Labor In The News: Teamster Custodian's Contributions Honored

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

“Some men get buildings named after them; others, streets. Ron Hillyer is getting a hallway.” Hillyer (r), recently-retired D.C. school custodian and a member of Teamsters 639 for more than 25 years, is the focus of Theresa Vargas’ report in the September 2 Washington Post. “When Hillyer retired this year, ending a three-decade career with the system,” writes Vargas, “Janney Elementary School in the Tenleytown section of Northwest Washington realized that it was losing more than just the man who kept the terrazzo tiles clean. It was losing its talent show emcee, its guide for the Halloween walk through the building's scary underbelly, its mock Civil War soldier who, with little prodding, would show up dressed in full uniform, ready to talk about the roles that African Americans played during the war.” Hillyer told the Post that one of his reasons for leaving after three decades was the new atmosphere under Chancellor Michelle Rhee, “one in which he felt that employees' institutional knowledge was less valued.” Click here for the full report and a gallery of photos of Hillyer.
- photo by Jahi Chikwendiu, courtesy The Washington Post