—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

United flight attendants hold international day of action

DENVER — Some 90 workers organized by the Association of Flight Attendants marched in a spirited picket outside Denver International Airport July 16, holding signs that read, “Contract Now” and “Record Profit$$$. It’s Our Turn.”

Similar protests took place at 16 United Airlines hubs around the world, part of a day of action to bring pressure on United to sign a contract. Negotiations have been going on for three years for a contract that covers workers at both United and Continental, which merged in 2010. The union, which now represents 24,000 flight attendants at United, is demanding wage and benefit increases, job security, scheduling and rest time.

United’s 2014 profit of $1.97 billion was up 89 percent over the previous year.

A July 17 letter signed by members of the union’s joint negotiating committee thanked members for the turnout and said, “Negotiations should be about give and take, but it cannot be, it will not be, one party doing all the giving and the other party doing all the taking.”

The mechanics, who are also demanding a joint agreement, staged a protest in June.

— Horace Kerr

Seattle hospital workers demand more nurses per patient

SEATTLE — About 500 hospital workers marched and rallied in front of Swedish-Providence Hospital here July 1.

Some 7,000 nurses and health care workers represented by SEIU Healthcare 1199NW are protesting the lack of progress in current contract negotiations.

“Swedish-Providence has more than 1,600 vacancies, which nurses and healthcare workers attribute to declining standards for staffing and jobs,” a posting on the union website says.

SEIU members carried signs reading, “People Before Profits” and “Increase Staffing for Patient Care.”

Nurses say that with 12-hour shifts there are too many patients for each nurse to give the care needed. “We don’t have sufficient staffing to properly care for patients,” said Alexandra Dennis, who works in the neuroscience department.

“We need affordable health care,” said Joy Ouano, a nurse in the ambulatory infusion center. “How can we take care of patients’ needs when the hospital won’t take care of ours?”

After Swedish Medical Center merged with Providence Health Services, a Catholic organization, it stopped doing abortions in its hospitals and clinics, causing an outcry from women’s rights organizations.

— Edwin Fruit

Washington farm workers union marches to demand contract

BURLINGTON, Wash. — Two years after launching a fight for a union contract at Sakuma Brothers Farms in Washington’s Skagit Valley, 250 farm workers and supporters marched to the company’s office here July 11 to demand a contract.

In July 2013, after farm worker Federico Lopez was fired for challenging the piece rate, more than 200 of his co-workers walked off the job. They won his reinstatement. Through that struggle the berry workers formed the Familias Unidas por la Justicia union (Families United for Justice).

The recent rally at the company’s gates included a line-up of speakers showing the respect the union has won in the labor movement. Among those addressing the crowd were Jeff Johnson, president of the Washington State Labor Council; Steve Garey, former president of United Steelworkers Local 12-591, which organizes oil workers at the Tesoro refinery in nearby Anacortes who were on strike earlier this year; Kent Stanford, president of the Washington Public Employees Association; and Ramón Ramírez, president of Oregon-based Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United).

Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and United Food and Commercial Workers participated in the action. Religious and social activist organizations were there as well.

— Clay Dennison