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• UNIONS AND ADVOCATES URGE LEGISLATURE TO JOIN SPITZER IN CLOSING “WAL-MART” TAX LOOPHOLE 2/2/2007
  

  New York, NY – Unions and advocates praised Governor Spitzer today for standing up to Wal-Mart and other companies that exploit a ...

• Genentech Vendor Draws Union Action 1/30/2007. The San Francisco Chronicle
  The union representing hotel workers is asking local high-tech and biotechnology companies to improve working conditions for their contract food service workers.

  Unite Here, which represents 440,000 workers in the hospitality industry and other businesses, is pushing the companies to agree to a code of conduct governing contract food service providers. The code includes fair wages, neutrality in organizing efforts and worker retention when contractors take over an account.

  The campaign is focusing on some 175 food service employees who work at Genentech Inc.'s campus in South San Francisco and its manufacturing plant in Vacaville.

• High tech firms should hire worker-friendly contractors 1/29/2007. San Jose Mercury News
  South Bay biotech and high tech companies make frequent appearances in those "best companies to work for" lists in the media. But for many people who work on these campuses, the bright public relations image conceals a darker picture of unfairness and hardship.

  High tech firms commonly contract out service work, from food service and janitorial services to technical support and security. Contracting costs are controlled by keeping the price of labor as low as possible. As a result, many workers lack affordable health care, can't afford to take off when they are sick or injured, and have no job security. By contrast, the scientists and engineers who work in the same buildings receive competitive salaries and benefits and enjoy perks that range from free lunch to stock options.

• New contract likely to wash: Linen services offer pay hike to metro laundry workers 11/30/2006. New York Newsday
  Two Long Island linen-service companies have reached a new contract agreement that raises the wages of their employees to at least $9.50 a hour, from less than $7, in some cases, the union representing the workers said yesterday.

  Oceanside Linen Service and Polo Linen Service in Lindenhurst have agreed to the three-year contract, which covers 500 employees, said UNITE HERE, the Manhattan-based union representing the workers.

Although we do different kinds of work, many UNITE HERE members and unorganized workers in our industries work for the same huge companies. That’s because there’s a growing trend for hospitals, schools, universities and government agencies to contract out food, laundry and cleaning services to “multi-service” companies.

Three huge companies dominate the rapidly growing multi-service industry: Aramark, which is based in the U.S., Sodexho, a French company, and Compass, which is headquartered in England. Each has hundreds of thousands of employees spread across the globe.

There are already more than 300,000 multi-service workers in the U.S. and Canada, and the number will more than triple in the next 10 years.

UNITE HERE already represents 10% of the workers in the multi-service industry, and we’re well positioned to take on this growing giant. We’ve joined forces with the Service Employees International Union, which represents building service workers. Working together, we’ll organize and raise standards for food, laundry and cleaning service workers at the same time.

We’re organizing laundry workers in Phoenix, Florida and Illinois; food workers at Marine Corps bases on the East and West Coasts, at corporate cafeterias and in school districts in dozens of states; and hospital housekeepers all over the U.S. and Canada.

Our task is to raise standards for workers by taking on industry giants. It’s the only way to win a bright future for ourselves and our children.