pm - 9pm
[link removed] Register to receive a link on Zoom.

Democracy is under assault in our workplaces and across much of the globe. How has this assault come about and how can workers fight back, defending and extending democracy?

Your Rights At Work: [link removed] CLICK HERE to hear last week's WPFW show: After months of delays by the boss, Union Kitchen workers have finally won union recognition; UFCW Local 400 organizer Travis Acton reports. Then, it's [link removed] Back To The Way Things Were, a brand-new musical from our friends at the San Francisco Mime Troupe; Resident Playwright Michael Gene Sullivan joins us for a preview. Plus, Kathy M. Newman wonders what the [link removed] Van Gogh Immersive Experience can tell us about the relationship between art, social class, and work.


AFL-CIO Affirms the Right of Everyone to Make Their Own Health Care Decisions
Statement from AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, released last Friday, June 24:

Today's decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade is a devastating blow to working women and families across this country. We strongly believe that everyone should have control over their own bodies, including decisions over their personal reproductive health care. At a time when we should be focused on expanding equity for all working people, particularly for marginalized communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, this ruling will only deepen racial and economic disparities. The burden of this decision will undoubtedly fall on low-income women and gender-oppressed people, and no one should be forced into financial insecurity because they have been denied reproductive health care. Our government also must prioritize overdue and necessary investments in our child care system, and family and medical paid leave; it must end the gender wage gap and increase access to jobs with high wages and good benefits.


This is just the latest in a harmful string of attacks on our fundamental rights, including the right to vote and to collectively bargain in the workplace, and points to an alarming trend that other well-settled rights like marriage equality may be taken away. The current conservative majority of the Supreme Court is bent on limiting bodily autonomy, freedom and self-determination to a select few, and that is fundamentally undemocratic. America's unions remain committed to the fight for gender justice and economic equity for all people.


Lawmakers Stand with NABET-CWA Contract Workers in the U.S. House of Representatives Demanding Equal Pay

U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) last week led a coalition of 29 House Democrats calling for members of NABET-CWA Local 52031 employed at Maslow Media Group, Inc., to receive equal pay for equal work. In a [link removed] letter sent to the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives earlier this month, the lawmakers pointed out that Maslow employees "work side-by-side with House Recording Studio (HRS) employees performing the same duties and responsibilities. However, the Maslow employees earn substantially less than the HRS employees and have few, if any, benefits (such as retirement, health insurance, etc.) available to them."


Bob Williams, President of NABET-CWA Local 52031 said, "Maslow workers broadcast messages of pay equity and dignity and respect in the workplace from the House of Representatives - and now it's time the lawmakers they serve start speaking out for them and try to rectify this injustice. Thank you to Representative Cleaver and all the Members who signed on. This brings us one step closer to making sure that our members who provide vital services for the House of Representatives are paid fairly."


Community Services Agency receives 2022 UPO Award

The Metro Washington Council's Community Services Agency last Thursday received the 2022 [link removed] United Planning Organization (UPO) Partnership Recognition Award. "It was an honor to be presented with this award and the opportunity to meet amazing community builders," said CSA Executive Director Letycia Pastrana (at right in photo). UPO is one of CSA's major Building Futures program funders.


TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

This week's Labor History Today podcast: [link removed] Working People's Hidden Histories; Last week's show: [link removed] Labor history at the AFL-CIO & Labor Notes.

June 27
Emma Goldman, women's rights activist and radical, born in Lithuania. She came to the U.S. at age 17 - 1869

The Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the "Wobblies," is founded at a convention in Chicago. The Wobblie motto: "An injury to one is an injury to all." - 1905

A 26-day strike of New York City hotels by 26,000 workers - the first such walkout in 50 years - ends with a five-year contract calling for big wage and benefit gains - 1985

June 28

Birthday of machinist Matthew Maguire, who many believe first suggested Labor Day. Others believe it was Peter McGuire, a carpenter - 1850

President Grover Cleveland signs legislation declaring Labor Day an official U.S. holiday - 1894

The federal government sues the Teamsters to force reforms on the union, the nation's largest. The following March, the government and the union sign a consent decree requiring direct election of the union's president and creation of an Independent Review Board - 1988

- David Prosten

 

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Published by the Metropolitan Washington Council, an AFL-CIO "Union City" Central Labor Council whose 200 affiliated union locals represent 150,000 area union members.

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