Chi Town Daily News–Hundreds of protesters marked the sixth anniversary of a strike over labor conditions at The Congress Plaza Hotel and Convention Center on Monday, stretching a picket line down a block-long stretch of South Michigan Avenue. On June 15, 2003, almost six months after their contracts expired, workers at the Congress Hotel went on strike. Union organizers say hotel management cut wages, stopped paying employee health-care premiums and demanded the right to subcontract its unionized workforce.

The rally was both a celebration of the strike’s persistence and a lament of stalled negotiations with hotel owners and representatives. Among the strikers’ supporters were Gov. Pat Quinn, state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and aldermen Bob Fioretti and Ricardo Munoz. Each was present and spoke at the protest.

"This hotel has not treated its workers right" Quinn yelled from a podium between Michigan Avenue traffic and the hotel’s lower east floors. "We will have justice."

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On May 28th, hundreds of concession workers at the Meadowlands arena in New Jersey (home of the Jets and Giants) rallied against Delaware North Companies (DNC) there. Many of the people protesting on Thursday have worked at the arena for years and feel part of the family. Peggy Trigo, a 17-year worker at the arena, said, "we were excited when we heard a new stadium was going to be made, all the members had enthusiasm, and then we realized our jobs are in jeopardy." DNC has been chosen as the concession company at the new Arena set to open next season, and has not committed to hire the workers or honor the union contract of the Local 100 members at the Meadowlands. "These are our jobs, they belong to us, and we intend to keep them," said Barbara Koshal.

The next day, Local 11 members at the Ontario CA airport held a picket line there to protest DNC’s refusal to pay them the LA City legal Living Wage, an ordinance that was approved by the City Council in 1997 and applies to contractors doing business with the City of Los Angeles. DNC is being ordered by the City of LA to comply with the law, and to produce all payroll records since 2001, so the city can ensure proper back pay. The wage scales for Delaware North workers at the Ontario Airport are lower than the city’s Living Wage rate. UNITE HERE Local 11, the Union that represents the workers, estimates at least one hundred concession workers could be owed up to five years of unpaid wages. "I get paid $8.84 an hour as a prep cook. I can’t afford the cost of the health insurance offered by the company. I had to travel to Mexico for heart surgery because I didn’t have health insurance. We ask to be paid the wages that are owed to us so we don’t have to choose between paying for rent or paying for our health care," said Maria Estrada a Prep Cook at Applebee’s, who has worked at Delaware North for 3 years.

On Monday April 13th, the Radisson LAX hotel signed a union contract giving significant wage increases, free family health insurance and providing safer working conditions for the 160 hotel workers who work at the hotel. Hotel workers from the Sheraton Gateway, Four Points LAX, and Westin LAX also joined the Radisson LAX workers to celebrate their recently won victories. Hotel workers at all four hotels will now be covered by union contracts with UNITE HERE Local 11. The Hilton LAX is the last of the hotels that was part of UNITE HERE Local 11’s ‘New Century’ campaign that is still non union, and is still being boycotted by UNITE HERE Local 11.

The Radisson LAX contract gives workers a $2.60 wage increase over the three years of the contract. Banquet servers will go from earning $15 an hour to a projected $30 an hour with the service charges over the life of the contract. Furthermore, workers and their families will receive free family health insurance. With all four hotel union contracts giving workers significant wage increases over three years, these contracts will mean that hotel workers will earn an extra $12.3 million in wages through 2012. This extra income will directly benefit local communities and the LAX area where these workers live and work. Of that $12.3 million, workers will reinvest over an estimated two-thirds, or $8.4 million, back into the local community. This creates a "multiplier effect" and this reinvestment will in turn generate an estimated ADDITIONAL $2.9 million in revenue for the local community. Over the next three years, this additional revenue will create approximately 93 new full-time jobs in the local community.

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New Haven, CT–Yale University and UNITE HERE Locals 34 and 35, the two major unions representing Yale employees, have agreed on new three-year contracts more than nine months before the expiration of their current contracts. The new agreements will take effect January 2010 and cover 3,400 clerical and technical employees in Local 34 and more than 1,200 service and maintenance employees in Local 35.

"These agreements signal a turning point in the history of labor relations at Yale," said President Richard C. Levin. "With these early and peacefully negotiated contracts, Yale and its unions have proven that our future together does not have to repeat our troubled past."

"The key decision makers on both sides decided to do the hard work together and come to an agreement," said Bob Proto, President of Local 35. "We are confident that the trust we have built through this process is the foundation for a greatly improved, new relationship between the unions and Yale."

"With these new agreements, the unions at Yale will grow as the University does," said Laura Smith, President of Local 34. "We are pleased to have reached agreements that meet our members’ needs and provide stability for the New Haven region’s economy."

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Federal, state and local tax dollars are being used to buy products made in sweatshops, according to a new report released today by SweatFree Communities titled Subsidizing Sweatshops II: How our tax dollars can foster worker rights and economic recovery rather than fuel the race to the bottom. Findings include child labor, obligatory pregnancy tests, firing and blacklisting of workers who support a union, poverty wages, and forced and unpaid overtime.

The report features follow-up case studies of Eagle Industries and Propper International, two uniform companies profiled in last year’s groundbreaking report. Investigators found that Eagle and Propper still need to give significant attention to the conditions their workers face each day. According to the report, workers at Eagle Industries’ New Bedford, Massachusetts plant “are still deeply concerned about the low wages and inadequate benefits, dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, and managers’ everyday harassment of union supporters” while workers at Propper’s Suprema facility in the Dominican Republic “described a life of poverty and exhaustion, intense pressure to reach production quotas, and an unhealthy work environment.”

These same concerns underlie Eagle and Propper workers’ efforts to form a union with UNITE HERE. “The union is the only hope I have seen, because the union offers a contract and a negotiating table with the owner of the factory where he will have to realize the suffering we have endured,” said Eagle worker Elisa Rios. (Eagle Industries was recently purchased by Alliant Techsystems, a Minneapolis-based company with a partially unionized workforce.)

The report says progress is being made in a number of places around the country. More local and state governments are adopting policies that would require government contractors to meet a set of ethical standards, and advocates are calling on elected officials to join the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium to end tax dollar support for sweatshops.

To read the report, please click here.

The Annual Triangle Fire Commemoration is an important way for us to acknowledge that the progress of our nation is due in large part to the sacrifices by American workers. The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy in New York City, where 146 young immigrant garment workers died in a tragic fire, galvanized a city to fight for labor reforms and for safety in the workplace.

In memory of these struggles and our continued fight for workers rights such as the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, we would like you to join us at the commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire — a definitive event in the history of American labor and in the history of New York City’s garment industry.

Earlier today, the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in the House and Senate. It’s being supported by, among others, millions of American workers who would like a union – and with it a union contract. It’s being opposed by CEOs who you can be sure all bargained for a contract before they ever set foot in their corner offices.

This law is the most important piece of labor legislation in decades and a critical component in the effort to restore our economy.
In recent years, Americans have worked harder than ever and yet they have shared in less of the wealth they created. Worker productivity is up, and yet real median household income is down. Simultaneously, CEO pay has risen to as much as 400 times more than average worker pay.

The Employee Free Choice Act would bring common sense to the workplace. The law states that if a majority of employees sign up to form a union, they get one. It also simplifies dispute resolution in first contract negotiations, and enacts tougher penalties on employers if they unfairly interfere with union organizing.

Despite lies being spread by CEOs and others, the legislation would not eliminate the secret ballot election. There are currently two ways to form a union: secret ballot and majority sign-up. After the Employee Free Choice Act passes, there still will be two ways to form a union: like now, secret ballot and majority sign-up. The critical difference will be that the workers, rather than the CEO, will decide which method to use. Under current law, employers are free to ignore majority sign-up and demand a secret ballot election.
In trying to protect the status quo, opponents of the legislation wave a flag of democracy and equate the law with an attack on a system in workplaces that is just like our political elections. The problem with that argument is that workplace secret ballot elections do not in any way resemble elections for our local, state, or federal elected officials.

In most secret ballot elections, employers regularly coerce workers to vote against the union. In 25 percent of all campaigns, employers illegally fire pro-union workers. Employers delay the election date in order to buy time for outside “consultants” to intimidate their employees. The employer has access to a worker five days-a-week and has massive economic leverage.

By comparison, union organizers have little leverage and can campaign only during work breaks or after hours.

While employer intimidation and retaliation is technically illegal under federal labor laws, the protections are difficult to enforce in practice. Employers are advised by lawyers on how to avoid punishment. When they are punished, they are generally only required to stop the practice. Intimidating and even firing workers is standard operating procedure and there’s little reason under current law for an employer to do otherwise. The legislation would strengthen penalties for this behavior.

Even calling the secret ballot process an “election" stretches the meaning of that word pretty far when you consider the employer’s power to influence the vote.

If we play along with the message being offered by the anti-Employee Free Choice Act crowd, trying to form a union via secret ballot election would be like trying to run for a seat in Congress but not being given equal access to call the voters, mail them campaign literature, or talk with them face-to-face. Moreover, it would be like running against an opponent who controls the voter’s ability to put food on his or her table. What is democratic about that?

If we make it easier to form a union, we can rebuild our economy from the bottom up. We can stem the tide of workers losing their jobs, their health care, and their retirement benefits. With a union wage, workers will have the ability to spend money on every Main Street in every town across this country. It’s those dollars that keep our economy going. When we pass the Employee Free Choice Act we will strengthen the middle class and grow our economy.

The truth about those who oppose the legislation is that they really don’t want to pay decent wages, offer good benefits, and guarantee a safe work environment.

For more on the Employee Free Choice Act please visit UNITEHEREforChange.org

Statement from UNITE HERE General President Bruce Raynor on Confirmation of Hilda Solis

UNITE HERE applauds the confirmation of Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor. We look forward to continuing our working relationship with Secretary Solis in her new role. We do not believe there is a more fitting leader for the Department of Labor.

In these dire economic times, working Americans need a Secretary of Labor who will speak for their interests in Washington. We have an historic opportunity to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and rebuild a stronger economy founded on a solid middle-class. Hilda Solis has a consistent record of working to ensure that every American has access to a quality job. We consider her a very strong ally in passing legislation and enforcing laws that help workers.

At UNITE HERE events, Hilda Solis is known as an honorary shop steward—a symbol of the respect she has earned through her decades-long commitment to working Americans. She has walked numerous picket-lines with us in Southern California. Our members have volunteered in every single Solis campaign. And, when she ran for the U.S. Congress, we were the first union to endorse her.

UNITE HERE is thrilled to have a proven advocate for working Americans named our new Secretary of Labor. With this appointment and a firm commitment to a stimulus package that helps working people including the Employee Free Choice Act, the President elect is affirming his commitment to bring working families the kind of change they voted for. Representative Solis understands that unions are the key rebuilding and expanding the American middle class and restoring our economy. Rep. Solis has championed workers right to organize for family sustaining jobs. With a strong Secretary of Labor we will finally be able to address the crisis in labor law enforcement that has plagued our country for the past 8 years and build and create an economy that rewards work.

UFCW President Joe Hansen told UNITE HERE “We couldn’t have done this without the help of UNITE HERE, SEIU and the United Farm Workers. The organizers you loaned us were terrific, and the community support was critical. This is a victory for UFCW, Change to Win, and the entire labor movement. Please pass my heartfelt thanks along to the men and women of your great union.”