RWDSU Local 21 joined thousands at the Healing Appalachia music festival this September, raising awareness and connecting people in recovery with resources and opportunities. The annual event brings music and community together to support those impacted by addiction across the Appalachian region and Local 21 was proud to be part of it showing the community in recovery how a union can be part of that support system.

On September 9–10, RWDSU members at TreeHouse Foods in Farmers Branch, Texas took an important step forward by exercising language in their collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The TreeHouse CBA includes a provision requiring training for stewards and supervisors, conducted by the Federal Mediation Conciliation Services (FMCS), with the company covering costs and lost wages. But in practice, this clause has not recently been regularly utilized. This year, the RWDSU Tennessee District Council made sure that changed. With FMCS unable to provide the training under the current administration, the National Mediation Conciliation Services (NMCS) stepped in.

This year marks the 100^th anniversary of RWDSU Local 338 being officially charted as a union, a milestone that deserves enormous celebration and congratulations to all the members past and present that have made this possible. Like all organizing stories Local 338’s didn’t begin with its charter, but years before that with a small group of workers that came together to organize and fight for a better and safer workplace.

Workers at Prairie Farms in Fort Wayne have ratified a powerful new four-year contract, bringing stability and security after weeks of uncertainty about the future of the plant. The bargaining committee Alton Salary, Jonathen Smith, and Shane Eaton along with Indiana Joint Board President Geoff Stinson and RWDSU International Representative Patrick Hissong, successfully negotiated an agreement that delivers some of the biggest gains workers can remember at the facility.