Working To Get Off The Bench

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Ironworker Willie Williams (r) isn’t used to being laid off.  “I refuse to sit on the bench,” he says. Right now, though, Williams – whose goals is to “be an iron worker for the next twenty years” -- is out of work, unwillingly benched. Williams, a DC resident, apprenticed with Ironworkers Local 5, which made sure that he found a job after graduating. He helped lay the foundation for the Nationals ballpark thanks to the First Source Employment Act, which established “a mandate for a certain number of DC residents to be on that job which in turn allowed me to be on that job.” Currently laid off, Williams says the District’s proposed Employment Stimulus Bill will open up opportunities for long-term employment and quality training programs for him and his fellow DC residents. Williams plans to testify in support of the legislation at a hearing this Wednesday at the DC City Council. - report/photo by Ryan Carty, AFL-CIO Union Summer Intern