Downtown BID Tries To Duck Workers

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

If the BID won’t come to the SAMs, the SAMs will go to the BID. Bosses at the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) tried to duck their workers by canceling this morning’s State of Downtown Report shindig, so the red-suited Safety/Hospitality and Maintenance workers, known as SAMs – who have been trying to gain union recognition and had planned to protest today -- will head to BID headquarters instead, tomorrow at noon. The workers, frustrated with pay and sick leave issues, voted for a union nearly two years ago, but the BID has continued to drag its feet, recently appealing the April 4 decision by the National Labor Relations Board dismissing the BID's claims of union intimidation. - photo courtesy IAM