Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe  recently spoke at the Alfred K. Whitehead Legislative Conference on March 17 in Washington, D.C.  (Watch the video below) The conference is the cornerstone of the IAFF's legislative efforts. The IAFF has won significant legislative victories on Capitol Hill due largely to the relationships that local IAFF leaders have with their elected officials. The L...

Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) recently spoke at the Alfred K. Whitehead Legislative Conference on March 17 in Washington, D.C.  (Watch the video below) The conference is the cornerstone of the IAFF's legislative efforts. The IAFF has won significant legislative victories on Capitol Hill due largely to the relationships that local IAFF leaders have with their elected officials. The Legi...

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department units responded to a vehicle fire Friday, January 10, 2014, at approximately 1:35 a.m., in the West Annandale area of Fairfax County. The vehicle was located at 9202 Ashmeade Drive. Firefighters encountered a fully involved vehicle on fire in a driveway upon arrival. Firefighters conducted a rapid fire attack and extinguished the fire to a Honda Odyssey va...

Fairfax County suffered a tragic loss with the death of Firefighter Earl Warren Kane. Firefighter Kane was the first line-of-duty death in the department's short history. It was January 10, 1968 when the Fairfax County Fire Department was dispatched for a reported child who fell through the ice at Lake Anne in Reston, Virginia. The average daily temperatures in the early part of January 1968 range...

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department units responded to a townhouse fire, Tuesday, January 7, 2014, at approximately 9:10 a.m., in the Lorton area of Fairfax County. The single-family home is located at 8584 Enochs Drive. Firefighters encountered smoke coming from two floors of the three-story, middle unit townhouse upon arrival. Firefighters conducted an aggressive fire attack and quickly ex...

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department units responded to a commercial building fire, Friday, January 3, 2014, at approximately 3:10 p.m., in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County. The building, Skyline Nail Supply, is located at 7234 Arlington Boulevard. Firefighters encountered heavy smoke and fire coming from the rear of the store, an end unit located in a strip shopping center upon arriva...

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department units responded to a structure fire Sunday, January 5, 2014, at approximately 4:05 p.m., in the McLean area of Fairfax County. The maintenance and storage building is on the grounds of the Madeira School, 8328 Georgetown Pike. Firefighters encountered a building approximately 75 by 75 feet fully involved with fire upon arrival. Firefighters fought the fire...

County firefighters have two families - the one at home and the one at work. With three shift schedules within Fairfax County it is inevitable that our men and women will eventually work on a holiday. So, we were curious how A-Shift was making out away from home and at the fire station. We asked our firefighters, paramedics and 911 call-taker / dispatchers to send us photos of them while on the jo...

When the weather dips below freezing in Chicago, most of the city’s residents do their level best to stay indoors as much as possible. But there’s one group of people who continue to stand outside, braving biting winds and bone-chilling temperatures to ring bells asking for donations: the roughly 2,000 Salvation Army “bell ringers.” According to Major Greg Thompson, general secretary for the Salva...

Mike Compton, one of nine workers fired after protesting alleged wage theft at Walmart's Elwood, Ill., warehouse, won back pay and vindication this week. ( Warehouse Workers for Justice Facebook )   Workers in Walmart’s vast fulfillment network who say they have been treated illegally at work have gotten some good news for the holidays. Last Monday, just days after a Walmart contractor agreed to p...

Honeywell workers have had little to celebrate at recent Christmases. Here, families hold protest signs during the 2010-2011 lockout. (Local 7-699)   For the past several Christmases, workers at Honeywell’s uranium plant in Metropolis, Ill., have had little to celebrate. Most of the workers at the plant have spent the best part of four years in a series of labor struggles with the company: first a...

Back in the days before modern feminism, a young woman looking for work might typically be advised, politely, to “learn a trade,” with the implication that she wasn't bound for college or an elite career, but a humbler job as, say, a secretary or seamstress. Such a phrase might sound condescending today. Yet working in a trade might still be sound career goal for a woman, if she gets the right kin...

On December 6, workers rallied outside of Prospect Capital Corporation, which owns the company that handles most of the concessions at Baltimore-Washington Airport. (Unite Here)   During President Barack Obama’s December 4 speech about income inequality to the Center for American Progress, he named “airport workers” among the many Americans who struggle with low wages and long hours. It’s unlikely...

Is there something in the water in Seattle? The area has seen dramatic actions by and on behalf of workers in the past few months: defeat of concessions at major grocery chains, Boeing workers’ big “no” vote on concessions, a $15 minimum wage voted in for airport workers, and election of a socialist to city council—a candidate who made a city $15 minimum the centerpiece of her campaign. Activists ...

Any working parent will tell you that raising a family might as well be another full-time job—one that comes with no vacation days or health benefits. But millions of Americans don't get days off from their regular job, either, even for the sake of their health or their family’s. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families (NPWF) , just 12 percent of American workers can take paid...