Northern Virginia Turns Up Heat on McCain

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
As the mercury approached triple digits Monday, dozens of union members and allies hit the street in McLean to tell presumptive Republican nominee John McCain that things will only get hotter in Northern Virginia as Election Day gets closer. Waving signs and shouting “Outsource McCain Not Jobs,” the group lined the street outside the Tysons Corner Ritz-Carlton hotel where McCain was scheduled to speak at a high-end fundraiser Monday evening. “We could tell people were surprised by our ‘welcoming committee,’” noted Northern Virginia Central Labor Council President Daniel Duncan. “Union bus and truck drivers sounded their horns during the rush-hour traffic. Others waved and shouted support as they drove by.” Members of seven different international unions were joined by a lively crew from Working America’s NoVa office to demonstrate support for improving health care, turning around the economy situation and exposing McCain’s lack of support for other issues important to working families. “Virginia is a key battleground state because of the efforts waged by labor across the Old Dominion since the start of this decade,” Duncan told UNION CITY. In 2006, Virginia unionists led the fight to elect fellow union-member Jim Webb (Writer’s Guild) to the U.S. Senate, and in 2007, “unions worked together to take back the State Senate for working families.”