Power At Work Power at Work Blogcast #43: How to Beat a Billionaire: Stadium Battles w/ Samuel Epps, Virginia Diamond, & Greg Akerman
In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by labor leaders from Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia to discuss how the labor movement succeeded in stopping the billionaire owner of two sports teams from relocating those teams from downtown D.C. to the suburbs of Northern Virginia and, in the process, stood up for union jobs and workers in the region. Harris is joined by Virginia Diamond, President of the Northern Virginia AFL-CIO; Samuel Epps, President of the Metro Washington Council, AFL-CIO; and Greg Akerman, President of the Baltimore/DC-Metro Building Trades Council to talk about their efforts to work with the developers to secure a project labor agreement and labor peace agreement, the consequences for workers if the deal went through, and how workers in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. feel about the final result.
Tune in for a fascinating conversation about how the labor movement used solidarity and regional cooperation to stand up against a billionaire and a powerful governor to protect workers' interests.
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Virginia Diamond is the President of the Northern Virginia AFL-CIO. Virginia has also worked as Legislative Counsel to the Virginia Professional Firefighters, a UAW attorney, and a commissionerofthe Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission.
Samuel Epps is the President of the Metro Washington Council, AFL-CIO. Before he was elected President of the council, Samuel was the Political Director at UNITE HERE Local 25.
Greg Akerman serves as the President of the Baltimore/DC-Metro Building Trades. Previously, he served as Northern Virginia Director for the Council.