THIS JUST IN: Garbage Strikes Continue as Employers Refuse to Meet; AFGE 1456 Plans Shutdown Rally Today

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Garbage Strikes Continue as Employers Refuse to Meet: Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett called a meeting yesterday with the workers striking Potomac Disposal and Unity Disposal and Recycling, their employers, and the Laborers’ union in order to end the strikes (see "Trash Haulters Strike Spreads" below) and resolve the workers’ demands for affordable health insurance and fair wages. “Representatives from the Laborers’ were ready to meet, and the striking workers were looking forward to getting back to work as soon as possible,” the Laborer’s Nicole Duarte reports, “However, Potomac Disposal and Unity Disposal and Recycling refused to attend the meeting, which was cancelled.” As a result, both strikes are continuing today. 
AFGE 1456 Plans Shutdown Rally Today: AFGE Local 1456 – whose members work at the Pretrial Services Agency -- will rally today from 1-2p. The rally will go on even if the shutdown has ended, “shifting to workers’ rights and preservation of benefits,” reports Local 1456 Vice President Paige Valentine. Meet up at 6th St and Indiana Ave NW; march down Constitution Ave in front of the Newseum, to John Marshall Park and on to DOL and then looping back. “All are welcome to join,” Valentine says. “We are an Independent Executive Branch Federal law enforcement agency. The majority of us continue to work without pay, but we have numerous furloughed employees too.”