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A housekeeper at the University of Maryland College Park was left with bruises after being assaulted by a supervisor, and AFSCME Local 1072 has demanded the university’s president take action. Noting that this is the second time the supervisor has assaulted a housekeeper, Local 1072 president Dawn Jackson called on UMD president Wallace Loh to investigate and pointed out that when campus workers “have similar types of altercations they are automatically terminated,” urging that the supervisor “be treated in the same manner.”
 Summer brings interns to Washington and once again this year the Metro Washington Council is helping labor interns connect. On Wednesday, a group of interns from LiUNA, DC Jobs with Justice and the Metro Washington Council met up at the Trump Re-election Fundraiser protest at Trump Hotel. Mack Miller, currently interning with the Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO, is the main contact for connecting DC labor interns. Miller is a Rutgers senior majoring in Political Science and Journalism who is deeply involved with United Students Against Sweatshops. He’s already identified more than 20 summer labor interns and is working on plans for a social event soon. If you know about interns in your union or labor ally; email him at [email protected]
 Even during those lazy days of summer, access to food continues to be a problem for area working families. Summers can be especially tough when kids are out of school and school lunches and snacks disappear. Thanks to the area labor family, the Community Services Agency and the Capital Area Food Bank have been the beneficiaries of some recent union food drives. Robert Williams, President of NALC Branch 142, reports that their branch collected 69,619 pounds of food during the Annual Letter Carriers “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive conducted theSaturday before Mother’s Day in May, and this was donated to the Capital Area Food Bank, which provides food to hundreds of metro area food banks, helping to provide food to thousands of our neighbors across suburban Maryland, DC and northern Virginia. And this week, CSA received a carload of food collected by the OPEIU Local 2 members and the staff of the National Electrical Benefits Fund in Rockville. “You can help!” says CSA Executive Director Kathleen McKirchy. “Send us gift cards from Giant, Safeway or Shoppers -- our union grocery stores -- collect non-perishable food at your shop and call us when it’s ready for pick-up or delivery, or send in a financial contribution to CSA earmarked for the Emergency Assistance Fund. Email [email protected] or[email protected] for information.
photo: NEBF’s (l-r) Yvonne Ellis, Mike DeSautels and Lynn Kelly; photo by Kathleen McKirchy  If you missed this week’s edition of “Your Rights At Work, click here to hear Carl Goldman, retiring Executive Director of AFSCME Council 26, Elizabeth Falcon, Executive Director at DC Jobs with Justice, on Jobs with Justice’s 30th birthday and NNU’s Sandra Falwell, on the dangers posed by the GOP healthcare bill.
photo: Goldman at retirement party on Tuesday; photo by Chris Garloc |
