Nurses Join Teamsters On Daycon Picketline

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

"We're here today out of solidarity, pure and simple," DC Nurses Association Executive Director Herman Brown, Jr. said yesterday morning as he and other DCNA members walked the picket line at Daycon. "We don't like management treating people wrong, whether it's Teamsters or nurses." Blowing whistles and jeering "scab" at Daycon truck drivers, the nurses joined the Teamsters 639 members as they chanted "What do we want? Contract!" Said Sandra Falwell, a nurse at Children's Hospital and Metro Council Executive Board member, "We want the Daycon workers to know they're not alone, and to send a clear message to employers everywhere that we're out here and will do what we must to help the workers win." The DCNA contract covering nurses at Children's expires next year and DCNA has been supporting efforts by Nurses United to win a contract at the Washington Hospital Center next door to Children's. "The Teamsters walked with nurses at Washington Hospital recently, so we wanted to show our support for them," said DCNA VP Margaret Shanks, a shop steward at Children's. Ten weeks into the strike against Daycon, a local cleaning supplies company, "morale is still high," Eugene Brown - a Teamsters 639 shop steward at Daycon - told Union City. "We not going back until Daycon returns to the bargaining table; we're holding strong. We have unity out here while inside they have mayhem." After walking the line, DCNA's Herman Brown and Shirley Jackson - a nurse at the DC Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency program - presented strike support checks to the Teamsters. "Every contribution helps," said Local 639's Doug Webber, "Thanks for being here and for the support!"
- Chris Garlock; photo by Boaz Young-El, AFL-CIO Union Summer Intern