Despite Indiana’s "Right to Work" law, momentum continues in Indianapolis
[Indianapolis IN] Last week, campus food workers at Butler University became the newest members of UNITE HERE, a union representing hospitality workers in Indianapolis and throughout North America. As employees of ARAMARK, the workers cook and serve students in Butler’s three main dining halls, as well as the campus Starbucks and juice bar Zia.
"A lot of my family members have worked union jobs, and they had affordable health care, workplace protections, good retirement plans, and they were treated with respect," said 27-year cafeteria employee Rebecca Bradley. "We love working at Butler and serving the students, and we look forward to bargaining our own union contract."
Rebecca and her coworkers began organizing last year with the support of faculty, students and community allies. They now join a growing movement of university and service workers in Indianapolis who have been organizing over the last few years to improve their working conditions. Campus and food service workers at IUPUI, Marian University and the Indianapolis airport have previously chosen to form a union with UNITE HERE.
On December 21, workers at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City ratified a new contract by 99%. The contract ends a bitter two-year labor dispute. The property was purchased in 2009 as part of a foreclosure. Because of the way Resorts was bought, the new owners were not required to honor the existing contract or even to retain the workers.
The new owners required all of the workers to reapply for their jobs, and the company rehired a majority of the workers insuring union continuity at the casino. The new company rehired the workers at greatly reduced wages. In response workers held rallies, picketed and helped organize a boycott of the property. Contract negotiations were further delayed by the death of Resorts’ CEO 9 months ago and by Superstorm Sandy in October.
The contract provides for immediate raises for a majority of the workers whose wages were greatly reduced. In addition, the Resorts contract, like the other casino contracts in Atlantic City, provides for raises for all workers over the course of the contract, a continuation of free family health insurance, pension benefits, and all of the other benefits other Local 54 members enjoy.
Fifty-two laid-off HMS Host workers at Los Angeles International Airport are participating in a free eight-week culinary training thanks to UNITE HERE Local 11 and a workforce training grant from the City of Los Angeles.
As a part of the LAX Airport modernization plan, restaurants like Chili’s and Burger King will be replaced with local eateries, offering fresh, made-from-scratch fare. The new restaurants will require a well-trained culinary staff, so who better to fill the new jobs than the laid-off HMS Host employees represented by Local 11?
By a vote of 54-1, food service, maintenance, and housekeeping staff at Marian University in Indianapolis have voted to join UNITE HERE. The workers are employed by Aramark, which provides the food and maintenance services to the university. Campus faculty, other staff, community allies, and the university’s Franciscan Sisters have all been supportive of the workers’ efforts to organize. Marian workers are joining a growing movement of university and service workers in Indianapolis who are organizing to improve their working conditions. Welcome to UNITE HERE!
On December 10, Pomona food workers, students, and clergy led a delegation to the Pomona administration a year after the College fired 17 immigrant workers. Sixteen of the fired employees worked in the dining halls, where they had been organizing to form a union since 2010. The firings came as a result of a campus-wide document check that was not prompted by any federal agency or law.
Now, dining hall workers at Pomona are again taking the brave step of standing up in spite of the fearful climate caused by the investigation and firings.
Rolando Araiza, a cook at Pomona for 7 years, says “What happened at Pomona in December was really an injustice and it’s one of the reasons why I’m still fighting. It really changed the way I feel about the administration because I really thought we were a family. But when you fire someone unjustly, that’s not what family does to a family.”
Dining Hall workers at Pomona started organizing because they want to be treated with respect and dignity and they want to work in an environment where they don’t need to be afraid. That’s why they are again standing up and demanding a fair process to choose to unionize. Since they started organizing in 2010, workers have been given raises, year-round work, and lower health insurance premiums, but they won’t stop fighting until they’ve won a fair process to organize.
Hotels cut ties with subcontractor after allegations of wage and hour violations
At a press conference outside the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis today, December 12, hotel workers are announcing that they have settled the lawsuit that they filed in federal court this past January. The hotel workers will be joined by city councilors and community allies. This landmark lawsuit was the broadest wage and hour case in the history of the Indianapolis hospitality industry. The 16 plaintiffs alleged that the subcontractor, Hospitality Staffing Solutions (HSS), and 9 area hotels regularly failed to pay them for all the hours they worked and forced them to work off the clock and without breaks. The lawsuit resulted not only in a settlement for plaintiffs but also significant changes in the Indianapolis hotel industry. Multiple area hotels severed ties with HSS, including the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis, Marriott, the JW Marriott and the Conrad. Because plaintiffs signed a confidentiality agreement, the terms of the settlement are not available.
Elvia Bahena, the former subcontracted Hyatt housekeeper who was fired after testifying in front of City Council, is among the plaintiffs. This past summer, Bahena spoke out publicly about abuses she had experienced while working in Indianapolis hotels. She voiced support for the “Freedom to Work” anti-blacklisting ordinance. Two weeks later, she was fired from her position at the Hyatt where she worked for the subcontractor, United Maintenance. After significant public outcry, however, Hyatt terminated its contract with United Maintenance as well.
“I am so proud to be a part of this group of workers standing up for our rights. Today represents huge victory for us because HSS no longer operates in a number of hotels. We are showing Indianapolis that despite the obstacles and fear, change is possible when we stand together with the support of the community,” says Bahena.
Indianapolis city government has invested over one billion dollars of taxpayer money in the downtown hospitality industry with the hopes of rebuilding the area economy. A recent study found that tourism generated nearly $4 billion for the city last year. Says Brian Mahern, Vice President of Indianapolis City-County Council: “For more than 30 years, our community has actively encouraged and promoted the hospitality industry by subsidizing hotels with public money. The time is long overdue for those efforts to finally produce good paying jobs that respect workers’ rights. This settlement marks an important step towards that goal.”
The settlement is the latest in a string of positive outcomes for hotel and food service workers in Indianapolis. Last fall, workers at IUPUI cafeteria joined airport food service workers in winning union recognition and a contract. Hospitality workers have garnered wide-spread community and political support for their organizing efforts.
The Long Beach City Council will ratify on Tuesday, December 11, the results of Measure N, an initiative voters overwhelming passed this past November, setting a minimum wage for Long Beach’s biggest hotels. Sixty-four percent of Long Beach voters approved Measure N. The measure won in all nine districts.
The minimum wage law will go into effect just before Christmas. During public comment on Tuesday evening, workers and allies will encourage the City Council to assist with enforcement of the law by listening to workers stories. Some workers will recount stories of recent threats from hotel managers about cutting hours and staff and increasing workload since the passage of Measure N.
Community leaders who volunteered to ensure the passage of Measure N will urge the hotels to uphold the spirit of the law, and see that the will of the people is not undermined.
Workers at casino-hotels owned by Station Casinos LLC and operated by Fertitta Entertainment LLC continue to pressure the company to let them organize freely, after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on October 2 unanimously and completely rejected the company’s appeal from the findings of an administrative law judge that it committed 87 unfair labor practices in its anti-union campaign.
Station Casinos, the worst labor lawbreaker in the history of the Nevada gaming industry, is privately owned by Deutsche Bank of Frankfurt and Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta of Las Vegas, among others.
Before its latest legal setback, Station Casinos had tried to dismiss the NLRB judge’s findings that the company broke federal labor law:
On September 23, 2011, company senior vice president of human resources Valerie Murzl said the company was “confident” that, on appeal, the NLRB would rule that “in no instance did Station Casinos violate any aspect of the National Labor Relations Act.
On September 26, 2011, one of the company’s attorneys, Peter Pantaleo of DLA Piper, said that the ULPs to be reviewed by the NLRB were “not even worth the price of admission.
On April 20, company spokeswoman Lori Nelson described the ULPs found by the judges as “technical violations.”
Now, as ordered by the NLRB, the company has posted a Notice to Employees in all its facilities that states: “The National Labor Relations Board has found that we violated Federal labor law and has ordered us to post and obey this notice.” The notice informs employees of their rights and what the company will and will not do according to the NLRB’s broad cease-and-desist order. The company may still appeal to federal court.
Station Casinos discloses in its Oct. 19 SEC filing that “We believe we have very good employee relations.” Investors in the company, especially its lenders, should ask the company whether management and legal strategy that led to the repeated violation of federal labor law continues.
The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, have supported the organizing campaign at Station Casinos through rallies, mass arrests, and ongoing efforts to alert customers to the company’s anti-union attacks against its own employees.
Chicago State University cafeteria workers went on strike today, December 6, in response to food service contractor Thompson Hospitality’s cancellation of negotiations. On Monday, December 3, cafeteria workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 1, filed unfair labor practice charges against Thompson Hospitality for repeatedly cancelling negotiations and failing to bargain in good faith. It is the first strike of university cafeteria workers in Chicago history.
Earlier this year, dining hall workers unionized in an effort to bring stability and end poverty wages paid to food service employees at the University. While the union has been in contract negotiations with Thompson Hospitality since June, Thompson has cancelled scheduled meetings twice, and its last meeting with the union was on October 16.
"I take pride in my work and want to serve good, quality food to students. It breaks my heart that the company has forced us into this position," said Candace Cain, who has worked in the cafeteria for two years.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, December 4, a top official of Thompson Hospitality announced to University dining hall workers that it might stop providing food service in the New Year at the University due to a financial dispute with CSU. The jobs of approximately 50 dining hall workers and the future of Thompson Hospitality at CSU now hang in the balance.
"I already paid for my meal plan for next semester. With Thompson Hospitality saying they will leave in 30 days due to unpaid financial obligations, what I want to know from CSU is, where is my money going?" asked sophomore and Psychology major at CSU Dominoe Carmona.
In 2010, Arizona enacted SB 1070, the most extreme of a national series of misguided laws targeting Latinos and criminalizing immigration offenses.
In 2011, Arizona’s immigrants, children and grandchildren of immigrants, working people, and young people proved that commitment and volunteerism can step up to take on monumental responsibilities. Thousands of us chose to face the challenges of our community and use our power to recall a sitting Senate President and elect the first majority-progressive Phoenix City Council.
This year, the power of immigrants and working people are coming together again to repeat those victories and build the power to create change in Maricopa County.
Check out this moving and amazing recap of our campaign in Arizona and hear more about the young people who know they can make a difference.