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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Looking back on a century of support for buying union in St. Paul

June 3, 2013 by

archives-1989In the same spirit of The Union Advocate’s annual Buy Union edition, in which we encourage union members to support businesses that hire union workers, publishers of the Minnesota Union Advocate urged readers to “Buy Bread With the Union Label” in their June 6, 1913, edition.

archives-1913They weren’t afraid to lay it on thick 100 years ago, either:

“All residents of St. Paul who prefer clean, wholesome and well-made bakery products to those of another character; all who like to see skill properly recompensed, pluck win its contests and men get a square deal all around; and all who believe in helping those who help themselves, should patronize the Co-operative Baking Company and buy its products only.”

The baking company, owned by organized labor, was in stiff competition with corporate bakers – a “gigantic monopoly,” according to The Advocate, that threatens the existence of the Bakery Workers’ union.

“The world is largely indifferent to the struggle, and so, in order to look out for their own interests and supply here wholesome articles of food in their line, the union bakers of St. Paul have organized a co-operative baking company,” The Advocate added. “They should have all the support men in other unions and their families can possibly give them.”

At right, check out the Co-Operative Baking Company’s ad in The Union Advocate, along with some other “buy union” ads from our pages over the last 100 years.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what the newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

archives-196375 Years Ago: Labor backs Benson for re-election

In June 1938 the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly passed a resolution affirming its support for Gov. Elmer A. Benson’s re-election campaign, and as the assembly’s official publication, The Advocate laid out the case for Benson in advance of the Democratic Farmer Labor Party’s June 20 primary election.

Most notably, The Advocate commended Benson, elected governor just 18 months earlier, for “barring the Pinkerton Detective Agency from the state.” The Pinkertons were a private security firm popular among businesses looking to infiltrate unions, intimidate workers and break up strikes.

Labor’s support made a big difference in the DFL primary, in which Benson eked out a narrow victory over former Gov. Hjalmar Petersen. The Advocate offered a theory as to why Peterson drew so many votes against an incumbent DFL governor: GOP subterfuge.

“That a large number of Republicans went into the Farmer-Labor primary to support Mr. Petersen was quite evident from the number of votes cast for the Farmer-Labor candidates for governor as compared with those cast for the Farmer-Labor candidates for lieutenant governor.” .

25 Years Ago: Compensation for AmHoist workers

About 200 displaced American Hoist & Derrick workers attended a contentious meeting in June 1988. At issue: how to spend $4 million AmHoist was forced to return to the City of St. Paul after it was determined the company had illegally used a federal grant to move its crane operations from Minnesota to North Carolina two years earlier.

In a “highly charged discussion,” according to The Advocate, workers expressed frustration that many remained unemployed. “Several … said lack of health insurance, the inability to find work and family emotional and financial difficulties are serious problems.”

Later that year, the task force would roll out the AmHoist Reemployment Action Project, a partnership between unions and the City of St. Paul to find jobs for the estimated 700 to 1,200 displaced workers who remained unemployed.

Former U.S. Rep. Bruce Vento was critical in forcing AmHoist to return the federal money to St. Paul.

Workers at AmHoist were members of the International Association of Machinists.

10 Years Ago: Grand Hotel dropped from union list

Speaking of buying union, UNITE HERE Local 17 dropped a Minneapolis hotel from its list of union-represented properties in June 2003 after three years of unproductive negotiations on a new contract for 50 hotel employees.

Local 17 President Jaye Rykunyk made the decision after the Minneapolis office of the National Labor Relations Board refused to order Grand Hotel owner Jeff Wirth to sign a collective bargaining agreement, which the union claimed he had verbally agreed to sign.

“Once the board sent that message,” Rykunyk told The Advocate, “there’s no reason for the employer to bargain in good faith. We view the board as being a completely useless entity at this point. In our view, the board has wholesale abandoned its responsibility to enforce the law”

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Nancy Goldman: Increase the minimum wage without penalizing servers

March 28, 2013 by
goldman-mug

Nancy Goldman

Minnesota is one of only seven states that does not have “tip credit” or Tip Penalty laws. Minnesota minimum wage was last increased in 2007. As the current legislators look to increase our state minimum wage, which is among the lowest in the country, Hospitality Minnesota, the restaurant employers association, is once again trying to find a way to keep from paying that wage to servers and bartenders, using the same arguments that have proven to be untrue in the past.

One member of our union, UNITE HERE Local 17, recently testified at several minimum wage hearings. Here’s what Nicole Hilgendorf, a server and member of the union, told lawmakers:

“I am a server, and have been on and off for the past 8 years. I started serving while enrolled in college in Wisconsin. Because there is ‘tip penalty’ in that state, my hourly wage was $2.33 per hour. I barely received a paycheck from my employer, as my hourly earnings were just enough to cover taxes on my tips. Therefore, any take home income I received was entirely dependent on tips from customers. On busy nights, this did not bother me much, but on slow nights, this was extremely problematic.

“At the end of the month, if I did not earn enough tip money to cover bills and expenses, I had to pick up extra shifts which often resulted in missing classes, breaking plans, or paying my bills late and incurring penalties and fees. Although tipping is culturally enforced, it is subjective and therefore is not guaranteed. I understand that federal law states that if a tipped employee does not earn the minimum wage from hourly plus tips, the business is responsible to ensure that tipped employees receive the minimum wage rate on their paychecks. This would have been useful information for me to have while working in Wisconsin! Unfortunately, I was unaware of this, and I am assuming many other industry workers are as well.

“After college, I moved to Minnesota. My first job was a serving position. I did notice what I thought was an error in the job posting: it said this position was paid $7.25 an hour. I just assumed it was a mistake, but after 2 weeks, I received a paycheck. And not a voided check or a check for 10 cents, but an actual paycheck! I can honestly say for the first time while being employed as a server, I felt like a valued employee.

“Receiving a minimum hourly wage, in addition to tips, has given me a sense of financial stability. I know that no matter what amount I make in tips, I will at least earn enough hourly to cover my rent. That alone has tremendous effects on my well being, as some of my financial stress is diminished.

“I would like to address a misconception that I often hear: most tipped employees are college students or young people trying to make ends meet while working parttime. This is untrue. Although I do work with students and young people, I also work with people who have families to support, as well as workers that have been in the industry for years or decades, and this is their professional career. Tipped employees rarely receive benefits such as health care, Pension or 401K, and sick days. Many tipped employees just do not get sick, or rather, do not get proper health care when sick and show up to work sick, only to prolong their ailment or worse, spread it to others. Paying tipped employees minimum wage at least makes the out-of-pocket costs more manageable when ill.

“In closing, I would like to remind you that minimum wage is not a livable wage. Tipped employees are not wealthy, nor are they greedy in asking for fair compensation. We are just trying to make a living like everyone else.”

– Nancy Goldman is president of UNITE HERE Local 17.

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Union members join push for immigration reform with path to citizenship

January 30, 2013 by
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota member Mitch Azarcon talks about her mother's struggle for U.S. citizenship.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota member Mitch Azarcon talks about her mother’s struggle for U.S. citizenship.

U.S. citizenship isn’t something Mitch Azarcon takes for granted – not after watching her Filipino-born mother wait 25 years to move her family to the U.S.

Now Azarcon, a surgical core technician at Rochester Methodist Hospital, is exercising her rights as a citizen, taking action through her union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, to change federal law and make it easier for people like her mother to realize their dreams of becoming U.S. citizens.

“America is my home, and I am an active citizen,” Azarcon said. “During this last election I knocked on doors, phone banked, passed out fliers – everything in my power to participate. We helped elect leaders who will do the right thing for immigrants in this country.”

Union members like Azarcon form a critical bloc in a broad-based coalition supporting the immigration-reform effort declared a priority by President Obama earlier this week.

Locally, the coalition includes business, student, religious, civil-rights and labor organizations, and their representatives gathered at the Minnesota Capitol today to demonstrate their shared commitment “to doing what a broad swath of Americans want: to finally, once and for all, win comprehensive immigration reform,” said Javier Morillo, president of SEIU Local 26.

At a press conference, Morillo and other speakers stressed that immigration reform must include one “essential” component: a practical path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the U.S.

Luis Enrique Gomez, holding a picture of his children, talks with Rev. Paul Erickson.

Luis Enrique Gomez, holding a picture of his children, talks with Rev. Paul Erickson.

Without a path to citizenship, families like Luis Enrique Gomez’s will continue to be split apart. Gomez, who lives in St. Cloud, has been ordered to return to his native Mexico by March 9. If he complies, he said, he will be forced to leave behind his two U.S.-born children.

“I think we need to keep together families,” Gomez said, gripping a photo of himself with his arm around his children. “It can cause psychological problems, separating kids from their parents.”

Rather than labeling workers like Gomez “illegals,” U.S. policy should “recognize that (immigrants) are simply responding to economic forces on both sides of the border,” said Rev. Paul Erickson, an assistant to the bishop of the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Immigration policy is not just about borders and security, Erickson added, “it’s about real human lives.”

It’s also about workers’ rights, which is why Minnesota’s unions, according to Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson, are “fully engaged” in the push for “common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform.”

In addition to SEIU and the Minnesota AFL-CIO, which together represent more than 330,000 union members statewide, UNITE HERE Local 17, Local 1189 of the United Food and Commercial Workers and the community-based group Minnesotans for a Fair Economy also have pledged support the immigration-reform effort.

The reason, Knutson said, is simple: A rising tide lifts all boats.

“Empowering immigrant workers is a win for all working families,” Knutson said. “With a well-functioning process in place, immigrant workers will have the voice in the workplace they need to defend their rights, which in turn will improve standards for all workers. That’s because the ability to exploit any worker lowers the standards for all workers.”

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UNITE HERE Local 17: Bottom line is Vikes stadium will create jobs

June 20, 2012 by

The Vikings Stadium deal is done, and the members of UNITE HERE Local 17 are happy about that. We are happy about the jobs that it will provide over the next few years while it’s being built and about the jobs it will provide over the next 30+ years for our members.

Local 17 represents workers in the hospitality industry, including sports arenas. When Target Field opened, there was no doubt what that did for the hospitality industry in downtown Minneapolis, with people eating at restaurants, shopping, and staying in hotels. Our union, which was hit hard in a bad economy, regained members, saw wages rise and people called back from layoff. Target Field employs as many as 800 of our members at each game, many of them coming from inner city neighborhoods where unemployment is high.

As we listened over several months to the endless debates, opinions, and commentary about the jobs that would be created once the new stadium was built, we also heard a lot of misconceptions and untruths about the type of jobs these would be. Some politicians and some labor people described them as “dead end, low wage jobs.”

We need to respect all workers and not allow politicians to look down their nose and create “jobism.” We should not be taking a position that working in a stadium or a hotel is somehow less important. Not everyone will be a teacher or a lawyer or a skilled professional, and some who are will continue to vend the beer, sell the hotdogs and work in the bars, restaurants and clubs that will be part of the new stadium.

The fact is, for each of the jobs created at the site, many more are truly created; it’s a ripple effect that could hardly be quantified. Think of it this way: for every hotdog sold, not only is the cook and the server of the hotdog working, but the person who delivered the hotdogs to the stadium. There’s a person that keeps that person’s truck running and in good tires and brakes, which someone else makes, and then there’s the farmer who raised the pigs or cows to make the hotdogs and the people who make and print the bags they come in and the makers of mustard, ketchup, pickles and onions. And let’s not forget the bakers of the buns. We could go on and on.

This is how the economy is built. One job relies on the job of another and then expands to create more jobs. It is shallow and shortsighted to claim that we are giving billionaires millions. We are giving ourselves millions in pride in our community that cannot be estimated in dollars.

– Nancy Goldman is president of Twin Cities-based UNITE HERE Local 17. Martin Goff is senior vice president of Local 17. For more information on their union and the workers it represents, go to www.uniteherelocal17.org.

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Union reaches tentative agreement with The Saint Paul Hotel

May 9, 2012 by

The Saint Paul Hotel became the target of several union demonstrations as negotiations with UNITE HERE Local 17 stalled last winter.

After six months of unusually bitter contract negotiations, union workers at The Saint Paul Hotel will vote May 17 on a tentative agreement with the company on a new three-year contract.

Leaders of UNITE HERE Local 17, the union that represents about 170 workers at the downtown hotel, are recommending members vote to accept the tentative agreement. Local 17 President Nancy Goldman would not comment on details, but said the agreement includes “everything we asked for and more.”

The union’s previous contract with The Saint Paul Hotel expired Dec. 1, 2011.

Local 17 has represented the hotel’s workers since 1984, but when contract talks began last November, management surprised union negotiators by insisting on steep concessions from the hotel’s workers.

According to Goldman, the company sought to dramatically decrease its contribution to workers’ health insurance and pension benefits. Management also proposed rolling back new employees’ wages by as much as $8 per hour.

While The Saint Paul Hotel insisted on concessions, it never pleaded poverty in negotiations, Goldman said.

“We have never had this sort of dispute go on (at The Saint Paul Hotel), and there was absolutely no need for it,” she said. “Management never claimed to have an economic problem. I asked them outright, ‘Is it because you can’t afford it?’ and they said no.”

With negotiations deadlocked, Local 17 ratcheted up public pressure on the high-profile hotel, mobilizing a network of supporters throughout the community that included labor federations, progressive groups and faith-based organizations.

Twice over the winter, the union turned out dozens of people for informational picketing outside the hotel. Supporters also called and e-mailed management to voice their disgust.

Goldman said the public response forced hotel negotiators to “come off their position” of demanding concessions.

“So many people called and e-mailed the hotel,” she said. “I know several organizations pulled their business out of there, and a lot of people stayed out of the hotel. Several large pieces of business for the hotel booked their functions elsewhere.”

Local 17’s successful contract campaign, Goldman added, speaks to the value local unions gain from being a part of the larger labor community. The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, she said, played a key role in building public pressure on the hotel to negotiate fairly with its workers.

“President Bobby Kasper and the Regional Labor Federation were extremely helpful in this,” she said. “Bobby made phone calls, he spoke directly to the manager and the general manager over there, and the RLF assisted with rallies and getting people there.”

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