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Vol. 77/No. 14      April 15, 2013

 
On the Picket Line
 

Restaurant workers at Minn. hotel win union

MINNEAPOLIS — Workers at Hotel Ivy’s restaurant Porter & Frye here voted March 12 to join UNITE HERE Local 17, with 13 in favor and seven against.

“I’m in the union, I’m full with it,” bartender Josh Brehmer told the Militant after the vote.

Shortly after the hotel opened in 2008 some 50 workers won representation by Local 17. But 20 workers in the restaurant were excluded based on an agreement between union officials and the hotel owner that the restaurant was to be spun off and run independently of the hotel. This spin-off never happened. The restaurant was a nonunion operation within a union shop.

After the vote, workers got together for an informal celebration at an Irish pub.

“Our manager is supposed to respect us, but he was forcing us to do dumb things. He was forcing us to vote against the union,” Sefi Hando told the Militant at the celebration.When we were in the mandatory meeting with the company, they said ‘we have no money’ for you guys.”

Sage Hospitality, the company managing the hotel, held mandatory meetings one on one with every worker asking them if they supported the union.

Workers in the restaurant are both U.S.- and foreign-born, including from Bosnia, Ecuador, Mexico, Tibet and Ethiopia.

— Cameron Slick, Hotel Ivy worker, member of UNITE HERE Local 17

Wash. Machinists strike at bakery equipment factory

AUBURN, Wash. — Since March 25, members of Machinists Local 79 have been walking the picket line here in front of the Belshaw Adamatic Bakery plant, which manufactures bakery equipment.

The 62 workers at the factory voted unanimously to go on strike over a contract dispute involving questions of wages, pensions, health care benefits and speedup. They have twice voted down company proposals since the previous agreement expired in October.

“The company’s wage raise offer of 25 cents a year for the first two years and 50 cents for the third year is offset by raises in medical deductibles,” said Clifton LaPlant, chief shop steward, who has worked 35 years at the plant. LaPlant said the company has trimmed half its workforce as it squeezes more work from less employees.

The company has listed job openings for manufacturing positions on the WorkSource Washington website in search of replacement workers.

“The CEO wants to break the union,” said David Schonians, who has worked at the plant for nine years. “He doesn’t like the union because with it he can’t do anything he wants. We can’t go backwards anymore.”

“We are doing this for the people coming up behind us,” said Josephine Ulrich, with 25 years at the plant.

The company has not responded to phone calls for comments. Picket lines are up from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. six days a week.

— Edwin Fruit


 
 
Related articles:
W.Va.: 1,000s protest Patriot’s attack on mine union, retirees
UMWA calls next action for April 16 in St. Louis  
 
 
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