 Every day TSA officers screen over 1.7 million airline passengers. Every day they stop, on average, 8 guns from getting on to airplanes. And yet, says AFGE, which represents the officers, "they’re treated like second-class federal employees with lower pay and fewer rights at work — every single day." Last month, 19 U.S. Senators urged TSA to give TSA officers the same civil service and labor rights enjoyed by other Department of Homeland Security employees. After TSA officers rejected the last proposed contract earlier this year, the negotiating team returned to the table and have now reached agreement on a majority of the contract, with the remaining provisions going to arbitration. Read more here.
 "Congrats to one of our very own, Randy Erwin, for being elected National President of NFFE-IAM at their recent convention in Florida!" says the Virginia AFL-CIO's Julie Hunter. Erwin is also a member of NOVA Y.E.L.L., the Northern Virginia Young Emerging Labor Leaders, and serves on the Board of Trustees at the Metro Council's Community Services Agency. “As the country’s first federal employee union, NFFE has a rich history of fighting for federal employees," said Erwin. "I look forward to contributing to that storied history and growing this union over the next four years. Federal employees and NFFE members can count on me to be a relentless advocate for federal workers.”
 On this date in 1891, Tennessee sent in leased convict laborers to break a coal miners strike in Anderson County. The miners revolted, burned the stockades, and sent the captured convicts by train back to Knoxville.
In 1941, after 14 years of labor by 400 stone masons, the Mount Rushmore sculpture was completed in Keystone, South Dakota. And in 1971, in a sign of the changing times, the International Alliance of Bill Posters, Billers and Distributors of the United States and Canada surrendered its AFL-CIO charter and disbanded. - compiled/edited by David Prosten at Union Communication Services  When Donald Trump says, “This election is rigged”—he should know. His buddies are rigging it. That's according to investigative reporter Greg Palast, whose new film "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" plays at the Angelica Pop-Up at Union Market this week only. The DC Labor FilmFest has four free pairs of passes; email [email protected] to be included in the raffle. Shows are today at 11:45am, 2:15pm and 4:30pm, and Tues-Thu 11:45am, 2:15pm, 4:30pm and 7:15pm. Part documentary, part film-noir detective story, the film features cameo appearances by Shailene Woodley, Rosario Dawson, Ed Asner, Ice-T and Richard Belzer and looks into “Interstate Crosscheck,” a GOP funded computer program that’s currently in place in 30 states and which can eliminate up to 7.2 million voters, primarily voters of color.
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