Vol. 78/No. 40      November 10, 2014

— Maggie Trowe

The workers are paid from $13.16 to $16 per hour, Richard Kuan, UNITE HERE Local 2 organizer, told the Militant. “They need a raise.”

Food service workers are also fighting for medical coverage, pensions and job security.

“As restaurants come and go, workers are threatened with layoffs,” Kuan said. “New owners should have to hire from those laid off and maintain their seniority and benefits.”

— Carole Lesnick

Laborers in Washington, DC, strike for union representation
TYSONS CORNER, Va. — Construction workers employed by Baker DC carried out a one-day strike here Oct. 21. It was their fourth such action in five months at three worksites. The strikes are part of the Laborers’ union campaign to organize construction workers in the Washington, D.C., area.

Construction workers are fighting for higher wages and union representation by Concrete Workers United Local 202, a division of the Laborers’ union.

A construction boom in upscale hotels and housing as well as retail and office buildings has fueled workers’ confidence.

“For the bosses, this spells profits. But for the workers, this means more mistreatment,” Abdon Urrutia, 23, told the Militant. “The pay is low and the work is hard — eight, 10, 12 hours a day, no lunch break, and $12, $13 an hour to start.”

“Safety is another big issue,” said Urrutia, who was injured on the job six month ago.

Lindolfo Carballo, an organizer with Casa de Virginia, an immigrant rights coalition, joined the picket line with other members of the group. “Workers are not separated from the community,” he said. “It’s part of the same struggle. We are the same people.”

— Arlene Rubinstein

The Quebec Federation of Day Care Workers, which has been without a contract since November 2013, also organized rotating regional strikes throughout the province Oct. 13-17. The unionists, who negotiate their contract with the province, are demanding a wage increase to $15 per hour (US$13.30). Currently they receive $12 per hour for a 35-hour workweek.

“We’re working 50 hours every week, probably more, and we’re paid for only 35,” Benilda Vicente told the Militant at the rally here. “We have to do cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping as well as preparing activities for the children.”

The provincial government has subsidized child care since 1997, a gain won by decades of struggles by unions and women’s rights supporters.

— Beverly Bernardo

“They make billions on the backs of workers, while we can barely afford to pay rent, gas and medical bills,” said Cynthia Murray, 58, a former truck driver who has worked at Walmart for 14 years in Laurel, Maryland.

“The workers need a union to organize themselves,” said Faye Lawson, a material handler for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and a shop steward for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689.

In addition to Walmart workers, speakers included Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO; Eleanor Holmes-Norton, delegate to the U.S. House from the District of Columbia; and U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards from Maryland.

— Arlene Rubinstein and Ned Measel

Nurses aides, kitchen staff and house keeping attendants, organized by 1199SEIU, have been without a contract for nearly seven months.

“The biggest issues are insurance, a pay raise, respect and the workload,” Ella Moton, a certified nursing assistant at the Harborview nursing home in Jersey City, said in a phone interview Oct. 22. “Caring for 12 people is just too much for one person.”

On Sept. 30, 1199SEIU organized a rally of several hundred to protest Alaris Health’s retaliatory lockout of two dozen workers. The National Labor Relations Board has also filed a complaint against the company.

“Some workers have returned to work, but others are still out,” Bryn Lloyd-Bollard, a union staff member, told the Militant Oct. 22.

“Everyone’s supposed to be back by next week,” said Rosalyn Gibbs, a CNA at Alaris’ Castle Hill facility in Union City, where most of the locked-out unionists work. “We still don’t have a contract, but I’m optimistic we will soon.”

— Sara Lobman and Candace Wagner