Veteran UE Organizer Chris Townsend Talks Organizing Surge in Northern Virginia

Payday Report

Chris Townsend is a veteran union organizer who has lived in Virginia for 20 years. He previously served as the UE's Political action director and the ATU's Organizing Director. Over the past five years, he has seen an upsurge in organizing in Northern Virginia. "I was the organizing director for the Amalgamated Transit Union and in a period of several years, in Virginia, we organized 16 new units. We hadn't done 16 of anything in this state for a long time," says Townsend. Townsend thinks that yesterday's victory of 27,000 teachers voting to unionize in Fairfax County, Virginia, could inspire teachers elsewhere. "If they can prevail on their internal union structures, to take a serious look at health care organizing here in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia, they will find a tremendous opportunity," says Townsend. Listen to the veteran union organizer describe how things are changing in Virginia and what this means for the presidential election.