"Scabs Go Home" Say MCGEO Workers
Thursday, July 8, 2010(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Responding to recent attempts to raid UFCW 1994 MCGEO members by “decertified
scab unions,” dozens of Montgomery County government workers hand-billed
outside the Gaithersburg Holiday Inn during rush hour Wednesday afternoon. The
presence of a giant inflatable rat on loan from the Laborers -- which has been
on picket duty with striking Teamsters at Daycon for the last two months --
underlined the message of local union solidarity in the face of out-of-town
interlopers. “They’re trying to poach our members,” said UFCW 1994 MCGEO
Organizing Coordinator Amy Millar, pointing to the hotel where the Massachusetts
and New York based NCEU and UPSEU “rogue unions” were attempting to hold a
membership meeting. “These scavengers are nothing more than scabs and they
need to go back where they came from.” Millar told Union City that
the two groups have been decertified from some of their own units, have raided
the Building Trades, IBEW, Laborers, Teamsters, SEIU and AFSCME and have been
the target of several Labor Department audits citing “questionable practices
and bookkeeping deficiencies.” Jamele McLaurin – a six-year member of UFCW
1994 MCGEO – told Union City, “This group is making impossible promises about wages and benefits that
can’t be delivered on in a booming economy, let alone during a budget
crisis.” He added, “They are going about their business in an underhanded
and sneaky way- they’re essentially trying to steal us from our union. It’s
unethical and it’s disgusting.” The UFCW 1994 MCGEO workers rallied for over
2 hours in the suffocating heat and humidity, clanging cow bells and waving
signs at passing traffic that read, “NCEU, UPSEU Just Beat It!” McLaurin
added, “I’m proud to be a member of my union- they fight hard for us every
day and deliver on their commitment to bettering our workplace. We stand strong
and united together.”
– report by Adam Wright; photos
by Boaz Young-El, AFL-CIO Union Summer Intern