Labor on the Move (11/28/07)

JOE KAHRAMAN, the Metro Washington Council's first UNION CITIES Coordinator (1998-99) is back in DC after a stint on the West Coast. Kahraman - who has been working for AFSCME since leaving the Council - is now the Lead Organizer/Local Representative for the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. After helping organize DC-area FAA workers, AFSCME relocated Kahraman to Los Angeles, and he "spent a few years traveling to and working in Washington State for the state employees campaigns there. We organized an additional 10,000 state employees there under the new full-scope collective bargaining legislation. I also worked a fair amount on campaigns in Colorado and throughout California, plus blitzes everywhere." The native Washingtonian says he's glad to be home, and "excited to now be working at the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild and doing complicated and challenging contract campaigns such as the upcoming one at the Washington Post."