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MetroAccess Call Center workers authorize strike

Sitting down for justice

Taking it to the aisles

CSA organizing Labor Union Day at FedExField

Solidarity Center Report: Food Delivery Drivers Demand Wages They Can Live On

Labor Quote

Today's Labor History

 

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FILM: Local 1196: A Steelworkers Strike: Mon, July 25, 6pm - 8pm

Hosted by the Bertelsmann Foundation, Oberlin Club of Washington DC & DC Labor Fest
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MetroAccess Call Center workers authorize strike

ATU Local 689 members at WMATA's MetroAccess Operations Control Center last week approved a strike against private contractor MV Transportation. The vote was 98% in favor of a strike by the more than 100 paratransit dispatchers, schedulers, and reservationists. After multiple rounds of bargaining, reports Local 689, "MV Transportation still has not put forward proposals that recognize the degree to which our members have been underpaid and undervalued for years." The existing contract expired on June 30th and the extension expired on July 13th; the next bargaining date is on July 29th. Last year, MV Call Center workers went on a one-day strike the union says was "successful in winning a fair contract that helped improve their wages, benefits, and rights on the job." Three weeks ago, Local 689 members at the MetroAccess Hubbard Road facility also voted to strike, if necessary, to win a fair contract.


Sitting down for justice

Hundreds of Senate cafeteria workers rallied Wednesday on Capitol Hill with their supporters - including Senators Bernie Sanders (D. VT), Ben Ray Lujan (D. NM), Congresswoman Cori Bush (D. MO) and Congressman Andy Levin (D. MI) - before blocking the street in front of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, where 17 were arrested. They were demanding a contract after voting to join a union, UNITE HERE Local 23, last Fall. "The only way change will take place is when working people stand up and fight for justice," Sanders told the crowd. He applauded the workers and their union whose solidarity had already forced their employer, Restaurant Associates, to rescind a threatened layoff earlier this week. "The good news is they rescinded that effort to lay off 50 plus workers," said Sanders, "The bad news is you still don't have a contract." Congressman Levin, a former union organizer, said that "I'm just here to stand with you to say, if you're willing to put your body on the line, I'm putting my body on the line, because we're not going to give up until you have a just first contract."

- report/photo by Chris Garlock/Union City

Taking it to the aisles

They marched past the cash registers. Past the dairy and meat sections, the bakery and the colorful displays of fruits and vegetables. Chanting "What do we want? Fair contract!" and "If we don't get it, shut it down!" members of UFCW Local 400 who work at Shoppers, along with their community and political supporters, concluded their late-afternoon rally at the Largo Shoppers Wednesday by marching through the store in a show of force and determination applauded by shopppers. "This contract process has gone on long enough," Local 400 president Mark Federici told the assembled crowd. "Throughout this pandemic, when we didn't know if each day would be our last, we showed up to work; now is the time for this company to get off their ass and settle this contract. Enough is enough!" Local elected leaders who walked the line and pledged their support included Delegates Jazz Lewis (District 24), Karen Toles (D25), Prince George's County Council member Edward Burroughs III (D8), Prince George's State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy and PG Council District 6 candidate Wala Blegay.

- report/photo by Chris Garlock/Union City

CSA organizing Labor Union Day at FedExField

Fresh off Labor Night with the Nats, the Community Services Agency is organizing [link removed] Labor Union Day at FedExField. Tickets purchased through this special offer will benefit CSA as the Washington Commanders take on the Philadelphia Eagles on September 25th. Over a hundred tickets have already been sold, with a goal of at least 600. "The first union to have 75+ members join us and have tickets paid in full will get access to the player entrance for our high five tunnel," says CSA Executive Director Letycia Pastrana. "If CSA sells 600 tickets, we will receive $6,000." In addition, any union buying 50 or more tickets will get a post-game photo on the field for the group. Club Level seats start at $129, Lower Level seats start at $119 and Upper Level seats start at $65; [link removed] click here for details. Anyone purchasing 10 tickets or more can get additional savings by contacting Chris Carter directly: 804-296-5728 or mailto:[email protected] [email protected]


Solidarity Center Report: Food Delivery Drivers Demand Wages They Can Live On

Despite often heroic efforts to deliver food under war conditions, Bolt food delivery drivers in Kyiv, Ukraine, have seen a 60 percent cut in wages--and they are demanding the company take immediate action to boost wages and provide vehicle maintenance support. Prohibited from striking while Ukraine is under martial law, the delivery drivers gathered recently at Bolt's office in Kyiv to present the company with their demands. "I work 14 hours a day, 27 days a month" to survive, said one driver. [link removed] Find out more at Solidarity Center.


Labor Quote: Tom Mooney

"I suppose the urge to serve the labor movement was born in me."

Labor organizer Tom Mooney and Warren Billings, a shoe worker, were convicted of setting off a bomb at a "Preparedness Day" parade in San Francisco on this date in 1916, killing 10 and injuring 40 more; both were pardoned 23 years later.

Labor on the Air: On this week's [link removed] Your Rights At Work radio show (WPFW 89.3FM Thursdays at 1p): Sportswriter DAVE ZIRIN on the campaign to free women's basketball star Brittney Griner, an active member of the Women's National Basketball Players Association who's been detained in Russia for five months. Zirin also talks about plans to write a biography of historian - and onetime union organizer -- Howard Zinn. PLUS: ANTHONY ROMERO, UFCW 400 union rep, on getting out the union vote in Tuesday's Maryland primary.

[link removed] CLICK HERE to listen or search for Your Rights At Work wherever you listen to podcasts![link removed]

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

This week's Labor History Today podcast: [link removed] Tragedy and Resistance at Port Chicago Naval Magazine (Encore); Last week's show: [link removed] "The Port of Missing Men"

July 22

Newly unionized brewery workers in San Francisco, mostly German socialists, declare victory after the city's breweries give in to their demands for free beer, the closed shop, freedom to live anywhere (they had typically been required to live in the breweries), a 10-hour day, six-day week, and a board of arbitration - 1886

July 23

Northern Michigan copper miners strike for union recognition, higher wages and eight-hour day. By the time they threw in the towel the following April, 1,100 had been arrested on various charges and Western Federation of Miners President Charles Moyer had been shot, beaten and forced out of town - 1913

July 24

The United Auto Workers and the Teamsters form the Alliance for Labor Action (ALA), later to be joined by several smaller unions. The ALA's agenda included support of the civil rights movement and opposition to the war in Viet Nam. It disbanded after four years following the death of UAW President Walter Reuther - 1968

- 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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