Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO

AFGE delegates re-elect Cox as ‘challenges have never been higher’

8/20/2018

Agreeing with incumbent President J. David Cox that “challenges have never been higher” to federal workers, delegates to the Government Employees (AFGE) convention in Las Vegas last week elected him to a third 3-year term running the 317,000-member – and growing – union. Delegates also elected Everett Kelly, a district VP, as Secretary-Treasurer. “I’m ready to put it all on the line and lead our members to victory in every fight and against every challenge,” Cox said. “This is about being the biggest, strongest, most organized, and engaged union there is, and I’m not going to stop until we reach that goal. We see the fight ahead. We will take those challenges head on, and as one union we will prevail!”

Labor Quote of the Day: Samuel Gompers

8/20/2018

"Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected."
The English-born American labor union leader founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and served as the organization's president from 1886 to 1894, and from 1895 until his death in 1924.

Today's Labor History

8/20/2018

Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this week's show: Patrick Dixon talks with Katherine Turk about the Equal Rights Amendment and its effect on women’s rights at work. Turk is Associate Professor at UNC Chapel Hill and author of “Equality on Trial: Gender and Rights in the Modern American Workplace.” Our labor history Object of the Week is from the current exhibit at the George Meany Labor Archives at the University of Maryland College Park campus, where the exhibit “For Liberty, Justice, And Equality: Unions Making History In America” is up through September. Plus music from Aretha Franklin!
Hurricane-force winds bring a smoldering fire back to life in the Northern Rockies. The ensuing firestorm burned more than 3 million acres for two days. Several towns were completely destroyed by the fire and at least 85 people were killed, most of them firefighters - 1910

Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services

Metro workers awarded raises but issues remain

8/17/2018

Two years after their previous contract expired, Metro workers have been awarded annual wage increase of 1.6 percent over a four-year period ending in July 2020. The decision was made by an arbitration board after contract negotiations stalled; members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 have been working without a contract since July 2016. The union accepted what it called a “rational decision,” adding that “We look forward to Metro’s timely implementation.” The award -- which also left the current pension system in place -- is effective retroactively to July 1, 2016. The award does not eliminate the issues that provoked Local 689 members to authorize a strike last month, including disciplinary policies, elimination of jobs and open positions, and Metro’s push to privatize some services. In a related action, over 100 Local 689 members and their supporters rallied at noon at Metro Center yesterday to call for WMATA GM Paul Wiedefeld’s firing in the wake of the special Metro train provided for the “Unite the Right” participants last Sunday, despite assurances by the transit agency that this would not be the case. Hear more about this on yesterday's "Your Rights At Work" show on WPFW 89.3 FM.
- report/photo by Chris Garlock

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