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Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report

DMV-area Labor Notes Meet-up: Sat, July 30, 12pm – 3pm
Denizens Brewing Co., 1115 East-West Hwy, Silver Spring, Maryland, 20910
Get-together for union activists who came to the Conference, and anyone who wants to hear more about what the Labor Notes network is all about.

Merriweather Lakehouse Hotel leaflet (UNITE HERE 7): Sat, July 30, 4:30pm – 6:30pm
Corner of Little Patuxent parkway and Divided Sky Lane

APALA Summer Meet and Greet: Sun, July 31, 2pm – 5pm
832 Trinity St, Baltimore, MD 21202

Rally for a Fair Contract for Shoppers workers (UFCW Local 400): Wed, August 3, 4:45pm – 5:45pm
Shoppers, 7790 Riverdale Rd, New Carrollton, MD 20784, USA (map)

Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, August 4, 1pm – 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online.

Union City will be on break next week (August 1-5).

On The Air: Click here to catch this week’s Your Rights At Work radio show (WPFW 89.3FM, Thursdays 1-2p): Get up, stand up; features Jonah Furman on the DMV-area Labor Notes Meet-up. Fired by The Washington Post; a 50-year-old case. Plus music from Bob Marley.

More than 800 workers at the Department of Agriculture (USDA) have joined AFGE after their election to form a union. The campaign was exciting and posed unique challenges as these IT workers all worked remotely and had limited engagement with each other before the organizing drive began. But through phone banking, sending texts, holding virtual meetings and, most importantly, tasking activists to contact their co-workers, they overwhelmingly voted “Union Yes.” “They became organized under the basic principle of wanting a say in their working conditions because they saw firsthand what a difference having a seat at the table could mean,” said John Dean, AFGE’s lead organizer for the campaign. “This election was the workers’ chance to stand up to the agency, and they did.” Read more here.

SMART Local 100 recently celebrated signing a contract with new contractor Bernward Mechanical. A veteran-owned business located in Severna Park, MD, Bernward -- provider of general and mechanical contracting services and Distech Controls in the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond -- is also “signatory to the Plumbers, Steamfitter, Electricians Labors, Painters and, I believe, the Carpenters,” reports SMART 100’s Tom Killeen. “In addition, Bernward’s principal owner, Carl Neimeyer, is running for the 5th Anne Arundel district County Council seat.”
photo (l-r): Chuck Sewell, Chris Taylor, Carl Neimeyer and Tom Killeen. 

Workers at Elementis Specialties Inc., in New Martinsville, West Virginia, joined International Chemical Workers Union Council/United Food and Commercial Workers (ICWUC/UFCW) Local 566C for the better wages and benefits that come with a union contract. Elementis is a global chemical company, and the 25 workers are employed as chemical operators, lab technicians, material handlers and maintenance technicians. 
“The ICWUC is proud of the solidarity the workers of Elementis displayed with their unanimous election win,” said ICWUC/UFCW President Lance Heasley (pictured above, right). “We are looking forward to getting to the bargaining table and working to secure a contract for these workers.”
- AFL-CIO Daily Brief