|
|
Friday, January 30,
2009
GAYLORD WORKERS HOPE TO WIN VOICE WITH A STROKE OF THEIR PENS: Anyone in Congress wondering whether American workers need the Employee Free Choice Act need look no farther than the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, a few short miles from the U.S. Capitol Building. On Friday, 1,400  workers hope to gain a voice on the job
simply by signing cards saying they want a union. The
official card count will be held this afternoon and local union
leaders say the card-check agreement at Gaylord – the
centerpiece of the Employee Free Choice Act – eliminated
the usual acrimony, expense and litigation fueled by the
union-busting industry and employers looking to stifle worker
rights. PRINTCRAFT CMDB WINS BOWLING TOURNEY: The Printcraft CMDB team took top honors - and $150 each - in last Sunday’s Bowling for Gold Tournament (Union Bowlers Raise $10K for Needy,  1/26 UC), edging out 2nd-place winners
NALC Branch 142’s Chemistry 5 team - who each won
$100 by just 24 points. The Printcraft Par Force V team took 3rd
place - and $75 each - just 13 points behind Branch
142’s team. Bruce Purnell of IBEW’s X-Men took First
Place in the Individual High scores with 773 points, collecting
$150. In Second Place - winning $100 - was Glen Calloway of
NALC Branch 142’s Set It Off team with 719 points, while
Allen Price on Lane 39 won Third Place - and $75 - with 715
points. Seventy-nine teams raised about $10,000 Sunday at the
17th annual Bowling for Gold Tournament, benefiting
the Metro Washington Council Community Services Agency's (CSA)
Emergency Assistance Fund.- photo by Chris Garlock REMEMBERING DC TRANSIT SEGREGATION: Learn about segregation of passengers and employees on Washington’s streetcars and busses at a talk this Sunday, “Trolleys in Black and White: Segregation on Public Transit in Washington from 1920 – 1962” at the Bethesda Public Library. The program will feature video highlights from the collection of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689. UNION COMMUNICATORS
WANTED: The AFL-CIO is currently hiring field
communicators to help promote the Employee Free Choice Act in
key states by driving public opinion and marshaling FREE CALENDAR JUST A CLICK AWAY: "Maybe basing a global system on uncontrolled greed, wanton waste, and violent theft wasn't such a great idea after all..." Click here to download the Northland Collective Poster’s free February calendar, featuring great art and activist history dates. LABOR ART: UNION BAND GOES FOR
TOP AWARD: The U-Liners –
“Washington’s only all-union roots-rock band”
- are making a run at the Wammies again this year. “We
ranked among the top three bands in the region last year,”
says leader and longtime labor activist Joe Uehlein (right),
“and could sure use help from our labor brothers and
sisters to help us win it this year!” The band
– whose members belong to the DC WEEKEND LABOR
HISTORY: 12,000 pecan shellers in San Antonio, Tex. -
mostly Latino women - walk off their jobs at 400 factories in
what was to become a three-month strike against wage cuts.
Strike leader Emma Tenayuca was eventually hounded out of the
state (1/31/1938); Ida M. Fuller is the first
retiree to receive an old-age monthly benefit check Material published in UNION CITY may be freely reproduced by
any recipient; please credit the Council as the
source. |
community and union member
support. Field communicators will work through local bodies of
the AFL-CIO as part of the larger member mobilization campaign
supporting the Act. The positions are full-time and pay $625 per
week plus benefits. 
Federation of Musicians, Local 161-710,
AFM - performs regularly at labor and political events and local
music venues. 
under the new Social Security law. She paid
in $24.75 between 1937 and 1939 on an income of $2,484 - her
first check was for $22.54 (1/31/1940); Union
and student pressure forces Harvard university to adopt new
labor policies raising wages for lowest-paid workers
(1/31/2002); The Collar Laundry Union forms in
Troy, N.Y, raises earnings for female laundry workers from two
dollars to 14 dollars a week (2/1/1864);
Bricklayers begin working eight-hour days
(2/1/1867); 25,000 Paterson, NJ silk workers
strike for eight-hour work day and improved working conditions
(left). 1,800 were arrested over the course of the six-month
walkout, led by the Wobblies. They returned to work on their
employers' terms after six months (2/1/1913);
International Brotherhood of Firemen & Oilers merge with
Service Employees International Union
(2/1/1995); More info & ammo for unionists
is available online from 