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Local video gamers organize first Microsoft union
LiUNA's Vasquez Luna sworn in at Manassas City Council
Register for AFL-CIO's 2023 MLK Conference
Labor Quote
Today's Labor History
 
Today's Labor Calendar
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Local video gamers organize first Microsoft union
More than 300 Quality Assurance (QA) workers at ZeniMax Media, a Maryland-based video game maker owned by Microsoft, have secured union representation after a supermajority indicated that they wish to join ZeniMax Workers United/CWA either by signing a union authorization card or voting via an online portal. Microsoft honored its stated labor principles and immediately recognized the union after the results were certified by an independent arbitrator. ZeniMax Workers United/CWA is the first studio at Microsoft to secure union representation, and the largest group of union-represented QA testers at any U.S. game studio. The unit includes all QA employees in the U.S. across ZeniMax's various studios. The workers have been organizing for months to positively transform ZeniMax for the benefit of workers, the company, and the players who enjoy the studios' games. In an industry that is dominated by companies that are set on preventing their workers from joining unions, the successful organizing of the ZeniMax workers and Microsoft's swift recognition of their union shows what is possible when big tech corporations respect their workers' rights and allow them to freely form a union and improve their workplaces. Read more [link removed] here.
LiUNA's Vasquez Luna sworn in at Manassas City Council
"Congratulations to newly sworn-in Manassas City Councilmember Sonia Vasquez Luna!" [link removed] tweeted UFCW 400 on Wednesday. "On top of being the first Latina elected to the city council, she's a union sister too!" Vasquez Luna is Business Manager of LiUNA Local 572 and second Vice President of NoVA Labor. She's the first Hispanic ever elected to the Manassas City Council, where the city's population is 44% Hispanic.
Register for AFL-CIO's 2023 MLK Conference
The 2023 AFL-CIO Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil and Human Rights Conference will be held Jan. 13-16 in Washington, D.C. The theme of the conference is "Claiming Our Power, Protecting Our Democracy." Attendees will hear from labor activists and workers at Starbucks and Amazon about organizing experiences, the labor movement's resurgence, and what's next in their campaigns. Additional speakers include Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C.; Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) Executive Director Tony Clark; and others.
Visit [link removed] TheMLKConference.org for more information and to register.
Labor Quote: Mary Kenney O'Sullivan
"I was convinced that the workers must organize. Someone must go from shop to shop and find out who the workers were that were willing to work for better working conditions. I must be that someone."
O'Sullivan, first AFL woman organizer was born on this date in 1864. In 1880 she organized the Woman's Bookbinder Union and in 1903 was a founder of the National Women's Trade Union League. At age 28 she was to be appointed the first female general organizer for the American Federation of Labor by AFL President Samuel Gompers. photo: Leaders of the Women's Trade Union (which O'Sullivan helped found) in 1907; (l-r) Hannah Hennessy, Ida Rauh, Mary Dreir, Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, Margaret Robins, Margie Jones, Agnes Nestor and Helen Marot.
Today's Labor History
This week's Labor History Today podcast: [link removed] "No Labor Dictators for Us". Last week's show: [link removed] A Working-Class Christmas Story Christmas.
January 6
Some 140 police represented by the Washington, DC and Capitol Police unions are injured -- and five more die, some by apparent suicide, over the next several days -- when pro-Trump rioters storm the U.S. Capitol in a failed effort to prevent Congress from formalizing the election of incoming President Joe Biden. 2021
January 7
The presidents of 12 of the nation's largest unions meet and call for reuniting the American labor movement, which split into two factions in 2005 when when seven unions left the AFL-CIO and formed a rival federation. The meeting followed signals from President-elect Barack Obama that he would prefer dealing with a united movement, rather than a fractured one that often had two competing voices. Unions from both sides of the split participated in the meeting. The reunification effort failed - 2009
January 8
The AFL Iron and Steel Organizing Committee ends the "Great Steel Strike." Some 350,000 to 400,000 steelworkers had been striking for more than three months, demanding union recognition. The strike failed - 1920
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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