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Friday, September 29, 2017                                             Like us on Facebook!
LABOR CALENDAR

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NoVA Lox and Bagels Future of Labor Discussion Group
12:00pm-1:30pm
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Oldest area union printer to close doors: The oldest union printing company in the DC area is going the way of the Linotype machine. McArdle Printing is closing its doors at the end of the month.  “When the Bureau of National Affairs (which owned McArdle) was bought by Bloomberg they must have had a long term plan to get rid of the plant,” says GCC-IBT 72-C’s Janice Bort. “They ran the company down to the ground and never gave us a decent proposal for a new contract since 2011.” Non-union Corporate Press is taking over some of McArdle’s assets and reports indicate McArdle workers are being forced to reapply for their own jobs, with pay and benefit cuts. “Once upon a time BNA took care of its workers,” Bort said, “now they plan to print non-union. Some of these workers have 30 to 40 years with McArdle. It’s been a sad journey for them.”
Metro riders team up with workers at WMATA board meeting: The Save our System Coalition had a strong showing Thursday morning at the Metro board meeting to testify on behalf of riders. The coalition brought with them 11,000 signatures from riders in support of a flat fare, free transfers, and expanded service. Also in the room were ATU 689 members and riders who expressed concerns about high fares, cut services and discrimination of people of color within the system. 
– report/photo by Megan Fitzgerald

Plumbers 5’s “Heat’s On Water’s Off” aids needy PG residents: Last Saturday was “a beautiful day for community service!” said Plumbers & Gasfitters Local 5. The union’s highly skilled volunteers spent the day providing free inspections and repairs to Prince George’s County low-income and disabled residents in need as part of Local 5’s 19th annual Heat’s On Water’s Off service event. photo source
“Crisis of Democracy” conference to be held in DC next week: In response to an organic crisis of democracy, a conference is being convened October 5-6 that draws together intellectuals and activists from across the globe to examine and explore different dimensions of that crisis. Speakers at “The Crisis of Democracy” will venture into a deeper analysis of the political forces and dynamics at work, with an eye to identifying opportunities to strengthen democratic institutions and democratic practices. Co-sponsors include the American Federation of Teachers, American Prospect Magazine, the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization, Democratic Socialists of America and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, Georgetown University. The conference is free, registration is required; register here. photo: AFT president Randi Weingarten, who will be featured at the conference
Labor Quote of the Day: Mother Jones
“No matter what the fight, don’t be ladylike! God almighty made women and the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the ladies.”


Today’s Labor History
September 29

A report by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that the average weekly take-home pay of a factory worker with three dependents is now $94.87 – 1962

Tens of thousands of protesters take to the streets of Europe, striking against government austerity measures. Workers in more than a dozen countries participated, including Spain, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Slovenia, and Lithuania, protesting job losses, retirement deferments, pension reductions, and cuts to schools, hospitals, and welfare services. – 2010
 
September 30
A total of 29 strike leaders are charged with treason—plotting “to incite insurrection, rebellion & war against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”—for daring to strike the Carnegie Steel Co. in Homestead, Pa. Jurors refuse to convict them – 1892
 
Seventy-year-old Mother Jones organizes the wives of striking miners in Arnot, Pa., to descend on the mine with brooms, mops and clanging pots and pans.  They frighten away the mules and their scab drivers.  The miners eventually won their strike – 1899
 
Railroad shopmen in 28 cities strike the Illinois Central Railroad and the Harriman lines for an 8-hour day, improved conditions and union recognition, but railroad officials obtain sweeping injunctions against them and rely on police and armed guards to protect strikebreakers – 1915
 
Black farmers meet in Elaine, Ark., to establish the Progressive Farmers and Householders Union to fight for better pay and higher cotton prices.  They are shot at by a group of Whites, and return the fire.  News of the confrontation spread and a riot ensued, leaving at least 100, perhaps several hundred, Blacks dead and 67 indicted for inciting violence – 1919
 
Cesar Chavez, with Dolores Huerta, co-founds the National Farm Workers Association, which later was to become the United Farm Workers of America – 1962
(Farmworker’s Friend: The story of Cesar Chavez: A thoughtful and moving book about the inspiring life of American hero Cesar Chavez, co-founder, along with Dolores Huerta, and long-time leader of the United Farm Workers of America. This sympathetic portrayal of Chavez and his life’s work begins with his childhood, starting from the time his family’s store in Arizona failed during the Great Depression and his entire family was forced into the fields to harvest vegetables for a few cents an hour.)
 
October 01
An ink storage room in the L.A. Times building is dynamited during a citywide fight over labor rights and organizing.  The explosion was relatively minor, but it set off a fire in the unsafe, difficult-to-evacuate building, ultimately killing 21.  A union member eventually confessed to the bombing, which he said was supposed to have occurred early in the morning when the building would have been largely unoccupied – 1910

The George Washington Bridge officially opens, spanning the Hudson River from New Jersey to New York. Thirteen workers died during the four-year construction project for what at the time was the longest main span in the world – 1931
 
Thousands of dairy farmers in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa strike in demand of higher prices for their milk – 1935
 
The Pennsylvania Turnpike opened as the first toll superhighway in the United States.  It was built in most part by workers hired through the state’s Re-Employment offices – 1940

Some 200 Pressmen begin what is to become a two-year strike at the Washington Post. Nine of the paper’s ten other unions engaged in sympathy strikes for more than four months but ultimately returned to their jobs as the paper continued publishing. The press operators picketed for 19 months but eventually decertified the union – 1975
 
The National Hockey League team owners began a lockout of the players that lasted 103 days – 1994

Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services 

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