—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

L.A. rally backs hotel workers’ unionizing drive

LOS ANGELES — More than 200 people joined a picket line and rally at the downtown DoubleTree Hotel here Aug. 20 organized by UNITE HERE Local 11 to support workers fighting for a union and better pay and conditions.

“There are too many checkout rooms,” Patricia Martinez, a DoubleTree housekeeper for 22 years, said in an article on the Los Angeles Federation of Labor’s website L.A. Labor on the Move. “There is not enough time for me to find the linen, wait for the elevator — that’s where my breaks go.”

Several UNITE HERE members from area hotels and other workplaces joined the rally.

“I’m here to support them and stop the physical and psychological abuses,” Juana Melara, who has worked for 20 years at Westin hotels, told the Militant. “We’re fighting for a union and contract there like here.”

Maria Villalobos, a janitor for 43 years at the University of Southern California cafeteria and a member of Local 11, attended the action along with several co-workers.

“We have to vote yes,” Martínez told the rally. “Now is the time for us to be unified so we can have benefits, so we can have our breaks.”

—Deborah Liatos

Union call responders stand up to B.C. Auto Association lockout

BURNABY, British Columbia — The British Columbia Automobile Association June 5 locked out some 70 members of Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union Local 378. The call-takers and dispatchers work round the clock taking auto club members’ emergency assistance requests from British Columbia and the Yukon.

Bargaining stalled “over pay equity, justice,” Malcolm Colcleugh, picket coordinator, told the Militant in front of the dispatch center here Aug. 22, as passing drivers honked in support.

“BCAA’s new nonunion company, Evo car sharing, has people doing the same job as we do, paid the same but working 20 fewer hours a month,” Colcleugh said. COPE members work 40-hour weeks, while workers at Evo work 35. “They’re out to break the union.”

Garry Payne, shop steward with almost 40 years’ service, described petty company harassment. He was on holiday when the lockout began and the employer denied him vacation pay.

When the lockout started the bosses physically took the headphones off call-takers and escorted them out.

BCAA roadside assistance vehicles regularly cross the line. “Some drivers are supportive. They talk to us and wave,” said Susan Wills, a call-taker and job steward. A large sign next to the picket line reads, “Drivers should be treated fairly too. Union cards available here.”

Management personnel and five drivers on their days off are staffing the phones and dispatching, workers said.

More than a dozen members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union walked the line July 31, Wills said, and on other days the firemen’s band and a union choir performed.

— Katy LeRougetel and Lynda Little

Australia wharfies keep up fight against layoffs, union busting

SYDNEY — Dockworkers here and in Brisbane, members of the Maritime Union of Australia, continue their fight against Hutchison Ports Australia’s union-busting layoffs. The company sacked 97 out of 224 employees Aug. 6 by midnight message.

Hutchison workers described the sackings as “head-picking” that violated union seniority. “It should be last on, first off,” Holly Matthewson, 26, who worked for two years at Hutchison, told the Militant.

For a week after the sackings, work came to a standstill at the two sites as dozens and at times hundreds of unionists swelled the picket lines, turning away trucks.

Hutchison-bound ships were diverted to other port operators under subcontracting arrangements the company had made in anticipation of the dispute.

An industrial court Aug. 13 ordered temporary reinstatement of the sacked workers, pending court-sponsored talks between the parties. When the wharfies attempted to return to work the following day, however, the sacked workers were denied entry.

Unionists and supporters continue to assemble at the gates as the dispute enters a new phase.

As global trade has contracted over the past five years, Hong Kong-based multinational Hutchison Port Holdings in its two new ports here has been competing for market share.

“It’s not a rerun of ’98. Half the workforce is in and half is out,” Paul Wallington, a sacked Hutchison wharfie who worked at rival port operator Patrick for 18 years, told the Militant. He was referring to the mass pickets that defeated a government-backed union-busting lockout at Patrick 17 years ago.

—Ron Poulsen

 
 
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