2011: DC Labor's Year In Review (Part 3)

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)From Wisconsin solidarity to the Verizon strike, Occupy DC and a host of local struggles, 2011 was a banner year for the metro area labor movement. As Union City looks forward to reporting on a New Year of solidarity in 2012, we’re taking a moment to dip into the Union City archive and remember some of the highlights of the past year...

June 24: CSA's Building Futures Program Wins Major Grant Award
The Metro Council’s Community Services Agency Building Futures pre-apprenticeship training program has won a $900,000 grant as part of the Jobs For the Future consortium. “This is a big deal,” said CSA Executive Director Kathleen McKirchy, “we will get nearly $1 million over three years in partnership with the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region and Wider Opportunities for Women to keep our pre-apprenticeship training program going.”

July 12: MontCo Bargaining Bills Derided as "Political Theater"
Calling them “an empty façade,” “hypocritical” and “political theater,” UFCW/MCGEO President Local 1994 Gino Renne blasted a trio of Montgomery County collective bargaining bills yesterday at a packed Council hearing. The bills -- 18-11, 19-11 and 20-11 – would “turn the collective bargaining process into a three-ring circus,” Renne warned County Council-members...

July 26: Post Workers Win Tentative 2-Year Pact
After more than three months of negotiations, the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, CWA Local 32035 has reached a tentative agreement on a two-year contract with The Washington Post. The contract protects job security and seniority and provides for a $13 per week raise for all Guild-covered employees, “the first time in memory that the Post has agreed to a raise in the beginning of the first year of the contract,” reports the Guild...

August 1: Labor Night At Nats A Grand Slam
Labor Night At Nats A Grand Slam: Heat, humidity and another loss by the Washington Nationals didn’t dampen the spirit of solidarity at Friday night’s annual Labor Night at the Nats baseball game. Almost 6,000 metro-area union members filled the stands at Nationals Park for the 5th annual Labor Night at the Nats...