The Militant - December 23, 2013 -- On the Picket Line

Vol. 77/No. 46 December 23, 2013

On the Picket Line

Fast-food workers press for wage raise to $15 per hour
NEW YORK — “One-third of my co-workers were on strike today and walked the picket line,” Miguel Rivera, who has worked at Burger King for seven months for $7.25 per hour, told the Militant at a rally of hundreds in downtown Manhattan Dec. 5. The action was part of a one-day protest by fast-food workers in some 100 cities nationwide demanding a wage raise to $15 per hour and unionization.

“No one gets more than 30 hours a week,” said Rivera, who took part in a similar one-day protest walkout four months ago.

“I work hard, doing maintenance, mopping, cooking and whatever else they need,” said Jose Marim, who makes $7.25 an hour after working at Burger King for eight years.

Fast Food Forward, which is backed by the Service Employees International Union, was part of organizing the actions. They organized pickets outside restaurants in Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Detroit; Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; Phoenix; Pittsburgh; Washington, D.C.; and Charlotte, N.C.

In addition to fast-food workers, participants in the New York rally included “Occupy Wall Street” activists; union members from SEIU Local 32BJ, Communications Workers of America and United Federation of Teachers; and staff from non-governmental organizations. Many celebrated the election of Mayor Bill de Blasio as “a new day” — a perspective promoted by the pro-Democratic Party union officialdom.

Also in New York, about 100 protesters “blew whistles and beat drums while marching into a McDonald’s at around 6:30 a.m.,” reported Associated Press, chanting, “We can’t survive on $7.25!”

— Dan Fein

Bosses lock out nurses, techs at hospital in Connecticut
NEW LONDON, Conn. — More than 400 striking nurses and medical technicians and their supporters rallied Nov. 29 in front of Lawrence and Memorial Hospital here during a four-day strike over the Thanksgiving holiday. The workers, whose contracts expired Nov. 16, are represented by American Federation of Teachers locals 5049 and 5051.

Hospital management plans to outsource jobs to a contractor. “We have asked for guarantees that when the work is outsourced we have the right to follow the job with the same pay and benefits, but management has refused to discuss this with the union,” said Natalie Dyer, an emergency department nurse.

The company resumed contract negotiations several hours after the rally. But the next day bosses announced they were locking out the nurses until the contract was settled.

Attending the protest were union members from the Teamsters, United Auto Workers, SEIU, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The rally was addressed by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio.

— Tim Craine

Striking hotel workers in Quebec continue fight
SAINT-HYACINTHE, Quebec, Dec. 4 — Today marks the 402nd day of the strike by 180 hotel workers, members of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), at the Hotel des Seigneurs and convention center.

“We are not just on the picket line for ourselves,” Brigitte Malenfant said to nods of agreement from other strikers on the picket line. “We are doing this for all those who are fighting to stop the abuse by the capitalists. We are doing this for future generations.”

In the spring of 2012 contracts at 35 hotels in Quebec organized by the CSN expired. Workers at a number of hotels went on strike and new agreements were signed, most with an increase in wages and better job conditions.

The Hotel des Seigneurs workers are not only fighting for a settlement similar to the other hotels, but to keep their jobs and union. The strikers are appealing to workers throughout the region for support to block plans by Vancouver-based Silver Birch Hotels and Resorts to permanently close the Hotel des Seigneurs and its conference center on Dec. 22.

On Nov. 28 they distributed 20,000 leaflets demanding the city government buy the convention center as the city council had promised before the municipal elections took place Nov. 3. The newly elected council, which is slated to vote on the matter Dec. 16, has threatened to reverse that decision and allow the hotel and center to be sold off.

— John Steele

County gov’t workers in Illinois
approve contract, end strike
CHICAGO — After 16 days on the picket line members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1028 went back to work Dec. 5. In a vote that day more than 95 percent ratified a tentative agreement between the union and the government of Will County, 45 miles west of Chicago.

The strike began Nov. 18 after 15 months of negotiations. It involved some 1,200 union members, ranging from workers at the county-run Sunny Hill Nursing Home and departments of health and transportation to civilian employees in the county’s police and court apparatus. Picket lines were put up at 26 worksites.

“They [were] trying to increase employees’ contribution to health insurance by 75 percent,” Kendra Coleman, an HIV/STD worker in the health department, told the Militant on the picket line Nov. 19. “We haven’t had a raise in four years and no cost of living increase since 2009.”

The agreement applies retroactively to Dec. 1, 2012, and extends through Nov. 30, 2016. A Dec. 5 statement from Local 1028 says the contract includes cost-of-living wage increases totaling 4.5 percent and “ensures that increased costs for health care are shared equitably based on employees’ ability to pay.”

— Alyson Kennedy