News

The Arlington Education Association (AEA) is calling for a boycott of Starbucks in solidarity with a unionization campaign.

The local teachers’ union announced yesterday (Thursday) that it had joined the “No Contract, No Coffee” campaign, urging the public not to patronize the coffeehouse until a contract is reached with Starbucks Workers United.


News

No resolution is in sight for an unfolding conflict between Arlington County’s leadership and its firefighter union.

Last month, IAFF Local 2800 held its second vote of no confidence against Fire Chief David Povlitz, reiterating doubts in his job performance and calling for his removal.


News

Arlington County’s firefighter union has taken a vote of no confidence against Fire Chief David Povlitz.

The vote passed by wide margins today (Wednesday), with about 81% of voting members calling for the chief to resign, IAFF Local 2800 announced. About 71% of the union participated.


News

Arlington Transit workers have reached a tentative deal with their employer, diminishing the threat of possible disruption to ART bus service.

If ratified, the agreement would put an end to several months of increasingly tense negotiations between ART workers and the county-contracted transportation company Transdev.


News

Arlington Transit (ART) workers are threatening to strike over a dispute about pay and work conditions.

About 80 ART workers staged a “practice picket” before dawn yesterday (Monday) in a show of solidarity and a signal that they are prepared to escalate the conflict with their county-contracted employer, France-based transportation company Transdev.


News

Local elected officials are throwing their weight behind a unionization effort at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City.

Writing on behalf of the Board earlier this month, Arlington County Chair Libby Garvey noted that over 70% of housekeeping workers at the hotel next to Reagan National Airport signed union authorization cards in July, filing for a union election.


News

The Arlington School Board has approved construction of a new Arlington Career Center building without a guarantee of paying workers a prevailing wage.

Seeking to avoid rebidding the project and causing at least a year of delays, Board members voted 4-0 last night (Thursday) to finalize a $132 million contract that has drawn criticism from Arlington state representatives, labor groups and the local NAACP chapter.


News

Arlington’s state legislators are calling on school officials to provide more labor protections for workers building the multimillion-dollar Arlington Career Center.

Sens. Adam Ebbin and Barbara Favola, along with Delegates Patrick Hope, Alfonso Lopez and Adele McClure, sent a letter to the Arlington School Board last month requesting a prevailing wage requirement. This would require workers to receive wages comparable to market rates when constructing the roughly $180 million project at 816 S. Walter Reed Drive.


News

A petition filed by a Union Kitchen employee is calling for the end to its relationship with its labor union, but the union is dismissing the effort as a ploy by management.

It was announced on Friday that a Union Kitchen employee has filed a petition with the National Labor Review Board (NLRB) to end its relationship with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400. The petition has reportedly been signed by a number of Union Kitchen employees, including those who work at the Ballston location


News

(Updated at 2:25 p.m.) A major rally is being planned for later this week in front of the county government headquarters, in a show of solidarity with recently-unionized Starbucks employees.

The president of the AFL-CIO and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) are both expected to attend, among others.


Around Town

Union Kitchen employees, including those at the Ballston location, have officially won their election to form a union.

Yesterday (June 21), employees at five Union Kitchen locations announced that a majority voted in an election to unionize with the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400. This includes employees at the Ballston retail shop and restaurant located at 4102 Wilson Blvd.


News

Metro Tests New Tech in Pentagon City — The Transportation Security Administration and Metro rolled out new security technology at the Pentagon City Metro station on Tuesday. The system “can detect an individual concealing an improvised explosive device, such as a suicide vest or another weapon.” [Fox 5, Twitter]

HQ2 Leads to Development Boom — “Arlington officials, developers, market researchers — everyone, really — predicted that Amazon.com Inc.’s arrival in the county would generate a development boom in the company’s neighborhood. So far, they’ve been right.” [Washington Business Journal]


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