Local labor “inspired” by WV teachers

Over 70 people packed the Shirlington Busboys and Poets Tuesday evening to hear from leaders of the recent WV teachers’ strike, in what was the most successful Shirlington Bread & Roses event yet. A short presentation, during which AFT Jefferson County local union president Lynneia Atkinson (left) described how she channeled her “inner Mother Jones,” was followed by a nearly two-hour Q&A session. Attendees were “inspired by (the teachers') solidarity in all 55 counties, with support from the community, parents, students, and the entire labor movement,” said NoVA Labor president Virginia Diamond. “From now on we’ll say to our employers, ‘Don’t make us go West Virginia!’”
photo: (l-r) Atkinson and support services leader Tena McElwain; photo by Michael Shea, courtesy NoVA Labor