UCS Labor Daily

Today in Labor History: February 22
Representatives of the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers meet in St. Louis with 20 other organizations to plan the founding convention of the People’s Party. Objectives: end political corruption, spread the wealth and combat the oppression of the rights of workers and farmers – 1892
Also on this date: AFT President Albert Shanker dies at age 68…click here for complete postings and graphics.

Member Tip: The Law and Union Membership
A “union security” provision in your contract may state that you are required to become a member of the union within thirty or sixty days of being hired, as a condition of keeping your job.  What is being required in these cases is not full, dues-paying membership in the union but rather the regular payment of a defined amount of money, which can be somewhat less than full dues.  (There’s another type of arrangement, known as “maintenance of membership,” in which all those who are members of the union as of a certain date are required to maintain their memberships for a set period of time.)  In the private sector, all these kinds of arrangements are bargained in the union contract.  In the public sector, they may come about through bargaining or legislation.  If you are covered by this kind of union security arrangement, the law says you can choose not to pay the full amount.  You may opt, instead, to pay what is called an “agency fee” or “fair share.”  You must pay one or the other, however; if you do not join the union or pay your fair share, you can lose your job.
– Adapted from The Union Members Complete Guide, by Michael Mauer

Labor Song: Hold the Fort
By the IWW Rebel Voices. On the evenings of August 31 and September 1, 1984, a dozen Wobbly singers produced a joint concert at Holstein’s on North Lincoln in Chicago, a club owned and operated by folk singers.  This recording is the result.  These songs… represent not only the living spirit of the Industrial Workers of the World but the imperishable ideal of the essential solidarity of the working class worldwide.  It is in that spirit of comradeship, where “an injury to one is an injury to all,” that we send these songs out to everyone everywhere struggling to build the workers’ commonwealth.
– From liner notes by Utah Phllips *Click here to listen to the song.