2011: DC Labor's Year In Review (Part 3)
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)From Wisconsin solidarity to the Verizon strike, Occupy DC and a host of local
struggles, 2011 was a banner year for the metro area labor movement. As Union
City looks forward to reporting on a New Year of solidarity in 2012, we’re
taking a moment to dip into the Union City archive and remember some of the
highlights of the past year...
June
24: CSA's
Building Futures Program Wins Major Grant Award
The Metro Council’s
Community Services Agency Building Futures pre-apprenticeship training program
has won a $900,000 grant as part of the Jobs For the Future consortium. “This
is a big deal,” said CSA Executive Director Kathleen McKirchy, “we will get
nearly $1 million over three years in partnership with the Community Foundation
of the National Capital Region and Wider Opportunities for Women to keep our
pre-apprenticeship training program going.”
July 12: MontCo
Bargaining Bills Derided as "Political Theater"
Calling them “an empty
façade,” “hypocritical” and “political theater,” UFCW/MCGEO President
Local 1994 Gino Renne blasted a trio of Montgomery County collective bargaining
bills yesterday at a packed Council hearing. The bills -- 18-11, 19-11 and 20-11
– would “turn the collective bargaining process into a three-ring circus,”
Renne warned County Council-members...
July 26: Post Workers Win Tentative 2-Year
Pact
After more than three months of negotiations, the
Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, CWA Local 32035 has reached a tentative
agreement on a two-year contract with The Washington Post. The contract protects
job security and seniority and provides for a $13 per week raise for all
Guild-covered employees, “the first time in memory that the Post has agreed to
a raise in the beginning of the first year of the contract,” reports the
Guild...
August 1: Labor
Night At Nats A Grand Slam
Labor Night At Nats A Grand Slam: Heat,
humidity and another loss by the Washington Nationals didn’t dampen the spirit
of solidarity at Friday night’s annual Labor Night at the Nats baseball game.
Almost 6,000 metro-area union members filled the stands at Nationals Park for
the 5th annual Labor Night at the Nats...