(WASHINGTON, DC) – Yesterday, the leaders of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO, the Baltimore-DC Metro Building Trades, 32BJ SEIU, and UNITE HERE Local 25 and Local 23 issued the following statement:
We are pleased to announce our support for B26-288: Robert F. Kennedy Campus Redevelopment Act of 2025. After several months of negotiations, our labor organizations have reached and signed agreements with the Commanders ownership team, ensuring that the stadium and adjacent hotels create quality construction and post-construction jobs for District residents. We thank Council Chair Phil Mendelson and the members of the council for their support.
We now have a truly transformative development project that will bring the Commanders back home to the District of Columbia and ensure that those who will build and who will work at these properties have decent wages, health insurance, and a pension.
We now have a truly transformative development project that will bring the Commanders back home to the District of Columbia and ensure that those who will build and who will work at these properties have decent wages, health insurance, and a pension.
We especially thank Councilmembers Zachary Parker, Janeese Lewis George, Charles Allen, Robert White, Brianne Nadeau, Matt Frumin, and Christina Henderson for their advocacy on behalf of blue-collar workers. They did not cave under pressure.
Most pivotally, Councilmembers Lewis George and Parker issued a public statement on Thursday, July 31, stating that “(c)reating good union jobs for DC residents should be very simple for the Commanders to agree to before the vote tomorrow.” Councilmembers Parker and Lewis George held the line until the team committed to project labor agreements for two of the RFK Campus site’s anticipated hotels and labor peace agreements covering stadium concessions, security, janitorial cleaning, and parking, as well as the hospitality workforce at adjacent hotels.
We now have a truly transformative development project that will bring the Commanders back home to the District of Columbia and ensure that those who will build and who will work at these properties have decent wages, health insurance, and a pension.
###
Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO brings together union locals in Washington, DC and five counties in Maryland, representing more than 150 affiliate unions and 150,000 working people.
The Baltimore-DC Metro Building Trades Council represents 28 construction trades unions in the Baltimore/Washington DC/Northern Virginia region, which together represent more than 30,000 skilled craft professionals in the building and construction industry.
UNITE HERE Local 25 is a hospitality workers union that represents 6,500 workers in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Local 25 members are primarily immigrants and women of color.
UNITE HERE Local 23 represents 25,000 food service workers at stadiums, convention centers, universities and museums, airport concessions, and hotel and parking attendants in 12 states and the District of Columbia.
With more than 185,000 members in 12 states, including 22,000 in the D.C. Metropolitan Area, Richmond, VA and Baltimore, MD, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country.