 The airport workers picket at Dulles Airport is back on. Unite Here Local 23 had called off last week’s picket against Sky Chefs after the company agreed to raise Dulles airline catering workers' wages and pay back pay, but the latest round of negotiations left senior and higher-skilled workers with nothing. “Both Gate Gourmet and Flying Food Group at Dulles Airport have already agreed to wage increases of at least $1.80/hr for all workers in all classifications,” reports Local 23’s Sarah Jacobson. Airline catering workers in the Sky Chefs kitchen at DCA won wage increases up to $4/hr for all classifications. “Needless to say, the Dulles workers are extremely disappointed with this outcome,” Jacobson added. The Dulles picket is set for Wednesday, Jan 31, from 2-4p.
photo from a picket at Dulles last year; courtesy UNITE HERE 23  The petition supporting Takoma Park city employees is having an effect, reports AFSCME 3399 shop steward Sean Hendley. "We've heard from an inside source that it reached the Mayor and she is putting pressure on the City Manager.” The workers plan to present the petition at the City Council meeting tonight (see Calendar). “Union members are planning to meet outside of the City Building around 6:30pm and go in as a group around 7pm,” says Hendley. “Supporters are welcome and encouraged to come!”
photo: Takoma Park Farmers' Market shopper signs AFSCME 3399 petition as shop steward Sean Hendley (right) looks on; photo by Chris Garlock  "I was arrested a number of times. I never thought in terms of fear. I thought in terms of justice."
Emma Tenayuca (right) was a pecan sheller and labor leader from Texas (see Today's Labor History)  Click here to check out this week's Today in Labor History, a new podcast produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Available now on iTunes and Stitcher; just search for "Union City Radio"!
Some 12,000 pecan shellers in San Antonio, Texas—mostly Latino women—walk off their jobs at 400 factories in what was to become a three-month strike against wage cuts. Strike leader Emma Tenayuca was eventually hounded out of the state - 1938 Ida M. Fuller is the first retiree to receive an old-age monthly benefit check under the new Social Security law. She paid in $24.75 between 1937 and 1939 on an income of $2,484; her first check was for $22.54 - 1940 After scoring successes with representation elections conducted under the protective oversight of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, the United Farm Workers of America officially ends its historic table grape, lettuce and wine boycotts - 1978 Union and student pressure forces Harvard University to adopt new labor policies raising wages for lowest-paid workers - 2002 Five months after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans school board fires every teacher in the district in what the United Teachers of New Orleans sees as an effort to break the union and privatize the school system - 2005 Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services |