 Bus drivers and attendants at Seabury Connector have organized with Teamsters Local 639. "These drivers work hard every day transporting seniors around the nation’s capital and now have the opportunity to get the justice they deserve with a Teamster contract," reports Local 639. The organizing win is the seventh consecutive victory for Local 639, which notes that "Expanding our membership brings greater power to all our members."
 A new report released by the AFT’s Albert Shanker Institute confirms that D.C. public schools are "seriously hemorrhaging teachers of color," reports WTU Local 6. The report, “The State of Teacher Diversity in American Education,” shows that the percentage of black teachers in DCPS dropped dramatically from 77% in 2003 to 49% in 2011. The report was the subject of a panel discussion at the National Press Club on Sept. 16, where WTU President Elizabeth Davis (right) was one of the panelists. “DCPS is rapidly moving toward a less diverse teacher workforce even as our classrooms continue to have an overwhelming majority of minority students,” Davis said.
- WTU 6 Facebook page  The Painters team (right) edged out Doyle Printing to win this year's Community Services Agency Golf Tournament, with ATU 689 coming in third. The Painters' Brian Courtien won the 50/50 raffle. "As always, everyone's a winner thanks to their support of the Agency's Emergency Assistance Fund," said Metro Washington Council President Jos Williams. "The generosity of the tournament sponsors and participants is truly inspiring," added CSA Executive Director Kathleen McKirchy. "On behalf of the many area working families who will benefit, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!" Click here for an album of team photos to share and download. photo by Chris Garlock
 When a Metro shutdown last week stranded passengers for hours, “union members stepped in and made sure that what could have been a dangerous ordeal was safe and orderly for the passengers caught in the tunnel,” reports AFL-CIO staffer Kenneth Quinnell on the AFL-CIO Now blog. “Train operators kept us in the know with announcements, and WMATA employees, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689, periodically came through the trains to check on us and make sure no one had an emergency…After about an hour and a half, the lights went out in the train, but nearly instantly firefighters and EMS personnel, from Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 36, jumped into action, opening our car door and directing us out of the train and the quarter of a mile on foot to the Georgia Avenue station…So on behalf of the hundreds of people who were helped out of the trains trapped in the tunnels, we'd like to thank the firefighters, transit employees and EMS workers who helped make sure that a five-hour train stoppage was limited to a two-hour, well-handled and safe evacuation.”photo via PoPville/Twitter
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