Areas of Arlington National Cemetery are being neglected amid the refusal of grounds-keeping contractors to negotiate with their striking workers.
A section of the cemetery lawn which had been removed and was slated for re-seeding remains unplanted, while areas in between tombstones have become over-grown and neglected, according to Larry Doggett, Business Manager of Local 572 of the Laborers’ International Union, which represents the grounds-keepers. The workers struck on August 15 to protest delays by their employers in negotiating a contract and the firing and discipline of workers who refused overtime. “Veterans and their cemetery deserve contractors who put getting the job done ahead of greed,” said Doggett, himself a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. “It’s time for the Army to put the good of the cemetery first, and tell this contractor to deal with its striking employees.” Read more -- and see photos of the neglect at Arlington Cemetery -- on our website at dclabor.org For the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1996, dancers at San Francisco’s Lusty Lady Club voted 57-15 to be represented by SEIU Local 790. Their first union contract, ratified eight months later, guaranteed work shifts, protection against arbitrary discipline and termination, automatic hourly wage increases, sick days, a grievance procedure, and removal of one-way mirrors from peep show booths. After management cut wages in 2003, the workers struck and won. The workers subsequently bought the club and instituted a peer review process in which the dancers evaluate each other, rather than the managers. Eventually, however, declining business and increased rent took their toll and the Lusty Lady closed on Labor Day 2013. Today’s labor quote is by the dancers at the Lusty Lady "We are workers just like everyone else. We deserve to be treated with the same respect as steel workers, truck drivers, teachers, and social workers. We will not allow ourselves to be treated as less than full working citizens, to be stigmatized and marginalized, just because our work involves taking off our clothes, just because our work deals with the forbidden subjects of sex and sexual desire."
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