An “Everybody’s Got a Right to Live” rally in downtown Baltimore, hosted by 1199SEIU, demonstrated union support for the Poor People’s Campaign earlier this month. An “advocate for retirement equity,” AFSCME MD member Jamaal Craddock won a spot on Maryland’s Retirement and Pension System Board of Trustees. Unions are the solution to DC’s First Source failure, say Stephen Courtien (CHOICE) and John Boardman (UNITE HERE 25) in a Washington Business Journal op-ed. Paul Shearon was elected president of the 80,000-member International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) on June 28. Matthew Biggs will become secretary-treasurer. Shearon had previously served as the union’s secretary-treasurer and before that had worked as the organizing director for IFPTE's largest local, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA/Local 2001), which represents engineers and technical workers at the Boeing Company and other aerospace and defense contractors.