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Transdev bus driver picket line (ATU 689): Daily, 3:30am – 5:00pm
Gates of the Cinder Bed Road Division, 7901 Cinder Bed Road, Lorton, Virginia

Support grows for striking Transdev bus drivers
Support grew for striking bus drivers over the weekend as area labor activists, political leaders and supporters turned out to walk the line with ATU Local 689 Metrobus workers who walked out last Thursday. The bus drivers are employed by contractor Transdev at WMATA's Cinder Bed Road garage in Lorton, VA, and while WMATA GM Paul Wiedefeld claims the strike is a private dispute between a contractor and their employees, Local 689 president Raymond Jackson said "There is nothing private about a strike at a company that operates regular Metro buses, on regular Metro routes, with regular MetroBus passengers." Pickets are running daily and supporters can join the line anytime between 3:30a and 5p on weekdays; see Calendar for details. Donate to the Strike Fund here. Show your support for the strike on social media: download and print this sign, then take a photo of yourself, your family, neighbors, or fellow union members and tag @wmata on Twitter and @wmataforward on Facebook with words of support for the strikers. Follow ATU 689 on Twitter and tag @atulocal689 on Twitter or @atulocal689group on Facebook so the union can repost.

"Our cause is right, and our cause is just" say Chicago teachers
"It is important to understand the history our members are making," says the Chicago Teachers Union, which struck last week. "Bold demands, with mechanisms for enforcement, will truly transform Chicago’s public schools. Our cause is right, and our cause is just. We have come too far to settle for anything less." To make a contribution to the Chicago Teachers Union strike fund, click here or make checks payable to AFT, c/o President Randi Weingarten, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001 (please note in check memo the "Chicago Strike Fund"). Click here to add your name to the CTU Solidarity sign on letter.

Today's Labor Quote: Oscar Owens

"Fired up and ready to go"

Owens' signature call-to-arms; the ATU Secretary-Treasurer passed away October 25 after a brief illness. Read more here: ATU Mourns the Passing of International Secretary-Treasurer Oscar Owens

Today's Labor History

Labor History Today (10/28): Cannabis organizing; 2007 Writers Guild Strike
Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this show, originally posted November 4, 2018, Patrick Dixon talks with Clara Mejía Orta about workers in the cannabis industry in California, and Writers Guild of America West president David Goodman remembers the 2007 strike by 12,000 film and television screenwriters. Plus: Bill Fletcher on the 1892 general strike that brought 20,000 black and white workers together in New Orleans; David Fernandez-Barrial on the four million jobs created by the Civil Works Administration in 1933 for Depression-era unemployed; and Dan Duncan pays tribute to the workers lost when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975.
Last week's show: (10/20/19): Immigrant Girl, Radical Woman

The Gateway Arch, a 630 ft high parabola of stainless steel marking the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the waterfront of St. Louis, Missouri is completed after two and one-half years. Although it was predicted 13 lives would be lost in construction, not a single Ironworker died - 1965

Labor history courtesy David Prosten. photo: Carroll Allison, left, and Vito Comporato during the construction of the Gateway Arch. Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Archives

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Published by the Metropolitan Washington Council, an AFL-CIO "Union City" Central Labor Council whose 200 affiliated union locals represent 150,000 area union members. JACKIE JETER, PRESIDENT.

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