MSP workers unite to support health care campaign, Delta union drive

December 8, 2022 by

Brahim Kone of SEIU Local 26 leads a rally outside MSP Terminal 2.

Airport workers marched and rallied for health care and union rights outside Terminal 2 in Bloomington today. The action was among dozens staged by airport workers and their unions fighting for safe and stable jobs across the country.

In Minnesota, workers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport used the day of action to advance their campaign for affordable health care.

Dawit Meles, who works for airline caterer LSG Sky Chefs, said he picks up overtime shifts to cover the cost of his individual insurance plan. A more affordable option, he said, would give him more time to spend with his family.

“For my single insurance I pay over $300 a month,” he said. “My wife and kids get their insurance through the state because I can’t afford the (family) insurance LSG Sky Chefs offers.”

Meles’ union, UNITE HERE Local 17, and other unions representing airport workers are pushing the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) to amend the ordinance it passed three years ago increasing MSP’s minimum wage, adding an “hourly health and wellness benefit” to the minimum compensation airport contractors must offer their employees.

State Rep. Kaela Berg, a member of the Flight Attendants union, offers solidarity to workers at the rally.

Earlier this year, unions surveyed nearly 300 MSP service workers from 17 different employers and found that, among workers who had health insurance, just 15.2% reported getting coverage through their employers.

“We know that essential airport workers – often Black, Brown and immigrant workers – make this airport the award-winning airport that it is,” SEIU Local 26 Secretary-Treasurer Brahim Kone said. “But too often to make ends meet they have to struggle, and that’s not right. It’s time for those in power to stand up and do what is right for these workers.”

A MAC commissioner who attended the rally sounded receptive to the idea.

“We will look to this coalition for guidance and support as we move forward to try to solve health care and other issues that are important,” Commissioner Rich Ginsberg said, “because it’s the workers that make the airport work.”

The coalition of airport unions behind the rally also included the Teamsters, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, and the Machinists – three unions that recently announced a coordinated campaign to support workers attempting to unionize Delta Air Lines.

Delta is turning massive profits, and executives like CEO Ed Bastian, whose pay was 26% higher last year than his peers’, are reaping the benefits. But rank-and-file workers like Miles Dousette, who works for Delta Cargo at MSP Airport, are working two jobs to make ends meet.

“We need a union now,” Delta Cargo worker Miles Dousette tells airport workers at the rally.

“There’s no work-life balance,” said Dousette, in his third year with the company. “They say we’re a family. They say they want this to be a career. Then why don’t we get career wages?”

Dousette said workers in his department earn $18 per hour for their first three years, followed by modest annual increases that top out after the 10th year.

“Delta likes to brag about profit sharing, but I worked six days a week for 10 months straight, and I got the same check as everyone else,” Dousette said.

He told workers at the rally that the company is plagued by understaffing, outdated warehouse equipment and executives who turn a deaf ear to workers’ concerns.

“The scheduling is atrocious, and when we ask management to do something about it, we always hear, ‘we can’t’ or ‘we’re working on it,’” he said. “We need a union now.”

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MSP workers unite to push for affordable health benefits

September 12, 2022 by

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar joins union members as they release a report highlighting the need for affordable health insurance at MSP Airport.

Workers who led the successful push for a $15 minimum wage at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport have launched a new campaign for affordable health insurance benefits.

At a press conference inside Terminal 1 today, janitors, gate agents, catering workers and others at the airport explained that, as their hourly wages increase beyond $15 per hour, many in their ranks fear losing eligibility for the government insurance programs on which they rely.

Insurance benefits currently offered by their employers, airport workers said, are unaffordable for most, with high premiums and deductibles.

“It would be too hard because $15 is not enough for me to afford to pay for the insurance,” MSP worker Khadiga Zail said. Managing her diabetes and high blood pressure without coverage, she added, would be impossible. “If I don’t have health insurance, it’s not going to be good for me. I could lose everything.”

Workers want the Metropolitan Airports Commission to amend the ordinance it passed increasing MSP’s minimum wage, adding an “hourly health and wellness benefit” to the minimum compensation airport contractors must offer their employees.

At least one person on the 15-member MAC already supports the idea. Leili Fatehi, who represents Minneapolis residents on the commission, stood alongside airport workers at the press conference.

“Fifteen is not enough for me to afford to pay for the insurance,” MSP worker Khadiga Zail said.

“We here at the MAC can and will do everything that is within our power to address the gaps and disparities that exist in the wages and benefits of our workforce, the majority of whom are people of color or immigrants” Fatehi said. “That is why I am committed to continuing to work with the groups that are here today to find solutions meeting the needs of our workforce, including affordable health care.”

Governing bodies at other U.S. airports have adopted similar requirements, with hourly benefit contributions ranging from $2.39 in Oakland to $9.50 in San Francisco.

Three unions that represent workers at MSP Airport – Teamsters Local 120, Service Employees (SEIU) Local 26 and UNITE HERE Local 17 – released a report today recommending MSP employers “eventually” be required to provide hourly fringe benefits at the same level as federal contractors under the Service Contract Act. The local rate is $4.80 per hour now, and it increases annually with inflation.

The report includes results of a survey of 290 MSP service workers from 17 different employers. Among workers who had coverage at the time of the survey, just 15.2% said they receive benefits from their employer, and 83.3% reported accessing insurance through government programs.

“There should be no reason, when there are record profits for the airlines, that our workers are worried about how they are going to pay for their doctors, or having to come into work sick because they can’t afford to go to the doctor,” said Local 17 President Christa Sarrack said, whose union represents about 1,500 food-service workers at MSP.

The report also highlights the positive impact an affordable-insurance requirement at MSP could have on the Twin Cities’ racial disparities, among the worst of any metro area in the U.S. MSP workers are disproportionately black and foreign-born, with a large population of East African immigrants.

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, meanwhile, said the report reinforces her push in Congress to pass the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act, which would require hub airports to ensure workers at their facilities are covered by prevailing wage and provided fringe benefits. The bill has 49 co-sponsors in the House and 12 in the Senate.

“For the last two years we’ve been saying essential workers should be celebrated as heroes,” Omar said. “They have kept our economy going, they’ve kept businesses going and they’ve kept this airport going. It’s imperative that we don’t just say thank you, but we thank them with benefits, with wages and with labor standards.”

Minimum wage at the airport will increase from $15 to $15.19 per hour Jan. 1, 2023.

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After walking away from workers, Millennium gets heat from convention delegates

August 18, 2022 by

Workers at the Millennium Hotel lead a march from the convention floor into the lobby.

Housekeepers and other hotel employees took the stage on Day 1 of the AFL-CIO’s Pride at Work convention and told delegates that the Millennium Hotel had pulled back tentative agreements with their union two months after booking the convention.

Delegates didn’t take the news sitting down.

They marched out of the Millennium ballroom and into the lobby, with hotel staff in the lead, and held a lively rally in their defense. When security guards demanded demonstrators move to the sidewalk outside, they refused, holding the lobby for nearly a half hour.

The action marked a spirited start to the three-day convention that began Aug. 18, bringing together representatives of the AFL-CIO’s constituency group for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer-plus workers.

Christa Sarrack, president of UNITE HERE Local 17, said the situation could have been avoided if the Millennium had honored the agreements it struck with union members in May.

“When the convention contacted us to see if it was OK to have it at this hotel, there was no labor dispute,” Sarrack said. “We thought we had a tentative agreement.”

Two months later, the hotel sent an “incredibly regressive” settlement agreement for the union to sign. It would have stripped longstanding language around breaks and schedule adjustments for housekeepers.

Local 17, which represents about 45 Millennium employees, has filed charges of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board, but the show of solidarity will help keep morale high, Sarrack said, as the process plays out.

“Workers don’t always get to see the actual support that they have,” she said. “So I think this was incredibly meaningful for the workers to see. And to be able to be onstage in a group like this – they’re normally in the back of the house and don’t interact in this way with the groups – is huge.”

Back in the ballroom, delegates to the convention worked their way through an agenda packed with panels, workshops and awards. The group’s convention call promised to tackle two big issues: combating the radical right, and gathering allies for that work in advance of the November election.

Speakers included several Minnesota elected officials and labor leaders, including Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham.

The convention also honored AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond and News Guild President Jon Schleuss with Solidarity Awards for championing LGBTQ+ workers.

– PAI Union News Service contributed reporting.

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Fair State, Schell’s brew together to celebrate solidarity

March 5, 2021 by

Fair State Brewing’s Union Lager is moving quickly in the taproom and in liquor stores – and in this reporter’s refrigerator, too.

Minnesota’s oldest and newest union breweries have teamed up to craft a beer celebrating solidarity in the workplace.

Union Lager is a collaborative brew by Fair State in the Twin Cities, where workers formed a union with UNITE HERE Local 17 last summer, and August Schell in New Ulm, where union members have been brewing beer since the 1930s. They currently are represented by the Steelworkers union.

The beer is crisp and moderately hoppy – a “crusher,” Fair State says on its website. Local 17 member Ian Sutherland, who uses plural pronouns, said the Union Lager is moving steadily in Fair State’s northeast Minneapolis taproom, where they work behind the bar.

“It’s beautiful,” Sutherland added. “It’s a good blend of hoppy and malty. It has a little of the hard-water profile, a little minerally. It’s a very good sessionable lager.”

Crafting lagers is a passion shared by the brewers and friends behind the collaboration, Fair State’s Niko Tonks and Schell’s Jace Marti.

When he saw the news Fair State workers had unionized last September, Marti quickly fired off a text message to Tonks. “I said congratulations on being unionized,” Marti said. “Let’s do a collaboration.”

It’s not often management celebrates its workers’ decision to form a union, let alone markets a new product around the news. But Fair State’s historic union drive was unique from the start.

Organizing was already afoot when Sutherland began bartending in June of last year. Within three months, enough workers at the taproom and Fair State’s St. Paul brewery were on board to petition management for voluntary recognition of their union, which they did the morning after Labor Day.

“Our brewer is kind of a neighborhood brewery now, but it’s starting to do some national distribution,” Sutherland said. “Our thinking was maybe it was time to cement some power in a union as we start to make the trek toward a larger-scale brewery.”

Fair State’s chief executive, Evan Sallee, immediately embraced the idea, Sutherland said. A day later, after consulting with the board of member-owners, Sallee celebrated Fair State becoming the nation’s first unionized microbrewery in an open letter on the cooperative’s website.

Sutherland said workers have been pleasantly surprised to see their union “become so integral” to Fair State’s identity. “It’s a cool thing that cements our place in the workplace,” they said.

Even better, Fair State has backed up its branding both at the table and on the shop floor.

Progress toward a first contract covering the union’s 20-plus members has been steady. Sutherland credited Local 17 Secretary-Treasurer Sheigh Freeberg with “playing the role of advocate for us and educator for both sides” as Fair State workers and managers familiarize themselves with the process.

The question everyone is trying to answer in bargaining, Sutherland said, is how to balance “the nimbleness required of a craft brewery” with a union contract.

“That’s the challenge, but it’s definitely headed in a direction that feels really healthy,” Sutherland added. “People are realizing if you want something to change, we have real power to try to make that happen.”

Whether the Union Lager will be available for a toast to Fair State workers’ first contract, whenever it’s settled, remains to be seen.

The two breweries developed their own batches and labels for the beer. Fair State’s product hit shelves first, and Tonks, Fair State’s founding brewer, said liquor stores snatched up their local distributor’s allotment in about a week.

“That’s fast,” Tonks laughed. “Response has been strong, and it’s pretty much gone.”

Fortunately for anyone who missed out, Schell’s batch should be ready for sale sometime this month. And Tonks said both brewers are looking for an excuse – contract ratification, perhaps? – to brew it again.

Marti said he isn’t surprised by the Union Lager’s success. The collaboration seemed to him charmed from Day 1, when he and Tonks decided to take their inspiration from the Westphalian Pale Lager, a German beer made famous by the now-defunct Dortmunder Union Brewery.

“It was known as a hard-working beer, a blue-collar drinking beer,” Marti said. “It all fit perfectly.”

*****

Want to talk about organizing your workplace with someone who’s done it recently? Sutherland and other Fair State unionists welcome the opportunity! Get ahold of them at fairstateunion [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Victory at MSP, as workers win $15 after long campaign

October 19, 2020 by

MSP Airport workers march outside Terminal 1 during a 2018 demonstration in support of a $15 airport-wide minimum wage.

The working people who keep Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport running, who keep it clean and who have made it safe for travelers during the COVID-19 crisis are about to get a well-deserved raise.

Members of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) voted unanimously today to put the airport on track to a $15 minimum wage. The wage increase will start on Jan. 1, 2021, and be phased in over the next two years.

Airport workers, including members of UNITE HERE Local 17, Teamsters Local 120 and SEIU Local 26, have been pushing for a wage increase for years. Many currently make just $11 per hour, the current airport minimum wage.

The wage hike will put the workforce, predominantly immigrants and people of color, on equal footing with workers in Minneapolis and St. Paul, where $15 minimum wage ordinances are on the books.

In a virtual press conference earlier this month, after commissioners signaled support for the measure, Local 120 member Michael Bardenpratt, who has worked at Swissport Fueling for 22 years, gave credit to workers who had the courage to tell their stories at MAC meetings and public demonstrations, putting a public face on poverty wages at the airport.

“Anybody that works 40 hours a week should not have to live in poverty,” Bardenpratt said. “This increase could help working people get off of government assistance, lower their dependence on food shelves, reduce the stress of wondering whether or not they’re going to have enough money for rent, food, a vehicle. It’s going to give families better lives.”

Other workers, while relieved to see $15 move forward, pledged to continue fighting for more.

Glen Brown, a wheelchair attendant at MSP for the last five years and member of Local 26, said he found it hard to celebrate the wage increase in light of the risks he and other airport workers continue to face during the pandemic.

“I’m glad this is finally happening; I’m proud of everyone who’s been fighting for this change for so long,” Brown said.

“But when this ordinance passes and we get a higher wage, it still doesn’t match the risk. We’re still in the middle of a pandemic. To overlook that, it just isn’t fair.”

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Workers tap into community support, put Surly on notice: ‘We’re not done here’

September 6, 2020 by

Credit Surly for this much: the union-busting craft brewer inspired one raucous Labor Day-weekend rally, drawing nearly 200 people into the streets outside its destination beer hall in Minneapolis today.

Workers at the gleaming, new complex in Prospect Park went public Monday with their plans to unionize. Two days later they received layoff notices, and Surly owner Omar Ansari, citing COVID-19 restrictions on restaurants and bars, announced the beer hall would close indefinitely Nov. 2.

Today, workers like Megan Caswell served Ansari with notice that they aren’t going away quietly, even if the beer hall is.

“We’re not done here,” the bartender said. “We’re still fighting.”

Caswell and her co-workers aren’t fighting alone.

UNITE HERE Local 17, the union representing more than 6,000 Twin Cities hospitality workers, has pledged legal action against Surly. And today’s demonstration followed a steady barrage of social-media backlash to Surly’s announcement.

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Workers and supporters marched along the public sidewalk bordering Surly’s makeshift beer garden, which steadily emptied as the protest swelled. Later, demonstrators shifted their route to extend through a crosswalk, halting cars and bicycles en route to the beer hall’s parking lot and turning dozens away.

Labor Day weekend in the Twin Cities usually brings working people of all stripes together for picnics and parades, canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The scene outside Surly offered a reminder of the history – and ongoing struggle for justice at work – behind the holiday.

Members of several Twin Cities labor unions jumped at the opportunity to celebrate by showing some solidarity.

“What better way to spend Labor Day?” asked Kyle Karr, a member of Minneapolis Fire Fighters Local 82, marching in his bunker gear.

Karr previously worked in the food-service industry.

“I’ve been in their position before, and they’re looking for the same thing I’ve been granted as part of a large, national union,” Karr said. “We’re all workers at the end of the day, and we all want the same things.”

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association, United Food and Commercial Workers, Service Employees, St. Paul Federation of Educators and other unions also wore their union colors to the demonstration.

“Like any other workers, Surly workers are fighting for a voice on the job, a voice in their safety and a voice in their welfare,” said Mat Terwilliger, business agent for Local 13 of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees. “I’m going to support that anywhere it happens.”

Ali Fuhrman, president of AFSCME Local 2822, which represents Hennepin County clerical and related workers, said it’s particularly exciting to see union organizing happen at places like Surly. Research shows workers in the food-service industry face greater vulnerability to wage theft and sexual harassment, and less than 2% of workers nationwide are represented by unions.

“I’m sure all the other breweries and distilleries are happy Surly is doing this,” Fuhrman said of the company’s end run around its workers’ union drive. “I think momentum is starting to swing. It’s really exciting to see.”

The community support hasn’t gone unnoticed by Surly workers.

Natalie Newcomer, a former server who was fired by Surly on Aug. 5 – in retaliation for union organizing, she believes – said it was disheartening for workers to see their concerns about safety, economic security and customer experience dismissed so casually by management. But today’s rally, she said, is a reminder that the fight is worth it.

“It’s been really beautiful to watch the community get together and fight for what is right,” Newcomer said. “Our family has only grown stronger. And that’s an awesome feeling.”

Any regrets?

“Absolutely not,” said Caswell, who joined the rally after finishing a shift behind the bar. “I’ve never organized anything in my life – maybe my sock drawer. It’s been a real education, and I would do it again in a second if need be.”

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Tattersall workers make history with union vote, raising hopes for industry-wide reform

August 20, 2020 by

At a rally in Minneapolis’ Chute Square last month, food service workers, including Tattersall employees, called for industry-wide reform.

Collective bargaining is in the mix for workers at Tattersall Distilling in Minneapolis after they voted in favor of joining together in a union.

The Twin Cities hospitality union, UNITE HERE Local 17, announced the news on social media today. Tattersall employees are the first at any craft distillery in the U.S. to form a union, UNITE HERE said, and the first distillery workers to do so in Minnesota.

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When Local 17 filed for an organizing election June 26, the would-be union included 27 Tattersall employees. The bargaining unit will bring together bottlers, distillers, bartenders, servers, dishwashers and hosts at the distillery and cocktail room in Northeast.

It’s the first successful union drive to emerge from an upwelling of collective action among Twin Cities food-service workers since restaurants and bars reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Krystle D’Alencar, a bartender and server, said she and fellow workers felt “treated as nothing better than a number” as Tattersall planned its reopening without giving them a meaningful voice in the process.

When workers confronted management with their concerns, D’Alencar added, they got a sneering response urging them to “remember that it’s a privilege to enjoy your job.”

D’Alencar’s comments came during a rally last month organized by food-service workers who want to see reform in the industry. The event in Minneapolis’ Chute Square park drew 150 people, who carried signs and chanted as they marched along a symbolic picket line.

The pandemic has layered concerns about health and safety atop existing anxieties, food-service workers said, like greater vulnerability to wage theft and sexual harassment in the industry, where less than 2% of workers nationwide are represented by unions.

Lux Wildenauer, who works at a Caribou Coffee in Minneapolis, described shortages of hand sanitizer and cloth rags, and a long wait for masks, which needed to display the company’s logo before workers could wear them.

“I’m tired of (bosses) saying they’re doing everything they can for us when our safety during a pandemic has been basically a do-it-yourself project,” Wildenauer said. “I can’t stomach that anymore.”

Workers at the rally released a public list of demands for restaurant owners, including health care and other benefits, personal protective equipment and a worker voice in safety policy, fair hiring practices, and equity in promotions, pay and treatment.

The workers framed the rally as a call to action to fellow food service workers to organize and fight for justice and dignity at work.

One in 10 Minneapolis workers works in food service, and the industry accounts for more than 5% of jobs statewide.

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Union solidarity drives fight for $15 at MSP Airport

January 22, 2020 by

Ahmed Abdul Aziz, a member of Teamsters Local 120 who works for a rental-car agency, speaks before the Metropolitan Airports Commission in favor of a $15 minimum wage.

They may work different jobs or carry different union cards, but workers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are fighting together to raise MSP’s minimum wage to $15.

And their solidarity is paying off.

The Metropolitan Airports Commission, which oversees operations at MSP Airport, is advancing an ordinance that would raise the minimum wage in three increments, reaching $15 per hour by July 1, 2022. That’s the same date ordinances in St. Paul and Minneapolis tick up to $15 for large employers.

At a final public hearing on the draft ordinance yesterday, commissioners listened to testimony from airport workers who stand to benefit, including members of the Service Employees International Union, Teamsters Local 120 and UNITE HERE Local 17.

Obang Okelo, a Local 17 member who works for airline caterer LSG Sky Chefs, told commissioners the raise would help him finally afford health insurance. For Michael Schofield, who works in an airport bookstore, the raise would mean more time to spend with his family.

“I work full time for Delaware North, but I have to have a second job because, like many, I have a family to support,” Schofield said, adding that he sees his co-workers at the bookstore clock out after an eight-hour shift, only to clock back in for work at another airport job. “They’re essentially working 16-hour days,” he said.

Obang Okelo tells commissioners raising the minimum wage would help him afford health insurance.

SEIU Local 26 member Glen Brown, a wheelchair attendant at MSP, said it’s not right that airport workers get poverty wages while corporations making money off the airport earn record profits. For most of the five years he’s worked at MSP, Brown told commissioners, his hourly pay has been under $11.

“I make this amount despite seeing the news stories about airlines making billions in profits,” Brown said. “I make this much despite seeing news stories about MSP Airport being one of the best in the country since 2016. I make this despite seeing airline CEO’s like Ed Bastian at Delta making $6,300 an hour.

“That just doesn’t sound fair to me.”

Several community supporters at the hearing agreed.

“It’s not right that we have a world-class airport … and depend on poverty wages in order to provide that service,” House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, a DFLer from Golden Valley, said.

Mary Sansom, a retired member of Machinists Local Lodge 1833, urged commissioners to put themselves in airport workers’ shoes.

“These are not easy jobs, and minimum wage is not sufficient,” said Sansom, who worked at MSP for 47 years. “And if anyone in this room believes that surviving on minimum wage is OK, then I challenge you to do it.”

Fortunately, the MAC appears to be taking workers’ concerns seriously.

Last August, the MAC unveiled an initial draft of the wage ordinance. It included language workers oppose, including a lower wage floor for tipped workers, known as the “tip penalty,” and exemptions for employers with collective bargaining agreements.

Misrak Anbese (R), an SEIU Local 26 member and longtime airport employee, appears before the MAC with Local 26 Presdident Iris Altamirano.

A month later, airport unions turned out hundreds of members and supporters to a public hearing on the proposal. Over 50 testified, and all spoke in support of a $15 minimum wage for all MSP workers, with no carve-outs or exemptions.

That’s exactly what they got just two weeks later, when the MAC revised its draft ordinance. Now, union organizers anticipate a vote in February or March.

Airport workers got more good news earlier this month, when the MAC released results from a survey of airport employers. Over 80% of those who responded anticipated the wage hike would not affect their ability to do business at MSP, and nearly 90% said the change would not impact the number of workers or total hours on their payrolls.

At the public hearing Tuesday, a handful of airport concessionaires disputed the survey results. They echoed now-familiar warnings about job cuts and business closings heard during debates over the minimum wage in Minneapolis and St. Paul in recent years.

But Wade Luneberg, Local 17’s recording secretary, said airport employers will lose experienced workers to neighboring cities if their wages fail to keep pace. And the airport, which has been showered with awards for its efficiency and service in recent years, has an interest making sure that doesn’t happen.

“These workers are the first and last impression for the flying public, and literally care for the public,” Luneberg told commissioners. “They work in a secure environment that isn’t easy to get to – or into. They keep challenging schedules, balancing multiple jobs and family commitments. They’ve made a commitment to this facility, and they’ve made a life here at MSP.

“Airport workers deserve $15.”

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MSP catering workers protest on busy travel day

November 26, 2019 by

Airline catering workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 17, lead a protest at MSP Airport.

While Delta rakes in billions in profits, many workers who cater the airline’s flights out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport can’t afford health insurance.

Faisal Abdallah, who has worked nearly 11 years for Delta caterer LSG Sky Chefs, is among them.

“If I get sick, I take pills and go back to work,” the Fridley resident said during a union rally at MSP today. “I don’t have a choice. I can’t afford the insurance even though I work two other jobs. I don’t know know what I would do if I got seriously sick.”

MSP is one of 17 airports across the country where unionized catering workers, members of UNITE HERE, are leading demonstrations during Thanksgiving week, raising awareness of their ongoing campaign for fair contracts with two major employers in the industry, Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet.

UNITE HERE represents some 20,000 airline catering workers nationwide, including 488 members of Twin Cities-based Local 17. They are pushing for higher wages – nearly half of MSP catering workers earn less than $15 an hour, according to the union – and more affordable health care options.

And they want airlines like Delta to support their cause.

As they marched from the sidewalk across the street from Terminal 1 to a mezzanine overlooking MSP’s main ticketing area, about 200 workers and supporters directed many of their chants at Delta, calling the carrier “cheap and mean.”

Several travelers applauded the protest and joined in the chants.

“I serve Delta flights every day at work,” Abdallah said. “Delta makes billions in profit, but I have to work three jobs just to pay my bills. I often work over 80 hours per week at my jobs, and I barely get to sleep.”

The demonstration was the second at MSP Airport since Sky Chefs workers voted to authorize a strike in June. Among Local 17 members, 99.7% of Sky Chefs workers who participated in the vote supported a strike, according to the union.

The contract, covering roughly 11,000 workers, became amendable under the Railway Labor Act (RLA) in December 2018. Federally mediated talks have been ongoing for months, but a strike can’t take place unless the National Mediation Board, which administers the RLA, declares an impasse and releases the two sides from negotiations.

A nationwide strike could impact services on board American, Delta and United airlines.

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Hotel workers planning May Day march: ‘One job should be enough’

April 25, 2019 by

Ade Adigoun (L) and Jose Maquin

Last fall, nearly 8,000 Marriott workers in eight cities carried out the largest hotel strike in U.S. history. After two months on the picket lines, UNITE HERE members declared victory, ratifying new contracts that raised wages by as much as $4 an hour and established new protections against sexual harassment and assault on the job.

Marriott workers’ rallying cry – “One job should be enough!” – captured the struggle many families face to maintain healthy work-life balance. Wages aren’t keeping up with rising rents, health care costs and other expenses in many parts of the country, especially urban areas.

Now the slogan has been adopted by hotel workers in the Twin Cities, where 1,200 members of UNITE HERE Local 17 are bargaining contracts with eight hotels this spring. The union will mobilize hundreds of members and supporters for a march through the streets of downtown Minneapolis on International Workers’ Day, May 1, beginning at 4:30 p.m. in Peavey Plaza. (Click here for more information.)

In interviews, two hotel workers leading the contract campaign explained what’s at stake in this round of negotiations – and shared their experiences trying to survive on one job in our community. Jose Maquin of south Minneapolis has over 10 years’ experience working in hotels, most recently in room service at Hotel Ivy. Ade Adigoun of St. Louis Park has worked as a housekeeper at the Millennium Hotel for the last 15 years. Their remarks have been edited lightly for length and clarity.

UA: What issues are most important to you in this round of contract negotiations?

JM: Not so much my department, but housekeeping. Ninety percent of housekeepers are minorities or immigrants. They are the most vulnerable group of employees in a hotel. They work hard; I see that every day. And I see that they are shy, they are quiet and they don’t always feel comfortable speaking up when they are hurt or feel unsafe. And they often work paycheck to paycheck. I feel we need to stick together.

UA: What improvements are you seeking?

JM: Wages. The minimum wage is going up, and that is good. But I feel like housekeepers should earn higher than just the minimum. I make the minimum, and I’m OK with that because I get tips. Unfortunately, I don’t think people who stay at hotels think they should tip their housekeeper. Sometimes they do, but housekeepers should be compensated better.

UA: The slogan of the May 1 march is “One job should be enough.” How hard is it for you and your co-workers to survive on one hotel job alone?

AA: People are doing two jobs because the hotels are not paying enough money. I’ve been working at Millennium for 15 years, and I still only make $15 an hour. It’s not enough; I’ve looked for a second job. People need to make $20, $25 an hour or more.

JM: I have two jobs. I have a baby with my wife. She works, and she just got a second job. We had to. It’s hard to survive without a second job. So when I hear “one job should be enough” – I wish that would be the case. If I’m absent from home because I have to work to survive, then I don’t have as much quality time with my baby.

When you think about it, there are so many social issues that arise because we are not able to spend time with our children, because we have to work a second shift. Otherwise, we won’t be able to eat or pay the mortgage or rent.

UA: As a union, you’ve reached out to workers in other unions for support. Why is that important?

AA: We have a lot of other union groups who want to support us, people who fight for good employment, good wages. We tell everyone, don’t just bring yourself. Bring your friends, your wife, your boyfriend, your kids – everyone who can walk.

JM: An issue like fair wages, it doesn’t affect just us. It affects everybody. As workers, we need to support each other in order to accomplish anything we want to accomplish.

UA: This is the highest-profile contract campaign at Twin Cities hotels in at least a decade. Is there a sense of urgency?

AA: In a day, we might make $100. But every day one housekeeper makes $3,000 for the hotel. You give me $100 out of $3,000 or more? That’s cheating. We want to eat a little of their cake…

JM: The hotels are making record profits. They have a lot of money. If we don’t ask them to share it with us, to give us a little part of the pie, they won’t.

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