Fourth time was the charm. Sort of. After four meetings with WMATA management, Metro workers on Monday reached a resolution on the contentious issue of Metro custodian work selection. “Local 689 now believes that WMATA has recognized its contractual violations,” said ATU 689 president Jackie Jeter. The agreement comes two weeks after the union’s membership authorized a strike, accusing General Manager Paul Wiedefeld of failing to bargain in good faith. Noting that Wiedefeld once again chose not to attend the negotiations, Local 689 said they’ll meet with his designees again tomorrow “and look forward to continuing to negotiate and resolve the other issues that Local 689 has demanded to bargain with the Authority.” photo: in April, 2017, more than 500 Local 689 members delivered petitions with more than 4,000 signatures to WMATA GM Paul Wiedefeld, demanding that he bargain with his employees in good faith “Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”
Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. Members of the National Football League Players Association begin what is to be a 2-day strike, their first. The issues: pay, pensions, the right to arbitration and the right to have agents - 1970 Fifty-day baseball strike ends - 1981 The Great Shipyard Strike of 1999 ends after Steelworkers at Newport News Shipbuilding ratify a breakthrough agreement which nearly doubles pensions, increases security, ends inequality, and provides the highest wage increases in company and industry history to nearly 10,000 workers at the yard. The strike lasted 15 weeks - 1999 Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services Unable to find a job in his Kyrgyzstan village, Aldaberdi Karimov migrated to Kazakhstan where his employer forced him to sleep in a cold barn with livestock and ultimately paid him $100 for six months' work. Karimov is among 21 million victims of forced labor around the world, which includes human trafficking. Migrant workers are especially vulnerable to human trafficking and forced labor, which have at their core, worker rights violations. Find out more on this World Day against Human Trafficking from the Solidarity Center. |