March 25-31 marks Farmworker Awareness Week – a week that culminates on March 31, Cesar Chavez Day. The backbreaking work of planting and harvesting our food is largely performed by immigrants from Latin America for low pay under difficult working conditions. The Catholic Labor Network is part of the National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM), an interfaith coalition standing in solidarity with farmworker organizations such as the UFW, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Today the UFW is seeking reforms in California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act to make it easier for farmworkers to form unions; the FLOC is campaigning for RJ Reynolds to clean up abuses in its tobacco supply chain; and the CIW is calling on Wendy’s to source its tomatoes from growers committed to fair labor practices. The CLN and the NFWM continue to support farmworkers in all of these initiatives. Read more here. The first-ever Wizards Labor Night tomorrow night features the Wizards taking on the arch-rival Chicago Bulls. The MWC’s Community Services Agency will receive $5 for each ticket sold. CLICK HERE to order individual tickets ($19 - $175); for group sales, contact Grant Mintz: 202-661-5075; [email protected]. Dyana Forester has been re-elected to serve a second term as president of the Metro Washington Labor Council AFL-CIO, following elections for the 2022-2025 term that were held last week. Forester and the MWC’s vice presidents, treasurer, secretary and trustees were unopposed and were elected by acclamation at the Council’s March 22 meeting. Seventeen candidates were nominated for the 16 “at large” seats; an online election conducted by ElectionBuddy was held March 22-25 and the 16 nominees receiving the most votes are the winners. The entire 2022-2025 Board will be sworn in at the April 26 Delegate Meeting.
2022-2025 MWC Board President: Dyana Forester (UFCW 400) 1st Vice President: Robert Hollingsworth (AFSCME Council 20) 2nd Vice President: I. Chuck Clay (IATSE 22) 3rd Vice President: Herbert Harris (BLET Division 482, DCSLB/IBT) Treasurer: Eric Bunn (AFGE 2725) Secretary: Lisa Wilsonia Blackwell-Brown (UFCW 1994 MCGEO) Members: Greg Bowen (ATU 689), Dena Briscoe (Nation's Capital and Southern MD Area Local, APWU), Robin Burns (DCNA), Tom Clark (IBEW 26), Louis Davis (SEIU 32BJ), Bill Davis (Teamsters 639), George Farenthold (OPEIU 277), Daniel Fields (SEIU 722), Stephen Frum (NNU), Donald Havard (IUOE 99), Ottis Johnson (AFGE District 14), Thomas Killeen (SMART 100), Roxana Mejia (Painters DC 51), Jacqueline Pogue-Lyons (WTU 6), Wanda Shelton-Martin (AFSCME NUHHCE 1199DC), Mike Spiller (OPEIU 2). Trustees: Djawa Hall (SEIU 1199), David Richardson (AFGE 12), Timothy Traylor (ACE-AFSCME Local 2250). |