Union Voice/Readers Write

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)CIO HQ Location? “I've been wondering for some time where precisely the CIO headquarters were (Vigorous Discussions, Song & Labor Walk Highlight NLC Residency Program 11/27 UC),” writes Glenn Perusek at the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research.  “Is this the Rust Building, near 15th and I?” Also, he adds, “I'd be interested in taking the Labor History Walking Tour next time you offer it.”
That was the site of the CIO HQ in 1938-39; their last office before the merger in 1955 was at 718 Jackson Place NW (on the west side of Lafayette Park). You can see markers for these and other historic DC labor sites on our online DC Labor Map which has all kinds of other cool local labor sites as well. Watch Union City for our next Labor Walk, or, if you have a group that’s interested, email streetheat@dclaborarchives.org to schedule one.

Joe Hill’s Ashes: “Regarding the item on the National Labor College and the walking tour” writes Ken Kann, father of Metro Council Assistant Mobilizer Julia Kann, “I see that Joe Hill's ashes were on the tour. Are those ashes in Washington DC?”
After his 1915 execution in Utah, famous Wobbly Joe Hill’s ashes were sent to IWW locals and allies around the world to be released in the wind on May Day. However, one of the envelopes wound up in the National Archives after being seized by the Postal Service for their “subversive potential”; more details are available on our online DC Labor Map or in William Adler’s new, definitive biography, The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, which includes explosive new evidence pointing to Hill’s innocence of the crime for which he was executed nearly a century ago.

Pins & Needles Songs on YouTube: “Thanks for running the history/foto of Pins & Needles in today's Union City (Today’s Labor History 11/27 UC),” writes retired ILGWU, UNITE and UNITE HERE member Carl Proper. “If you'd like to hear songs from a time when U.S. labor was riding high, here are links to some Pins & Needles songs (from the 1962 album commemorating the musical's 25th anniversary) on YouTube, all by Harold Rome, originally performed by ILGWU members at the Labor Stage in New York City: "Doing the Reactionary", "Nobody Makes a Pass at Me", "It’s Not Cricket to Picket", all sung by Barbra Streisand, and "Sing Me a Song With Social Significance", sung by Rose Marie Jun.