THIS JUST IN: Garbage Strikes Continue as Employers Refuse to Meet; AFGE 1456 Plans Shutdown Rally Today
Thursday, October 17, 2013(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.”