Fairfax at Embassy Row Hotel Engineers Vote in Union

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)After a lengthy battle lasting months, the operations and maintenance staff at the Fairfax at Embassy Row Hotel in Washington, DC last week voted overwhelmingly to join IUOE Local 99. The election itself was held on February 8, but after weeks of what the union called "unprecedented obstruction and delaying tactics by the employer," the ballots were finally counted on February 27. “The employer (Pyramid Management) decided to use every legal obstacle in the book to prevent these workers from exercising their bargaining rights," explained Local 99 Business Manager Michael Murphy, "including appealing a decision from the Regional Director all the way to the NLRB. We’re still not sure why the employer chose to waste so much money on senseless litigation instead of improving the lives of their employees.” The staff at the Fairfax joins thousands of engineers and maintenance workers represented by Local 99 in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.