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Spotlight
Janitors Clean Up in L.A.
Los Angeles County janitors are back on the job after a colorful three-week strike in April that drew support from scores of state and national leaders, including Vice President Al Gore.
The strike led to $1.50 to $1.90 an hour in wage increases over three years for the county’s 8,500 janitors, represented by the Service Employees International Union, Local 1877.
The L.A. Times said the strike, with its many rallies and marches, is “likely to be remembered as a watershed moment for Los Angeles labor.” Fellow unions, including CWA locals, raised money to help the strikers, staffed food banks and honored picket lines.
Other SEIU locals were on strike in late April in San Diego and Chicago, and strikes are possible soon in the Silicon Valley, Cleveland, Seattle and Milwaukee, said Stephen Lerner of the SEIU.
“Part of the reason the whole labor movement rallied around this strike is that it was a taste of what labor can and will look like as it rejuvenates itself,” Lerner told the Times. “Many of our battles over the last 10 years have been defensive battles. This was 100 percent offensive.”
Union Stamps Out Post Office Ploy
Workers at a private mail company in Massachusetts have sent a message to the U.S. Postal Service, which figured it could get around its union contracts by farming out work to non-union companies.
In March, 365 workers at Alan Ritchey, Inc. in Chicopee, Mass., voted to join Postal Workers Local 497. The company, which contracts with the Post Office to maintain mail transport equipment centers at six sites, put up a fierce fight during the union’s five-month campaign. Alan Ritchey himself “flew in on his private Lear jet to try to intimidate the workers,” said Ken Fitzpatrick, the local’s president.
“We are showing the Postal Service that we will follow the work,” Fitzpatrick said. “Management plans to contract-out will only result in the APWU organizing the workers no matter where they send it.”
Pataki Takes Bite Out of Wages
Food service workers in New York state, who already earned substantially less than minimum wage, fell behind by another 22 cents in March thanks to Gov. George Pataki.
Pataki signed legislation exempting 114,000 tip-earning food workers from a scheduled increase in the state’s minimum wage. That means restaurants can continue to pay a minimum of $3.30 an hour — a wage that was expected to increase to $3.52 at the end of March. Employees in all other fields are paid at least $5.15 an hour.
“It’s outrageous that they would take away 22 cents an hour from the lowest wage earners in the state,” said Mario Cilento, a spokesman for the New York State AFL-CIO. “The people who need the money most are not going to get it.”
Los Angeles County janitors are back on the job after a colorful three-week strike in April that drew support from scores of state and national leaders, including Vice President Al Gore.
The strike led to $1.50 to $1.90 an hour in wage increases over three years for the county’s 8,500 janitors, represented by the Service Employees International Union, Local 1877.
The L.A. Times said the strike, with its many rallies and marches, is “likely to be remembered as a watershed moment for Los Angeles labor.” Fellow unions, including CWA locals, raised money to help the strikers, staffed food banks and honored picket lines.
Other SEIU locals were on strike in late April in San Diego and Chicago, and strikes are possible soon in the Silicon Valley, Cleveland, Seattle and Milwaukee, said Stephen Lerner of the SEIU.
“Part of the reason the whole labor movement rallied around this strike is that it was a taste of what labor can and will look like as it rejuvenates itself,” Lerner told the Times. “Many of our battles over the last 10 years have been defensive battles. This was 100 percent offensive.”
Union Stamps Out Post Office Ploy
Workers at a private mail company in Massachusetts have sent a message to the U.S. Postal Service, which figured it could get around its union contracts by farming out work to non-union companies.
In March, 365 workers at Alan Ritchey, Inc. in Chicopee, Mass., voted to join Postal Workers Local 497. The company, which contracts with the Post Office to maintain mail transport equipment centers at six sites, put up a fierce fight during the union’s five-month campaign. Alan Ritchey himself “flew in on his private Lear jet to try to intimidate the workers,” said Ken Fitzpatrick, the local’s president.
“We are showing the Postal Service that we will follow the work,” Fitzpatrick said. “Management plans to contract-out will only result in the APWU organizing the workers no matter where they send it.”
Pataki Takes Bite Out of Wages
Food service workers in New York state, who already earned substantially less than minimum wage, fell behind by another 22 cents in March thanks to Gov. George Pataki.
Pataki signed legislation exempting 114,000 tip-earning food workers from a scheduled increase in the state’s minimum wage. That means restaurants can continue to pay a minimum of $3.30 an hour — a wage that was expected to increase to $3.52 at the end of March. Employees in all other fields are paid at least $5.15 an hour.
“It’s outrageous that they would take away 22 cents an hour from the lowest wage earners in the state,” said Mario Cilento, a spokesman for the New York State AFL-CIO. “The people who need the money most are not going to get it.”