UNITE HERE Local 100 members attended New York Mayor Bill De Blasio’s bill signing, on October 31st 2016 at city hall, enacting legislation that protects food service workers. This bill requires a 90-day retention period, for food service workers, when an owner or operator terminates a food service contract for a corporate cafeteria, college, arena, or cultural institution.
This bill benefits so many hardworking men and women in the food service industry in New York, along with families, who depend on these jobs. The Worker Retention Bill will give these workers job security by giving them time to plan ahead or stay after an evaluation process by their new employer. “This is a victory, not only for our union members, but for all food service workers in New York City. It is also a victory for employers who now have the opportunity to hire an experienced work force,” said Jose Maldonado, Secretary Treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 100, which represents over 15,000 food service workers.
Members of Local 100 work in landmark locations such as MetLife Stadium, Madison Square Garden, Barclay Center, 21 Club and airports. Members of UNITE HERE and non-union workers alike can breathe a sigh of relief knowing they are now protected from this issue. “Job security is a major factor for me and this bill is great for working people. It’s good to know that people can expect that throughout the city,” Andrew Larrier Vendor at Madison Square Garden.
Op-ed by President D. Taylor in the Guardian.
It’s a tough time for many working people in the United States. Many of us are still reeling from the results of the November 8 election, in which our fellow citizens elected Donald Trump and allowed Republicans to keep control of both houses of Congress.
There were a few bright spots this week. Members of UNITE HERE were critical in keeping the battleground state of Nevada blue and defeating anti-immigrant Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio.
We won those victories by focusing on the issues that matter to workers—those with a union and those without a union. Reaching out to all working people is the only way to build a big enough base to win. It sounds simple, but requires commitment and a long-term organization.
Click here to read the full piece
After an announcement by the National Labor Relations Board that the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was violating the National Labor Relations Act by refusing to bargain with the Culinary Workers Union after hotel employees voted to join the union last year, Hillary Clinton issued the following statement:
“Donald Trump likes to brag about his skills as a negotiator—but yesterday, he had to be ordered by the National Labor Relations Board to stop breaking the law, respect his workers’ fundamental rights to organize and bargain collectively, and come to the table. It’s appalling, but it’s not surprising. This is a man who personally signed a contract with a union-busting firm to try to stop UNITE HERE and the Culinary Workers’ Union from organizing in the first place, and engaged in a months-long intimidation campaign to bully his workers against voting to form a union.
“I was proud to visit workers on the picket line at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, and even prouder when they overcame Donald Trump’s intimidation campaign and were officially certified as a union earlier this year. I believe that when unions are strong, families are strong—and when families are strong, America is strong. And I will always stand with workers in protecting their rights to organize, bargain collectively, be safe on the job and retire with dignity, and if I am elected President, workers will always have a seat at the table and a champion in the White House.”
Read the statement here.
By D. Taylor, UNITE HERE President
With a critical election approaching, millions of Americans who buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges are getting smacked by sticker shock this week: premiums for benchmark Silver plans will rise an average of 25% next year.
The publicity around the 13 million exchange customers obscures an even bigger problem. When measured against inflation, family coverage premiums for 156 million Americans who get insurance from their jobs are growing faster than they were in the five years before the law. In response, employers are shifting premium costs to employees and hiking copays and deductibles.
Whether covered on the exchange or on the job, 43% of insured Americans say it is difficult or impossible to afford their deductibles, and medical expenses have driven more than 11 million Americans into poverty. New Republican proposals to tax job-based benefits will make it worse.
Why hasn’t this been fixed? Too many “experts” think costs are out of control because we use too much health care. The solution? “Skin in the game” — make us all pay more so we use less.
Unfortunately, these “experts” have it all wrong. Americans already have the second highest of-pocket costs in the world and we visit our doctors and go to the hospital less often than people in other countries.
The problem isn’t us, it’s the prices we pay to health care corporations that are becoming so powerful they can charge whatever they want. New studies show that we pay an average of nearly $1,900 more for the same services in places dominated by one hospital system than in areas with real competition. And every few months, another scandal like EpiPen reminds us that drug companies are so powerful they can also dictate prices.
Rather than take on these powerful corporations and fix the ACA, the Republicans have decided that we really are the problem. Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” budget proposes a punitive tax on employer-based health insurance to try to force us to pay even more and use even less.
This isn’t the first try to tax health care. The ACA included a 40% excise tax on so-called “Cadillac” health care plans. But the tax didn’t target Cadillac owners – it would affect the people who clean your hotel room, prepare your in-flight meal, feed your college students and serve your drinks at the casino. They’re members of our union: low-wage workers, almost all women, who have sacrificed literally billions of dollars in wage raises over the past thirty years so they can build some of the best, highest-quality and most affordable family health care in America.
Our members spoke out last year and convinced Congress to delay the Cadillac tax, and they’ve gotten Secretary Clinton to pledge a full repeal. The odds are good that this tax will go away early next year.
But just as one tax scheme fizzles out, another pops up. This time, the taxes are tucked into Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” budget. His plan would raise the cost of employer-sponsored benefits of 156 million Americans and further discourage employers from offering decent, affordable health insurance. It’s an even worse idea than the Cadillac tax and we need to stop it cold.
The ACA has provided health insurance to millions of people, given hope to people with pre-existing conditions and made insurance fairer for women. So of course the Republican mantra “repeal and replace” is just another phrase for stripping coverage from millions of people and turning corporate health care monopolies loose to charge even more outrageous prices.
But let’s be clear – the ACA is broken and needs major fixes. Congress and the new President have to get rid of the idea that ordinary Americans are the problem and stand up to the billion-dollar industries that put ever-higher prices on our health. There is a lot of work to do to fix the ACA, but step one isn’t complicated: Don’t tax our health care.
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D Taylor is General President of UNITE HERE International Union, the 270,000 member union for North American hotel, food service and gaming workers. UNITE HERE’s non-profit health benefit funds, operated in partnership with industry, are widely recognized as leaders in innovative delivery system design, quality-driven purchasing and patient education.
Early in the morning of October 25th the Harvard University dining hall workers reached a tentative agreement with the university administration. The victory came after the dining service workers struck for twenty-one days. Workers picketed, marched, rallied and took arrests in acts of civil disobedience. The strike came to a close after a massive student walk out and an 8 hour sit-in of the human resources building.
On Wednesday, workers overwhelmingly voted yes on the collective bargaining agreement, and their final demands have been met:
- Workers will not be forced to bear the burden of increased health care costs. They will maintain high quality, affordable health insurance.
- All workers willing to work full time will be guaranteed $35,000 per year. This includes guaranteed income during the summer months when many workers are without work and do not have access to unemployment.
“I can report, coming out of our contract ratification meeting, that we achieved every goal without exception,” Brian Lang, Local 26 president, said. “It’s a testament to when working-class people make a decision to draw a line in the sand and say, ‘Enough is enough, and we’re not gonna take it anymore.’”
Read more.
In December 2015, workers at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas voted to unionize – but Mr. Trump chose not to honor the results of that election and has refused to negotiate a contract with his workers. Hoping to get Donald J. Trump to the Las Vegas negotiating table, UNITE HERE has launched a national boycott of Trump businesses.
Learn more at http://www.vegastravelalert.org/trump.
In Phoenix, UNITE HERE Local 631 and CASE Action have mobilized an inspiring committee of high school volunteers who are working to unseat Sheriff Joe Arpaio (“America’s meanest and most corrupt politician”) and defeat Donald Trump.
Read more.
Dozens of immigrant women and their allies rallied today at Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, DC. They demand equality, respect and an end to sexual harassment at DCA. A survey conducted by UNITE HERE during June 2016 of 94 food and retail workers raises concerns about the treatment of immigrant women at Reagan National Airport.
- Sexual harassment: Survey results show that 17% of immigrant mothers reported experiencing sexual harassment at work. 80% of women reporting having experienced harassment were immigrant women of Ethiopian origin.
- Access to healthcare: 43% of immigrant mothers working at the airport reported not having taken their kids to a doctor, dentist or eye doctor because of the cost while working at the airport. 39% of immigrant mothers working at the airport reported having had scheduling requests denied for personal illness or doctor’s appointment.
- Mothers stuck in poverty: 16% of mothers working at the airport reported that while working at their airport, their child had had experienced hunger because they were unable to afford more food. 39% of mothers working reported that while working at the airport, they have had to move in with friends or family due to loss of housing or economic hardship.
Immigrant workers at the restaurants and newsstands at Reagan National Airport have been organizing publicly for months. Conditions for workers at the airports serving the nation’s capital lag far behind thousands of food and retail workers in other U.S. airports. At 62 airports, 35,000 airport food and retail workers have won raises and affordable health insurance by organizing with UNITE HERE.
On the 15th anniversary of September 11, 2001, UNITE HERE remembers all those who lost their lives on that tragic day. We hold especially close the memory of our 43 sisters and brothers from UNITE HERE Local 100 who died while working at Windows on the World, a restaurant located at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
In memory of our fallen brothers and sisters at Windows on the World:
- Sophia Buruwa Addo
- Shabbir Ahmed
- Antonio J. Alvarez
- Telmo Alvear
- Manuel O. Asitimbay
- Samuel Ayala
- Ivhan Luis Carpio Bautista
- Jesus Cabezas
- Manuel Gregorio Chavez
- Mohammed S. Chowdhury
- Jose De Pena
- Nancy Diaz
- Henry Fernandez
- Lucille Virgen Francis
- Enrique A. Gomez
- Jose B. Gomez
- Wilder Gomez
- Ysidro Hidalgo Tejada
- John Holland
- Francois Jean-Pierre
- Eliezer Jimenez Jr.
- Abdoulaye Kone
- Victor Kwarkye
- Jeffrey Latouche
- Lebardo Lopez
- Jan Maciejewski
- Manuel Mejia
- Antonio Melendez
- Nana Akwasi Minkah
- Martin Morales
- Blanca Morocho
- Jerome Nedd
- Juan Nieves Jr.
- Jose R. Nunez
- Isidro Ottenwalder
- Jesus Ovalles
- Victor Paz Gutierrez
- Alejo Perez
- Moises Rivas
- David B. Rodriguez Vargas
- Gilbert Ruiz
- Juan Salas
- Abdoul Karim Traore
The families and coworkers of those mostly immigrant workers talk about their loss, their dreams, and their challenges in the movie “Windows.”
UNITE HERE Local 100 members attended New York Mayor Bill De Blasio’s bill signing, on October 31st 2016 at city hall, enacting legislation that protects food service workers. This bill requires a 90-day retention period, for food service workers, when an owner or operator terminates a food service contract for a corporate cafeteria, college, arena, or cultural institution.
UNITE HERE will help implement part of a new $1.37 million contract between the U.S. Department of Labor and the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute to expand multi-employer apprenticeship programs in two important sectors with potential for job growth: manufacturing and hospitality.
