On The Road At The Daycon Strike

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

When the strikebreaker pulls the Daycon truck into WaWa's to ask for directions, Eugene Brown shakes his head in disgust. "He's lost," Brown says. "Doesn't know where he's going," agrees Howard Robinson. The two Teamsters are tracking the truck for an ambulatory picket in Local 639's strike against the cleaning supplies company, now in its third day. When the strikebreaker finally arrives at his destination in Northeast DC -- an hour and a half and four stops for directions later -- the two jump out with their picket signs to let the Daycon customer know the company's been struck. "This job is more complicated than people realize," Brown says. "We know the routes, the shortcuts, where the customers want the supplies delivered." Because the cleaning supplies drivers are delivering and handling can include toxic substances, they're required to get hazmat certification in addition to their commercial driver's licenses. The Teamsters are concerned that the men now driving the Daycon trucks may have neither. "We believe these guys are unsafe," says Brown, a union steward at Daycon. "We've got pictures of them running over curbs, into lampposts and yesterday one flipped over a pallet of supplies while unloading his truck." On Tuesday, Teamsters 639 reports, over a dozen EMS and hazmat teams responded to a chemical spill in Daycon's Upper Marlboro plant -- now being operated by strikebreakers -- shutting down the street outside the facility for several hours. The Community Services Agency is encouraging people to help support the strikers; donations earmarked “IBT Strikers” can be sent to the CSA at 888 16th Street, NW, Suite 520, Washington, DC 20006
- report/photo by Chris Garlock; photos: Eugene Brown follows a Daycon truck (top right); Howard Robinson conducts an ambulatory picket in the District (left)