Medallions May be a Trojan Horse for D.C. Taxicab Industry

Posted on March 17, 2011 by admin

Download the proposed DC taxicab medallion bill.

Throughout the U.S., in city after city, taxicab drivers are forced to become the equivalent of modern day sharecroppers. Despite working long hours and generating great wealth, taxicab drivers are often not the primary beneficiary of their own hard work, but instead enrich the owner of their taxicab (or the owner of their taxicab’s medallion).  Watch Pete Tucker talk about the medallion bill on “More Room on the Outside”.

An exception to this unjust model is the District of Columbia, where many taxicab drivers own and operate their own vehicle. At least for now. Legislation introduced Tuesday by Councilmembers Harry Thomas, Marion Barry and Michael Brown has the potential to wipe out many of D.C.’s independent owner/operators through the introduction of a medallion system. The legislation defines a medallion as “a metal plate… affixed to a taxicab authorizing it to be operated.”  Download the medallion bill.

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Ban the Box, End the Discrimination, Part II

Posted on March 16, 2011 by admin

“Individuals released from jails and prisons are at high risk for being homeless,” said Debra Rowe, acting executive director of Returning Citizens United, at a March 11 hearing of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Aging and Community Affairs, chaired by Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry. “While some return home to open heart and arms, few return home to open doors.”

“Upon release, returning citizens need help reconciling their expectations with those of their family members. And even more, they need a plan for how they can fit back into family life. Continue reading →

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Ban the Box, End the Discrimination, Part I

Posted on March 14, 2011 by admin

You’re holding me hostage to a crime that I committed almost twenty years ago. – Edward King, returning citizen

Am I to ever gain the status of a citizen? – Antoine Ali-Moore, returning citizen

“My own philosophy is that if you have served your time… [then] you have paid your debt to society and that debt… shouldn’t follow you throughout your career,” said Marion Barry, Ward 8 councilmember and former D.C. mayor. “We know that the criminal justice system is not as just as it ought to be. We know that drug laws are disproportionately falling on black and Hispanic people.”

“The racial dimension of mass incarceration is its most striking feature,” writes Michelle Alexander in “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” “No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison.” Continue reading →

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Walker, You’re Next

Posted on March 14, 2011 by admin

LISTEN TO JESSE ZARLEY & BRIAN WARD

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“Why is a 5 percent tax increase on the rich called ‘socialism,’ when a 14 percent wage reduction on workers is called ‘doing your part.'”

A Daylight Savings reminder from a labor journalist: “Don’t forget to set your clocks forward by one hour unless you live in Wisconsin in which case you should set them back 50 years.” – Mike Elk

“It’s a watershed moment in this country,” said Jesse Zarley on Friday as he stood alongside fellow Wisconsin native and D.C. activist Brian Ward at a solidarity protest outside the D.C. office of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).

“I don’t know if Wisconsin will win or not. I hope, I hope it will. But I think that you can’t go back to the way it was… There are two sides in the fight now. It’s not just one side. It’s not just corporations and the wealthy beating down on working people.” Continue reading →

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National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Posted on March 11, 2011 by admin

Abby Charles standing beside the condom dress at the Women's Collective

LISTEN TO ABBY CHARLES:

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“You could tell a woman, ‘Here’s a condom. This is how you protect yourself.’ She could know all the facts about how to protect herself. But if she’s going home to a situation where there is violence, which is happening [at] high levels in our community, how can she use that condom? How can she demand that [he put it on]? Especially when she’s dependent on that partner for… her housing, for her income.”

March 10 was National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Sitting in the lounge of the Women’s Collective, where she serves as Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, Abby Charles continued, “That’s a big piece [of] why women are at risk. It’s not just [that] we don’t have the knowledge, it’s also that we’re living in a structural environment that places women at risk.” Continue reading →

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Unions Under Attack: From D.C. To Wisconsin

Posted on March 10, 2011 by admin

Tuesday, March 8, International Women’s Day, on “More Room On the Outside” on DCTV, journalist Pete Tucker joined co-host Toussaint Tingling-Clemmons for a wide-ranging discussion. From D.C. to Wisconsin, unions are under attack, particularly teachers’ and nurses’ unions, which are overwhelmingly female.

Tingling-Clemmons said, “Most people have multiple folks in their lives who are a part of a union, or who were able to work or to live because of unions. The 8-hour workday we got because of the union. Before that, bosses could require you to work as long as they chose and if you didn’t work that time they could fire you for no cause. The reason that we can fight sexual harassment in the workplace is because of unions. All of these things are rights that unions fought for and now unions are completely under attack and it’s a shame.” Continue reading →

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A Message To Metro

Posted on March 9, 2011 by admin

LISTEN TO MIKE GOLASH:

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“Our message to Metro on Thursday is that they better make a careful calculation,” said Mike Golash, a recently retired Metro bus operator and former president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689, which represents more than 7,000 Metro workers.

In binding arbitration in 2010, Metro workers won a retroactive 3 percent raise, but they have not received the pay increase because Metro continues to appeal the decision. “They’re trying to save $12 million in a wage increase for us,” said Golash. Continue reading →

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Virginia’s Pro-choice Health Clinics Targeted by Legislature

Posted on March 8, 2011 by admin

LISTEN TO ROSEMARY CODDING:

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“It’s time to speak out against a small group of zealots, just as Christ did,” said Rosemary Codding, founder of the Falls Church Healthcare Center, a pro-choice women’s center. In written testimony submitted Feb. 17 to the Virginia state Senate’s Education and Health Committee, Codding said, “It is time to commend good abortion care. For thousands of years women all over the world have needed to prevent pregnancy and… birth.”

The anti-choice legislation Codding testified against failed to make it out of committee, yet it was passed by the Virginia General Assembly. A March 2 Washington Post editorial (“Va.’s abortion end run: Mischief, not public health, drives the push for new regulation.”) said, “Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly – with the help of two anti-abortion Democratic state senators – have taken a [less than principled] tack. Continue reading →

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WHC Nurses: From Strike to Lockout

Posted on March 6, 2011 by admin

LISTEN TO STEPHEN FRUM:

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6:55 AM Saturday morning, when Stephen Frum began the interview, he was on strike. By the time it was completed, Frum was locked out. The 19-year veteran is one of more than 1,600 nurses at Washington Hospital Center (WHC), who are represented by National Nurses United (NNU).

Nurses at WHC voted to conduct a one-day strike beginning 7:00 AM Friday and ending 7:00 AM Saturday. As nurses attempted to return to work Saturday morning, they were met by police. WHC management had locked them out. Continue reading →

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Councilmembers Evans, Brown and Thomas Call for Pope’s Return to Hardy

Posted on March 4, 2011 by admin

“I have been very supportive of chancellors, of school reform, and I’ve sat here for a year and a half waiting for this issue to get solved and as of last Friday it was worse than it has ever been,” said Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans on Tuesday as he introduced a resolution calling for Hardy Middle School’s former principal to be reinstated.

The resolution, which was co-sponsored by At-large Councilmember Michael Brown and Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, said, “It is the sense of the Council that the Rose L. Hardy Middle School should maintain its reliable and remarkable programs and processes and its principal, Patrick Pope, which have resulted in school achievements and student diversity that should be a benchmark for District of Columbia Public Schools.” Continue reading →

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