Members of UNITE HERE Local 7 and International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 37 voted Tuesday evening to accept a new union contract with their employer, the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Hotel located at 300 Light Street in Baltimore. Under the new five-year agreement non-tipped employees’ wages will increase by $1.10 an hour within five months of the ratification. By December 1 of 2020 all non-tipped wages will have gone up by $1.66/hour making the lowest paid classification rate $15.00 an hour. The range for non-tipped minimum classification rates today is $13.34 to $22.36. By the end of the agreement the range will be $16.20 to $25.22. For tipped workers the current range for minimum classification rate is $5.10 to $10.80 by the end of the agreement the range will be $6.20 to $11.90 Reaching the $15.00/hour before the end of 2020 was a major goal of the union. Another important union goal was achieved for Banquet Servers who will start getting an addition 1% of the service charge added to guests food and beverage charge in their tip pool. This will result in an increase equivalent to approximately $3.44 per hour for banquet bartenders, servers and coffee break attendants. The Union also kept important “room drops” for housekeeper so that they will not be required to clean more than 14 check out rooms in a day and will drop a room for every floor they have to go to, in order to clean their assigned rooms. Housekeepers and bell staff will receive increases in the money for special duties and errands. Another important feature of the agreement is that the Hotel will contribute to the IUOE National Training Fund that supports a State of the Art training center located in Houston, Texas. The training facility will be available to Baltimore IUOE members at no cost to the member including travel, room and board. The Hotel will also contribute to a fund for UNITE HERE Local 7 members designed to provide scholarships to the children and grandchildren of members and prepare members to move up the job ladder in the hospitality industry. Negotiations at the Hilton Baltimore, Marriott Waterfront, Radisson Hotel and Crown Plaza Hotel are ongoing. Negotiations at the Hilton Baltimore ae scheduled for Friday October 25th. Transdev workers at WMATA’s Cinder Bed Bus Garage will go out on strike Thursday morning at 3:30a, in protest of the company’s unfair labor practices. This is the first strike at WMATA since 1978. The union has been in negotiations since February. The first privately operated WMATA bus garage in more than 40 years, Cinder Bed is managed by Transdev, a French multinational corporation that specializes in taking over public transportation systems and slashing wages and benefits. Transdev bus operators and maintenance workers at Cinder Bed have been repeatedly subject to illegal surveillance of peaceful picket actions which have made reaching a fair contract for these workers impossible. The Cinder Bed Bus Garage services around 5% of MetroBus routes. Cinder Bed routes include the REX, 29K, 29G, 29H, 29C, 29N, 29W, 17B, 17G, 17H, 17M, 17K, S80, S91, 18P, 18G, 18J, and 18H. Workers voted unanimously in August to authorize a strike if the bargaining team thought it was necessary. Cinder Bed Bus Garage is located at 7901 Cinder Bed Rd, Lorton, VA 22079. The picket line will begin at 3:30 AM. Workers at Cinder Bed Road are demanding that they receive the same pay and benefits that other regional bus operators make. The Local 689 members at Cinder Bed drive the same routes, on the same roads, with the same buses as WMATA, but they earn $12 per hour less than other operators in the region just because they work for a private contractor. Transdev workers at Cinder Bed are provided health insurance with a $6,000 deductible while WMATA employees don’t have a deductible. The Transdev workers are also demanding improvements to safety and working conditions, including guaranteed times for pre-trip safety inspections. Transit workers across the region are fighting back against the poor working conditions and low pay of private transportation companies. Cinder Bed’s strike authorization vote was the fourth approved strike authorization in the DC region (DASH, PRTC, Challenger, & Transdev) since May. “Transdev and WMATA cut corners at every turn with the Cinder Bed Facility. These workers are toiling at far lower hourly wages than their public sector MetroBus counterparts despite driving the same vehicles on the same routes,” said ATU International President John Costa. “The Cinder Bed workers have walked off the job because they’ve had enough. They are fed up with being used as pawns for austerity-minded politicians that want to ‘cut-costs’ on the backs of workers and riders while Transdev is raking in profits off their low wages.” “Cinder Bed workers are fed up with being mistreated. Transit jobs in this region have been a pathway to the middle class for nearly 40 years, but companies like Transdev refuse to provide their workers enough money to put food on the table. WMATA needs to realize that this is the human cost of privatization.” said ATU Local 689 President and Business Agent Raymond Jackson. “These workers are going to stand strong and show Transdev and WMATA that they deserve nothing less than what every other bus operator makes in this area.” photo: ATU President John Costa joined with AFL-CIO Exec. VP Tefere Gebre, MineWorkers President Cecil Roberts and union members in Northern Virginia to rally support for ATU Local 689 Cinder Bed workers on October 19. Contract is First in Prince George’s and Loudoun Counties, Increases Full-Time Hours in Arlington, MoCo Washington, D.C. 32BJ SEIU’s 10,500 commercial office cleaners in the D.C. area and Baltimore have ratified a new four-year contract with the Washington Service Contractors Association, which represents the area's major commercial cleaning companies. By the end of the contract the overwhelmingly immigrant workforce will receive an hourly pay increase of up to $2.50 and additional sick days and holidays. The contract protects health care and other benefits while increasing access to full-time hours in both Montgomery County and Arlington, allowing workers to earn more money and access employer-paid health insurance, potentially saving public healthcare programs millions of dollars. In addition to raising wages and benefits from existing cleaners, the contract expanded to cover 400 new cleaners in Prince George’s County, MD and Loudoun County, VA. “These hard-working janitors used their collective power to improve their jobs and lives, just like other low-wage workers deserve locally and nationwide," said 32BJ SEIU Vice President, Jaime Contreras. “Their successful fight for livable wages and benefits is a blueprint for how labor’s resurgence can help rebuild the middle class.” "We won a really strong contract that's going to change people's lives," said, Miriam Pineda, a cleaner working in Bethesda and lives in Silver Spring as a single mother and the sole provider for her grandchildren. “I was struggling to feed my grandchildren and putting my faith in God to get health insurance. Full-time hours would mean a world of difference, it would mean more money to help me catch up with bills and health care so I could get breast cancer screenings." Under the contract, janitors continue to have access to free professional training and language courses as well as legal services for immigration, family and matrimonial matters, and housing law among others. Full-time cleaners in all regions will maintain employer-paid health care, including prescription drugs, dental, vision and life insurance. Part-time cleaners will continue to receive life insurance and family dental benefits. 32BJ reached the agreement just hours before the October 15th expiration, averting a strike which could have impacted over 1,200 office buildings throughout the region. Janitors led an intensive campaign that included 16 separate strike vote rallies over a two-week period throughout D.C., Montgomery County, Northern Virginia and Baltimore. As part of a large push, D.C. Mayor, Muriel Bowser rallied with janitors, who marched through downtown D.C. during rush hour two weeks in a row. In addition to support from numerous community groups, janitors rallied with D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, D.C. Council members Elissa Silverman, Charles Allen and Brianne Nadeau, Baltimore City Council members Shannon Sneed and Ryan Dorsey, Montgomery County Councilmember Hans Reimer, Virginia State Senator Barbara Favola, Arlington County Attorney nominee, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors candidate, Dalia Palchik. The contract covers over 4,000 in D.C., over 4,000 in Northern Virginia, 1,500 in Montgomery County, 600 in Baltimore and 400 in Prince George’s and Loudoun Counties. With more than 173,000 members in 11 states, including 20,000 in the D.C. area, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country. Click here for latest listings Union City Radio: 7:15a M-F; WPFW-FM 89.3 UAW strike picket: weekdays, 6am – 2pm GM White-Marsh transmission plant, 10301 Philadelphia Road, White Marsh, MD (Contract ratification vote set for this Friday) Metro Washington Council Delegate Meeting: Mon, October 21, 6:30pm – 8:00pm AFL-CIO, 815 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20005 NoVA Retiree Phone Bank and Meeting: Wed, October 23, 12pm – 3pm 4536 B John Marr Drive, Annandale, VA ; Retiree Phone Bank and Meeting: Phones Noon to 2, Meeting 2:00 -3:00 Alexandria Dems Labor Caucus: Wed, October 23, 7:30pm – 9:00pm 618 N Washington St, Alexandria, VA 22314 Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, October 24, 1pm – 2pm WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online Jennifer Carroll Foy Labor Happy Hour (NoVA Labor); Rescheduled! Thu, October 24, 5:00pm – 6:30pm Hopsfrog Grille 6030 L-1 Burke Commons Road, Burke, VA 27th Annual Joseph L. Rauh Jr. Lecture : Richard L. Trumka, President, AFL-CIO: Thu, October 24, 6pm – 8pm University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law Moot Court Room 4340 Connecticut Avenue NW Washington, DC 20008 Testify at Committee on Health Hearing: Fri, October 25, 11am – 5pm Room 412, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington DC 20004 Contact: Yvonne Slosarski; [email protected] |