In celebration of Food Day, 150 students, workers, and community allies gathered at Northeastern University to calling for "Justice in the Food Chain" – from Immokalee to Boston, from farm to cafeteria. The panel and roundtable discussion brought together dining service workers, students, and faculty from Boston’s many colleges – along with farmworkers, organic growers, and local foodies – to envision a united movement for real food, real jobs, and healthy communities.
Food Day at Northeastern came six months after a movement of workers, faculty, and over 40 student organizations came together to support the 400 dining workers at Northeastern who voted to join UNITE HERE Local 26 as a step towards improving their lives, their neighborhoods, and the food system.
Organized by Slow Food NU and the Progressive Student Alliance, in partnership with UNITE HERE Local 26 and Real Food Challenge, the evening began with a locally sourced dinner donated by Chartwells (a division of the Compass Group, the world’s largest dining service provider). Speakers emphasized the key role of Greater Boston’s over 100 colleges and universities – as centers of student/worker movements, major food purchasers, and community anchors —- in transforming the food system.
(CHICAGO) – On Friday, October 19, 2012, members of UNITE HERE Local 1 who work at O’Hare Airport ratified a contract covering 1,200 HMS Host workers. This contract represents a significant commitment from HMS Host to provide quality and stable jobs for airport workers.
After four months of negotiations with HMS Host, workers settled new contracts that raise wages and give hundreds of workers without health insurance access to affordable healthcare. Highlights of the contract settlement include a wage scale that ensures every worker will be making a family supporting wage in the next five years. Additionally, the new contract has provisions that will significantly lower health care costs for all workers, which will enable workers to access health care coverage for as little as $4 a week. An overwhelming majority of workers voted to ratify the contract.
"Between the raises and the new affordable health care options, I can now get coverage that I couldn’t afford before," said O’Hare worker Tameka Shivers. "I am a single mom with three boys: an eight year-old who has Downs syndrome, a five year-old, and three year-old who is a sickle cell carrier. This new contract allows me to be independent and know that I can take care of my boys."
Airport workers greet thousands of guests who come to Chicago, but sadly for too long many workers have been living in poverty. This new contract will put millions of dollars into the pockets of working people and Chicago neighborhoods over the life of the contract.
"This is the best contract we have gotten from Host. It’s the biggest wage increase, and we now have affordable health insurance," said O’Hare worker Boddrick Barnes. "Years ago, I was diagnosed with a heart condition, so having affordable health care is really important to me and my family."
UNITE HERE Local 1 represents approximately 15,000 hospitality workers and casino workers in the Chicago area and Northwest Indiana.
About 700 workers at the JW Marriott ratified their first contract, winning raises, improved health care benefits, and the right to a grievance process. Nearly 94% of the workforce voted in favor of the contract. Congratulations everyone!
Bartenders, housekeepers, cooks, and other workers at the Holiday Inn at LAX will announce a major class action lawsuit on Thursday, Oct. 4, demanding millions in unpaid wages. Workers are suing their employer for back wages, not respecting their rights as workers to take meal breaks, not reimbursing them for expenses incurred while performing their work, and failure to pay them the mandatory "Living Wage" required for all LAX-area hotels.
Workers at the Holiday Inn LAX have routinely had to continue working after clocking out, and to work through required lunch breaks and rest periods, the suit alleges.
"I’ve worked for two hours after punching out. I punch out then I have to go back to work," said Carmen Linares, a Holiday Inn housekeeper.
Every election our members, staff, and volunteers work hard knocking on doors and making calls to register voters and get them to the polls. One of the places we’re making a difference this year is in Reno, NV, where members of UNITE HERE from San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas are hitting the pavement. CNN caught up with some of our members and volunteers this weekend as they worked to register and turn out Latino voters.
On February 25, 2010, Castlewood Country Club workers were locked out. On October 16, 2012 – two years, seven months, and 21 days later – they will return to work.
We want to thank everyone who stood by the workers throughout a long, hard campaign – who marched across Pleasanton, brought Mother’s Day flowers for hunger strikers, donated to the hardship fund, spent 12 hours in Santa Rita, and so much more. Without your support, we could never have achieved this victory.
And workers still need your support today. Although the lockout is ending, the fight for justice at Castlewood continues. We have not (yet!) reached an agreement on a new contract or on back wages for locked-out workers.
For now, workers will go back under the terms of their old contract, which provides strong seniority protections and affordable family health care. (See below for more detail on the status of the legal case and the negotiations.) The boycott of Castlewood will stay in effect until a full settlement is reached.
"I’ve been praying for this day to arrive," said Castlewood janitor Maria Munoz. "I feel really happy now, and thankful to all the people and organizations and churches and bands who have come out to support us. And most of all thankful for my co-workers, who were always out there looking out for each other – I feel lucky that they’ve become like family to me."
The end of the lockout is a tremendous step forward for this campaign and a historic victory for all working people. We invite you to celebrate with us – and to show Castlewood that we’ll stand with the workers in this new phase of their struggle.
Last week our community partners in Arizona, Central Arizonans for a Sustainable Economy and Promise Arizona, marked 20,000 new voter registrations in their Adios Arpaio campaign. A delegation of teenage volunteers delivered moving boxes to the office of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the notorious top law enforcement officer of Maricopa County. Click here for television coverage, and here for photos and other press coverage.
UNITE HERE Local 75 members working at five Aramark food service locations have voted overwhelmingly to ratify new union contracts. UNITE HERE members working at the University of Toronto, York University, Upper Canada College, and Toronto French School are celebrating significant wage and pension increases and improvements in benefits, including expanded health benefits for part-time workers.
These agreements have set a new union standard for our food service members in the Greater Toronto area. They come after more than a year of bargaining, mobilization in the streets, and strong strike authorization votes and rejection votes of previous company offers by the membership across the city this past spring.
One hundred and twenty Local 23 members in DC in six cafeterias operated by IL Creations unanimously ratified their new collective bargaining agreement. After working without a contract for up to four years in some of the locations, "by standing together, taking part in rallies and other job actions" the workers won a master agreement covering all six shops with significant improvements to wages, pension, and the cost of health insurance, the union said. "This is a great victory for all food service workers in DC and shows that when you fight….you can win." The contract covers workers at cafeterias in the Department of Energy at the Forrestal building in DC, Department of Energy in Germantown, the Department of State, Library of Congress, New Executive Office Building and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. (Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Striking workers and pension beneficiaries to attend LACERA board meeting Wednesday in Pasadena; Call on pension board to fix labor problems at Embassy Suites Hotel
Workers at the non-union Embassy Suites Irvine, a hotel owned by the Los Angeles County Employee Pension Fund, are planning to strike today, September 12, and travel to the LACERA board meeting seeking a resolution to two-year long labor dispute over horrible working conditions.
The simmering labor dispute erupted on Sept. 1 when LACERA’s fund management firm, Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, brought in a new hotel management company that started threating to fire workers who didn’t take off their union buttons. New managers have issued 40 disciplinary notices in 10 days. UNITE HERE Local 11 filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging a violation of workers’ rights to wear union buttons under federal labor law.
On Wednesday, striking workers will travel to speak at LACERA’s monthly meeting in Pasadena, joined by SEIU 721 members, who pension money has been invested in this sweatshop hotel. Pension beneficiaries from SEIU 721 will discuss the effect of the worker-called hotel boycott. UNITE HERE Local 11 estimates that business moved out of the hotel in the wake of the boycott represents at least $2.1 million in revenues that would have stayed at the Embassy Suites if those customers had remained at the hotel.