Foreign Policy unit wins first Guild contract; Contract talks at the Post head Into fifth month10/31/2017
 After nearly a year of collective bargaining, the Washington-Baltimore News Guild and the Foreign Policy magazine have reached an agreement on a two-year contract. Among the highlights of the new agreement are guaranteed raises for everyone and minimum salaries for every position. The bargaining unit’s first contract also features a “just cause” stipulation for termination and all forms of discipline. “We won’t be at-will employees anymore,” said Unit Chair Ben Soloway. “No more arbitrary firing. Discipline will have to follow a very clear process.” The unit was organized in 2016. In other Guild news, contract talks at The Washington Post are now in their fifth month. When on-the-record contract talks resumed Oct. 4, management proposed what the union bargaining team described as “a terrible, short-sighted, morale-destroying proposal.”
- photo by Chris Garlock  Fundamentals in Winning Internal/External Organizing Campaigns is the focus of the next AFL-CIO Organizing Institute, November 17 – 19 in Baltimore. Participants will learn: One-on-One Communication Skills; How to Move Workers to Take Action; ID'ing, Recruiting and Developing Key Workplace Leaders; Mapping and Charting our Workplace. Click here for details and to register.
 The DC LaborFest is sponsoring a special Labor Night performance of The Pajama Game, which just opened a run at Arena Stage. The December 13 show will include a post-show “Talk Back” session with the cast. The classic labor musical deals with labor troubles in a pajama factory, where workers' demands for a seven-and-a-half cent raise are going unheeded, which resonates with the ongoing Fight for $15 and the federal wage freeze. “Terrific Songs…Sassy Dancing…Wiseacre Humor…Knockout Score,” says The Washington Post. Click here to see "The Pajama Game" cast in rehearsal at Arena Stage and here to hear actress Nancy Anderson interviewed on WPFW last Friday. Click here for tickets.
- graphic by Paul Rogers "For ex-slaves and their children, the right to leave one employer for another was second only to the desire to work for one's self as freedom's most precious gift."
- Lichtenstein is the author of "Twice the Work of Free Labor: The Political Economy of Convict Labor in the New South." |