NNU And Teamsters 639 Win Golden Picket Award

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

There was so much Streetheat last year that there are two 2010 Evening with Labor Golden Picket Award winners: National Nurses United, WHC Local and Teamsters 639. At the National Nurses United WHC Local, the nurses at the Washington Hospital Center were an inspiration throughout the year as they battled their employer, first for firing nurses who hadn't been able to make it to work through blizzards that shut down the city, and then to win a fair contract. “Throughout their struggles, the WHC nurses showed fortitude and creativity,” says Metro Council Streetheat Coordinator Chris Garlock, “working with the local labor community to stage several major demonstrations outside WHC as well as mobilizing extensively and effectively within the hospital, culminating in several dramatic ‘marches on the boss’ that saw hundreds of nurses in red scrubs and their supporters wending their way through the hospital.” And at Local 639, striking workers at Daycon Products not only maintained their picket line against the Upper Marlboro cleaning company for months, through the heat and rain, but also conducted an effective roving picket that tracked scab drivers to the company's customers. Like the Mott's strikers in upstate New York, the Daycon strikers became a powerful symbol of worker resistance to unmitigated corporate greed, drawing support from the local labor, religious and political community, which turned out to walk the line to demonstrate their solidarity. Deadline for EWL Program Book ads -- full-page $500, half $250, quarter $125, business $50 -- in the EWL program book is February 25; tickets are $125 each, tables of ten $1250 each: email kmckirch@dclaborarchives.org for ratesheet and details. Click here for other reports on 2010 award-winners: ATU 689's Jackie Jeter Trade Unionist Of The Year; AFSCME Council 26 Wins Organizing Award; Cement Masons 891's Carl Carson DC COPE Award Winner.