http://www.thefairfaxunion.org/

Fairfax Workers Coalition, 3900 Jermantown Road Suite 420, Fairfax, VA (2026)

07/04/2025

Fourth of July 2025.
A document is signed by a group of men, mostly wealthy, all
White, and with motivations of freedom
From
Tyranny and independence of a dictatorial foreign power, one that harms their lives for the profit of a distant king.
For 249 years this idea is debated, evolves. And keeps evolving…. But not without some backward steps, and eruptions of the tyrannical lust for power that resides in the hearts of too many.
The faith is that our people’s collective vision will triumph.
But always there will be another battle.

In Fairfax County, for its workers and citizens, democracy and its promise took a large hit as a corrupt, well bankrolled “election” gave absolute power to a labor union known for just that- the Seiu.
With just 11.8% of the eligible work
Force voting for them, they’ve assumed total
Control of 12,000 employees with a vision of money, power, and political
Control for
An agenda that supports their narrow
Interests. They did it with a uniquely self serving Ordinance they wrote, supported by gullible
Politicians that were given campaign cash. They took the names of people that didn’t support them, even our
FWC
Members, used them as petition signatures without their permission, hid them
From
Subpoenas and
Courts, and then bullied county employees by the thousands, finally resulting in a complicated mail out election where
Unseen ballots were shipped back and forth across the country and
Counted only by them and their proxies.

Once their tiny “majority” (11.8% yes to 10% no to 78 plus % not returned ) the Seiu declared “a victory “ for county workers.
With the assistance of county leaders, they immediately imposed censorship on all other groups, claiming “exclusivity”. FWC was barred from speaking , representing people, fighting for
Workers. And when told
They
Must represent county workers, Seiu promptly refused to
Do
So.
A Dictatorship has been established.

To be fair, county workers were
Warned. For a variety of reasons, none of them valid, they didn’t understand and most didn’t vote.

But freedom demands we keep fighting.
As Gandhi said “think of it… tyranny is always defeated.”

FWC will keep representing , keep
Fighting, and keep helping people that the dictatorship of Seiu leaves behind.

The Fourth of July asks all of us to have faith. Help us do so.

Dave Lyons, Director, FWC
571-991-5386

05/06/2025

Usually don’t say anything personal but wanted
To state how proud I am of
My 22
Year old
Daughter Cameron, who is graduating from Mason on the 16th.
Her experience as a teacher in the Mason Life program for IDD students has caused her to change her career direction towards teaching in this field.
The attached photo is Cameron and other students at the four year graduation last week of these wonderful young people who have faced so many challenges in their young lives.
Public service in the Fire and Rescue department has been my life, and I am always used to hearing what “heroes” we are.
In my view, the people who do the work of helping those in need for the long term so they can lead more
Meaningful lives are far greater heroes than we ever were.
We run emergencies, but these
Folks do the harder work for much longer.
This includes all of my members and employees helping the disabled, the addicted, the victims of domestic violence, and children at risk.
I’m so proud of all my children. Keep answering the call.
Dave Lyons

05/06/2025

We’re at the Fairfax Board of Supervisors budget mark up today, where the BOS offers its changes to the county executive’s proposed FY 2026 budget
Here are some things that were done or restored:
* meals tax at 4%
* reduction in proposed tax increase (from projected meals tax revenues)
* police high school crossing guards restored
* restore Ambulance cuts in Clifton, Gunston, Northpointe, and Fairfax
* disabled transition funds for young adults
Along with CERT program, some senior center funds, landscaping, park trail maintenance, along with some other small fund restorations

What didn’t happen:
* pay increase stays at 2%
* school increase to pay for 7% for
School raises
* County day Care Center not funded (although “dialogue” promised)
* continued elimination of critical services for the mentally ill, disabled and those in need of substance abuse services
* most RIFs were upheld and vacancy eliminations

What does this mean?
County workers be doing more with less
Future raises of any helpful size are doubtful , and collective bargaining unlikely to change that
Schools will have to renegotiate their agreement

This is why, if you really want this all to work, Counry workers need to VOTE NO on having Seiu having exclusive collective bargaining power
We need to get this right. Or we will all lose- and lose a lot

09/02/2024

“Work is love made visible”- Kihlal Gibran, The Prophet

Its Labor Day, the one time of the year when people think about unions, when not thinking about sales on Amazon.

Or when a union is on strike.

Today, thousands of hotel workers across the country are on strike, asking for higher wages and better working conditions.

Don’t cross their picket lines, please. Because while the workers seek more money, it is really about a lot more than money.

It’s about dignity at work, about how we value those who work for us- and our own values.

What Gibran, in the quote above, meant was that the ideals of who we think we are, of what we want to be, are actually seen in the art of workers. And to walk by without noticing or caring, or even worse, to insult and mock honest work, is to demean humanity.

In our world, in Fairfax County and in our Union, the Fairfax Workers Coalition (FWC), we see this every day.

In the way people look at those who
Clean our sewers, who pick up our trash, clean our schools, care for our children, fix the buses that carry them and care for those in need, from senior citizens to infants. When angry, or not receiving (in their minds), the blue ribbon service they deserve, they sometimes demean or harass our workers. Recently a county citizen physically confronted a solid waste worker, calling him a vile racial slur, for the act of informing him what the proper lane was for a drop off at the landfill.

The purpose of FWC is to represent these workers, to fight for a fair wage, and to help them be safe at work.

But the larger mission is to preserve, protect and promote the dignity they, like each of us, deserves.

I’m long retired from the fire department here, and the lasting lesson I received was that the people out there were more heroic than we were.

Now, in the Retirement office, I see mega rich money managers, profiting off the billions in pension funds, on their way to an investment meeting, walking by cafeteria, custodial, trade and admin workers trying to figure out how to live on the pension they’ve earned.

They never notice them or stop to talk, even though these folks are the ones making them wealthy.

Yet these workers are what makes good government happen, and without them, there would be nothing. And the beauty of their work- of love made visible- would vanish.

This Labor Day, think of all those, including yourselves, whose work enriches our lives. And offer the support you can, for everyone- for the dignity of all of us.

Take care, stay safe, enjoy your Labor Day

Dave Lyons
Fairfax Workers Coalition

06/16/2024

To all our members, fellow employees and families, Happy Fathers Day from all of us at FWC.

To be a Dad is to feel pride and at the same time, a sense of how much better you could have done, and would still like to do. Even in his 90’s my father was always asking “is there anything you need, any help?”
Because this is the essence of being a good father, always ask for advice and guidance. It means so much and you will always learn something.

All three of my children are smarter than me. Which is a good thing.

So many of our members strive and struggle every day working to provide for their children. This is why they get up and go, even when the pay and working conditions aren’t great.

And this is why, all of us have to keep fighting for all Dads and Moms- and those who will become parents- for the one dream we have: to make our children’s lives better than ours, so they can do the same thing for their children.

Happy Fathers Day to all!

Dave and the FWC Family

05/27/2024

Week long sales, beach traffic, and the start of summer.

It’s Memorial Day. And it’s about none of the above.

In 1868, Union general John Logan started a national day of rememberance on May 30 for those
Lost in the Civil War- more than 600,000 Americans in what remains our deadliest conflict.
After World War I, it became a national holiday after 100,000 more Americans died.

In 1971, it was formalized as the last Monday in May.

Washington Post columnist Daniel Pink, in an Op Ed published yesterday, advocated for a restructuring of our holiday calendar, to move more individual holidays in conjunction with others to make for even longer time off. He suggested Memorial Day be combined wih the Fourth of July, among other ideas.

Pink aptly noted that as wars are fought by less people, people don’t have the direct connection with war we once did as a people. The growing commercial power of an “three day weekend industrial
Complex” becomes dominant, and polls show many Americans routinely confuse Memorial Day with Veterans Day, and even Labor Day.

An interesting column with undeniable truths. But Pink’s apparently sensible suggestion would be a surrender to where we appearing to be going as a nation instead of how we could change.

The attached photo is of Sarasota National Cemetery, where my parents are. It’s a beautiful place. As you do, I know many people and families to at are forced to ponder the loss of loved ones due to this country’s wars.

If we have trouble remembering which day is which, and that Memorial Day is to honor those who died defending America, perhaps the answer is to remember every day. We can push the political nonsense aside and think of a fundamental value that reminds us of who we are, and should be.

The Fairfax Workers Coalition (FWC) asks all its
Members and supporters to pause, and remember.

Take care, stay safe,

Dave Lyons and the FWC Family

04/17/2024

Are you a Fairfax County employee? Do you know how impacts you?

For the past 2 years, we've seen little to no education on the local ordinance. So today, we want to change that.

Visit https://thefairfaxunion.org/collective-bargaining/ for more information!

03/31/2024

A wonderful Easter to all our members and their communities.
A day to celebrate our common hope of peace, justice, and triumph over all obstacles, for the good of all.
Cherish your family and co-workers today - and every day. We are in this together
FWC Family

01/01/2024

This is Colton, born just before the New Year to our NCS member Jeremy B. and his wife.

As we start the New Year, with a fresh round of old and new battles, listening to the same arguments and trying to build
something new, to change this culture, let us always remember what all of this is about: our families, their futures, and their right to grow and prosper.

FWC is an independent union providing an honest voice that tells it straight to County workers and those who run this place. We know what we have to do and we do it every day. We have to come together to make this place what is should be for all of us, so Colton can have the best future possible.

Happy New Year to all County employees.
From the FWC family to yours!

11/23/2023

The Fairfax Workers Coalition (FWC) is grateful on this Thanksgiving for all our members and county workers, and workers everywhere who are trying to live their best lives and take care of their families.
Good unions share the same qualities as families. They are imperfect and things don’t always go smoothly. Mistakes are made and not everything works well all the time. Sometimes there is struggle and hope is not a given.

But in the end there is a common purpose and cause held together by love and commitment that can conquer all issues and help us pass that love from one generation to the next.

We are, however difficult and however imperfect, committed to building this union on the foundation of shared commitment and love.

The best of thanksgivings to all, and we thank all members and workers for standing up for our beliefs and ideals.

Dave L and all of us.
If responding, post something of your family and hope for the future.

09/11/2023

Good morning all.
22 years ago today, on a bright and beautiful Tuesday morning, our country changed forever.

Everyone remembers that day, whether they were working in the FD (as I was), getting children off to school, or doing their jobs and taking care of their families.
From disbelief, to shock, to anger, and finally action, Americans reacted as one nation, including all those who served in so many ways, all of us originating from so many places in the world.

Today is an anniversary of grief for so many. The sudden empty horror of losing family and friends. The holes left cannot be filled.

What worries me is not our ability to stand up to terror. It’s that this country has never seemed so divided on so many things, and issues that should be matters of rational debate are instead fueled by irrational hatred.

In all of history there will always be demagogues that exploit tragedy. 9/11 is no different. But as Americans we can say no to the hatred, no to division, and yes to the respect we have for our mutual values of love and respect for each other.

If we could remember every day the feeling of unity we felt on September 11, 2001, we could begin to repair the divisions in our country.

Today, when you greet your fellow workers, the family at home and your family at work, remember that spirit and use that kindness to build a better place.

Take care, stay safe,
Dave and the FWC Family

09/04/2023

It’s Labor Day 2023. Here is the work force lined up before dawn at the Newington Solud Waste Facility, ready to hit the road.
The pay is not what it should be, the work can be hard and hot (projected 97 degrees today) or cold and rainy. It’s also hazardous- the Department of Labor ranks refuse and recycling as more injury prone than fire fighting.
Labor Day became an official holiday in 1894, at the behest of growing unions and increasing industry. But it’s about far more than unions.
less than 10% of our US workforce is unionized and those who need the most protections are often the least represented.

While we are proud to represent Fairfax workers, we know how much needs to be done. It’s not just about money. (But we need real pay reform NOW)It’s about working conditions, about safety, about health insurance and many other basic needs. But most of all it’s about dignity and respect.

Khalil Gibran, the great author and philosopher said of labor that “ Work is love made visible”. The act of doing even the most basic tasks is an expression of care and love.

Today raise a toast and a prayer for all who work for their families and for the greater good. From those picking up and recycling your trash, to those watching over the needy and ill in hospitals and group homes, to those staffing every essential function we have come to expect and count on.
For all our Fairfax workers, and all their compatriots everywhere, God bless and keep you safe.

Take care, and stay safe,
Dave, Mike, Patrick, Carol, Annie and all of us in the FWC family.

Fairfax Workers Coalition

07/04/2025

05/06/2025

05/06/2025

09/02/2024

06/16/2024

05/27/2024

04/17/2024

03/31/2024

01/01/2024

11/23/2023

09/11/2023

09/04/2023

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