 Put those snow-shoveling muscles to work bowling strikes and spares this Sunday at the “Bowling for Gold” Union Bowling Tournament, which benefits the Community Services Agency’s Emergency Assistance Fund. Teams bowl at 10a and 1p at the Crofton Bowling Centre in Crofton MD. Call Kathleen McKirchy at 202-974-8221 or email [email protected]. “Teams always looking for subs so if you haven't registered and want to come on out please do,” says McKirchy.
photo: 2015 AFGE 631 “Attitudes to Spare” bowling team; photo by Chris Garlock/Union City  AFSCME 3976 President Patrick Wicklund has a ready answer to the “What have you done for me lately?” question members often ask their union. “Transit benefits,” says Wicklund, whose members work at USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). “AFSCME just won a hard fought benefit for FAS employees on the Hill,” reports Wicklund in Local 3976’s latest newsletter. “The transit benefit will almost double the maximum from $130 to $255 each month…Without AFSCME there would have been no initial 2009 transit benefit increase and more importantly we wouldn’t even have the transit benefits in the first place!” Noting that “This is only a part of what we do,” Wicklund adds that “our local is your local, it’s only as effective as we want to make it.”
 “I heard from a lot of you about the great West Virginia ‘Mine Wars’ program last night,” writes local labor educator Bill Barry, “so here's one suggestion--I just sent a donation to our local PBS station with a note about how much I liked the program and how I would like to see more labor history locally (where your station can show some initiative) as well as on PBS. So prod your local station (and sweeten this push with a donation) and suggest some local labor history events that could be featured.”
 “We sought justice because equal pay for equal work is an American value. That fight took me ten years. It took me all the way to the Supreme Court. And, in a 5-4 decision, they stood on the side of those who shortchanged my pay, my overtime, and my retirement just because I am a woman.” Lilly Ledbetter, who also said “Because women still earn just 77 cents for every dollar men make. Those pennies add up to real money.”
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