Earlier this month, we noted that some 12,000 office cleaners in the Washington area were planning to go on strike if their demands for higher wages, fewer staffing cuts and health-care benefits for more workers were not met. Looks like the threat worked. more ›

At midnight on October 15, 12,000 office cleaners in the Washington area could go on strike unless a new deal is struck between their union, Service Employees International Union’s 32BJ Local, and the Washington Service Contractors Association. The union is asking for higher wages, fewer staffing cuts and health-care benefits for more workers. more ›

With vocal demonstrations, a strike by unionized Verizon workers has officially arrived around the D.C. region. more ›

approximately 1,700 nurses at Washington Hospital Center, ratified a new contract, putting to bed one of the region's most heated labor disputes. more ›

WJLA is reporting this morning that a tentative agreement has been reached between Washington Hospital Center and a union representing its nurses, a deal which could bring an end to one of the region's longest-running labor disputes. more ›

Nurses at the Washington Hospital Center voted Wednesday to hold a one-day strike in early March to protest staffing and wage cuts amidst lagging contract negotiations. The National Nurses United union, which represents the approximately 1,600 nurses at WHC, has been at loggerheads with the hospital over contract issues since last year. more ›

Last week, we reported that unionized nurses at Washington Hospital Center had announced that they would strike for 24 hours on November 25. But Ben Fischer with the Washington Business Journal reports this afternoon that the strike has now been called off. According to an email sent to employees last night, hospital administration and National Nurses United -- the union representing the nurses -- have agreed to new wage rules which will go into effect in March. The hospital reportedly had a contingency plan in place which would have locked out the nurses for an entire week, a counter-move which appears to have driven the union back to the negotiating table. more ›

A bus driver strike that went into effect early this morning is causing some problems for Prince George's County residents. According to Dave Jamieson, around 100 unionized employees of Veolia Transportation, the company that is contracted to drive buses for the county's "TheBus" transportation system, decided that they'd had enough of faltering negotiations on a new contract and chose to not drive their routes today. The strike obviously caught many morning commuters off guard; Metrobus service was not affected. But hey, when you're talking about landmark labor divides like whether or not to give employees lunch breaks, a work stoppage is bound to happen, right? more ›

D.C. taxicab drivers may have won a small victory in their attempts to derail Mayor Fenty's time and distance meter mandate this week, when a judge awarded them an extra month of the zone system thanks to a silly typographical on the part of the District government. But a hilarious story in today's Post by Sue Anne Pressley Montes outlines their new strategy in getting what they want (namely, zone meters), which includes tactics such as attempting to gather enough signatures to recall Mayor Adrian Fenty (ha!) and something called a "paparazzi campaign" that could find taxi drivers photographing elected officials they encounter (huh?). more ›

This morning a large group of taxicab drivers caravaned slowly down 16th St. NW and circled around Freedom Plaza, honking their horns and creating a large traffic jam all around the downtown area. NBC4 reports that police closed Pennsylvania Avenue for a brief time, but that the closure may not have been related to the taxi protest - a motorcade was spotted in the area. more ›

We've had enough reports from eagle-eyed readers now to say that an unannounced taxicab strike is underway today. Rolling taxi strikes originally began last week on Monday, and were supposed to continue on Tuesday of this week, then Wednesday of next week, and so on. No strike actually occurred, however, on Tuesday. This 2nd-week Thursday action was not made known to the public beforehand. more ›

It's the second week in what was supposed to be an indefinite period of rolling taxicab strikes. Last week's strike, on Monday, definitely affected morning commutes and traffic, but seemed to end before really causing problems for folks trying to catch a cab on their way from work to happy hour. Now it's Tuesday on the second week, and we have to ask: are the taxi strikes already failing? more ›

Assessments of the effectiveness of Monday's first rolling taxi strike are decidedly mixed. The Post takes a look at how limousine drivers took advantage of the opportunity to charge $20 for a one-zone fare yesterday morning. The Examiner offers just a quick recap before quoting Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham as seeming to side almost completely with the cabbies. more ›

Aimee Mann never seemed like one of pop's 500 likeliest candidates to release a Christmas album, but last year’s One More Drifter in the Snow was a tasteful, minor-key treat, and her “1st Annual Christmas Show” at the Birchmere last December was one of the best concerts of 2006. As she promised she would at the end of last year’s freewheeling interfaith revue, she's hitched up the sleigh again this year for a monthlong yule-tour that landed for the first of two shows at the Birchmere last night. As before, the show mingled seasonal fare with secular material from Mann’s deep songbook, music with comedy, and Christmas with Hanukkah. Kind of. more ›

Good morning, Washington. It turns out that House Pages don't need lecherous congressmen's help to make scandalous headlines: two have just gotten busted for inappropriate behavior in a House elevator. They've been dismissed, bringing the year's total fired pages to five — two others were caught shoplifting, and one was booted for fighting. Needless to say, it looks like the program — the oversight of which has been in turmoil — will be getting... more ›

On Sunday the Post ran a big story on the future of SmarTrip cards containing some good news for DCist commenters who have long complained that the problem with SmarTrip is that you can't use them and take advantage of any of Metro's special discount passes. WMATA has announced that by the end of 2008, SmarTrip technology will allow customers to realize the benefits of its special passes like the 7-Day Fast Pass, Montgomery County's... more ›

FRIDAY: >> Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are at the 9:30 Club with Kristeen Young and Partyline, $15, 9 p.m. Also Saturday with Kristeen Young and Ris Paul Ric. >> DC9's Liberation Dance Party hosts Brooklyn's Jaguar Club. $6, 9 p.m. SATURDAY: >> The Historic Sixth and I Synagogue hosts The Eight, D.C.'s part of a "worldwide Hannukah party" featuring the LeeVees, DeLeon and D.C.'s own Black and White JohnsonsJacksons. $12/$18, all ages, 9 p.m.... more ›

The White House Christmas Tree lighting ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday Nov. Dec. 6, at 5 p.m., which means without a doubt, if you can avoid driving your car in the city, you really should. The annual ceremony always screws up downtown traffic in an extreme way. Add the leftover snow and ice on the ground into the mix, and we can promise you a traffic clusterf*** of epic proportions tomorrow evening. If you'd... more ›

There are no shortage of Dickensian options for D.C. theatergoers, from the traditional Ford's production to the indulgent Arena Staging, set in 1941. The innovative RussianGeorgian-influenced dance-inspired theater company Synetic has thrown its hat into the ring, and the results are worth seeing, if not as unique as one might expect. Given its history of wildly divergent takes on popular classics, it's a bit of a surprise that this Christmas Carol, in many ways, is... more ›

Straight women and gay men all across D.C. were presumably disappointed by the news that came out over the Thanksgiving holiday that Brad Pitt had dropped out of the production of State of Play, a big-budget political thriller set to begin filming here in Washington this winter. You may recall that Pitt had stopped by the Washington Post newsroom in September to do some research on the character he was slated to play in the... more ›

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits... more ›

The big day you've been waiting for with the excitement of a child all year is almost here -- the day that Santa Claus the Department of Public Works suspends residential mechanical street cleaning for the winter. Residents will be able to park freely without fear of being ticketed for being on the wrong side of the road after this Friday, Nov. 30, when “No parking/street cleaning” restrictions will be lifted. A date has not... more ›

Good morning, Washington. It's news of the weird day today on DCist, as the Post tells the bizarre story of two 2nd-year engineering students from U-Va. who have been charged with the kidnapping of a man in Tysons Corner and demanding $500,000 in ransom. Both the two kidnappers and the victim are Chinese nationals who had been living with host families in Virginia while attending college. Police arrested Guanyu Lu and Baichuan Shu, both 19,... more ›

MONDAY >>Satisfy your cheese cravings as former American Idol star (and Richmond, VA native) Elliot Yamin plays the 9:30 Club, with the Last Goodnight and Josh Hoge. $25, Doors at 7 p.m. >>Australian pop singer Ben Lee -- he of the short-lived Bens and "Catch My Disease" moderate fame -- comes to Alexandria's Del Ray neighborhood to play the Birchmere. Joining him is are Cary Brothers. $19.50, 7:30 p.m. TUESDAY >>Dinosaur Jr. just can't stop... more ›

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and... more ›

Black Friday, the be-all, end-all of go-crazy shopping days (well, not for those celebrating "Buy Nothing Day"), is less than two turkey-filled days away. But in our blind rush to leave a tithe at the alter of mass consumerism, we often lose our thrifty ways. Not to worry - for those of us with office jobs, that raise is right around the corner, coming soon to help ease those credit card bills come January. Right? more ›

It was only with intense patience and a deep well of courage that Samer Farha was finally capable of trapping the long sought after Land Shark in his wide-jawed f/4 aperture shutter. Though the creature has become more elusive these days, now that it has seized a fleet of Segways for its nefarious purposes, it finally emerged once prey ran low in the back alleys of Pennsylvania Avenue and Union Station's gift shops.... considered... more ›

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the... more ›

Salad days are usually something we look back on with a mix of nostalgia and embarrassment, but the folks at Chop't Salad are embracing them from the get go and celebrating them as soon as they kick off. How? Free salad. Penn QuarterChinatown's newest resident is throwing the doors of their first Washington location wide open today with free salad for all who stop by. The idea behind Chop't is customization. With a bevy of... more ›

The Germans have a lot of long words that encompass very difficult concepts. Words like "schadenfreude," "Hubschrauberlandeplatz," and "Verantwortungszuständigkeiten." I don't know if they have word for the frustration you feel when you've thought that your team had already managed to overcome the mistake you thought was going to cost them the game -- like a fourth-quarter Ladell Betts fumble -- only to discover that the relief-shattering error that was going to lead to a... more ›