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MD unions urge Maryland Senate to move legislation expanding workers' rights
Workers love Starbucks; Howard Schultz, not so much
Hands Off DC gets loud
Labor Quote
Today's Labor History
 
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2-minute audio version of the Metro Washington Labor Council's Union City newsletter.
Your Rights at Work radio show (WPFW 89.3FM): Thu, March 23, 1pm - 2pm
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This week's guests: Johnnie Kallas, Cornell ILR Labor Action Tracker; Eric Dirnbach says Bon Jovi's 1986 hit "Livin' on a Prayer" is an anthem about working class survival.
MD unions urge Maryland Senate to move legislation expanding workers' rights
Public employees from across Maryland, working in jurisdictions as far north as Harford County and as far south as Prince George's County, on Wednesday called on Maryland elected officials to pass legislation expanding their rights. "There is nothing controversial about giving workers the freedom to choose to better their lives by having a voice in the workplace with a union," said IAM Eastern Territory General Vice President David Sullivan. "This is not a workers' rights issue," said MWC President Dyana Forester, "This is a constitutional rights issue." "Labor has strong allies in the Senate Finance committee," said AFT-Maryland President Kenya Campbell, "and now is the time for them to show up for the working people of Maryland and expand collective bargaining rights to the higher education professionals and library employees across Maryland." They spoke, along with elected officials, labor leaders, and affected workers, at a press conference in front of the Maryland State House to urge Maryland Senate Finance Committee members to move legislation -- H.B. 65 and H.B 275/S.B. 247 -- expanding the rights of workers in Maryland. "Maryland's labor movement stands in solidarity to ensure we get legislation that will benefit working families in Maryland passed out of the Senate Finance Committee," said Sullivan.
Workers love Starbucks; Howard Schultz, not so much
"The right questions are not being asked," said Mid-Atlantic Regional and Joint Board of Workers United Organizing Director as she and Starbucks workers from Virginia and Maryland watched former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz at yesterday's Senate hearing. "I'm sure that the workers appreciate the fact that some politicians are standing up (for them), but you have to remember something about these workers. They love Starbucks, they love their company. They don't want to destroy it. What happened was they started to lose their voice about five years ago when (Starbucks became more) corporatized and there was this huge disconnect." Starbucks workers think Howard Schultz "stopped listening over five years ago," Hess said. "That's why we're here. That's why we want to go to the (bargaining) table with you because you don't listen anymore. These people are the ones that made it successful. There is a connection, there is a relationship between the workers and the customers who are there every day, Schultz forgot that." The watch party was hosted by AFGE District 14 National VP Ottis Johnson Jr.
- report/photos by Chris Garlock/Union City; photos: (top left, l-r): MARJB Organizing Director Becky Hess, AFGE Organizing Department Deputy Director John Dean and AFGE District 14 National Vice President Ottis Johnson, Jr.; (top right): MD & DC Starbucks workers with Johnson; (bottom) watching the hearing.
Hands Off DC gets loud
photos from yesterday's march by the [link removed] #HandsOffDC Coalition to the House Oversight Committee hearing on DC. Photos by Chris Garlock/[link removed] Union City
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Labor Quote: Bon Jovi
Once upon a time not so long ago
Tommy used to work on the docks, union's been on strike
He's down on his luck, it's tough, so tough
Labor movement researcher and organizer Eric Dirnbach will discuss how Bon Jovi's 1986 hit "Livin' on a Prayer" is an anthem about working class survival, on today's Your Rights At Work, WPFW 89.3 FM at 1p today.
Today's Labor History
This week's Labor History Today podcast: [link removed] Erasing Virginia's labor history. Last week's show: [link removed] The Strange Career of "the Working Class".
October 30, 1971
Int'l Alliance of Bill Posters, Billers & Distributors of the United States & Canada surrenders its AFL-CIO charter and is disbanded - 1971
Ed Meese, attorney general in the Ronald Reagan administration, urges employers to begin spying on workers "in locker rooms, parking lots, shipping and mail room areas and even the nearby taverns" to try to catch them using drugs - 1986
Unionists and activists shut down World Trade Organization meeting, Seattle, Wash. - 1999
David Prosten
 
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Published by the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council, an AFL-CIO "Union City" Central Labor Council whose 200 affiliated union locals represent 150,000 area union members. DYANA FORESTER, PRESIDENT.
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