http://themilitant.com/2016/8027/802732.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 27 July 25, 2016
—ON THE PICKET LINE—
Maggie Trowe, Editor
Militant/Janet Post
Members of UNITE HERE Local 54 picket Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in
Atlantic City, New Jersey, July 6. Workers are striking over health
care, pensions and work breaks.
Help make this column a voice of workers’ resistance!
This column gives a voice to those engaged in battle and building
solidarity today — including unionists striking US Foods, workers locked
out by Honeywell, construction workers demanding safe conditions and
workers fighting for $15 an hour and a union. I invite those involved in
workers’ battles to contact me at 306 W. 37th St., 13th Floor, New York,
NY 10018; or (212) 244-4899; or themilitant@xxxxxxx. We’ll work together
to ensure your story is told.
— Maggie Trowe
Biggest issue is health care in Atlantic City casino strike
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Enthusiastic strikers are picketing 24 hours a day
at entrances to the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort here. The nearly 1,000
members of UNITE HERE Local 54, including waitresses, porters, bellhops,
custodial workers, bartenders, cooks, housekeepers and food servers,
went on strike July 1.
“The biggest issue is health care which they eliminated when the company
declared bankruptcy in 2014,” said union organizer Felix Perez. A
federal bankruptcy judge also allowed the company to end its pension
contributions. The company ended paid breaks as well.
Workers agreed to a wage freeze in 2011 when casino owners claimed they
were in financial distress. The current four-year company proposal is
for two years of bonuses followed by two years of yet-to-be-determined
raises, Perez said. “If you include the paid break time we lost and
cost-of-living, that’s nine years just to get wages back to where we
were in 2011.”
“They can’t run the casino by themselves,” Hany Racheb, a cook
originally from Egypt, told the Militant. “They promised to return the
health care, but they haven’t. Now they know we’re serious.”
The casino hired housekeepers just before the strike, including Wanda,
but she said she would not cross the picket line.
The hotel casino complex remains open with work being done by managers
and nonunion workers, including gaming dealers and security guards. The
casino is no longer owned by Donald Trump, but by billionaire investor
Carl Icahn.
— Janet Post and Ruth Robinett
Walmart workers in China strike over working hours
Workers launched strikes at several Walmart stores in China after the
company imposed a new system for scheduling work hours.
On July 1, at least 130 workers at a Walmart store in the southern city
of Nanchang began marching through the aisles, chanting, “Walmart
Workers Stand Up!” and “No to the Comprehensive Working Hours System,”
reported the Hong-Kong based China Labour Bulletin.
The actions, described by the Financial Times as “an unprecedented bout
of nationwide co-ordination by workers,” rapidly spread to a second
store in Nanchang and stores in Chengdu in central China and Harbin in
the northeast.
Workers are demanding a halt to a new system that allows managers to
arbitrarily schedule an unlimited number of hours per day, totaling up
to 174 hours per month, with no overtime pay. They’re also calling for
new trade union elections. The only officially recognized union in the
country, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, signed an agreement
with Walmart in 2006 allowing the company to set up
management-controlled unions.
One of the placards at a strike action in Chengdu read, “We support
Walmart workers in the U.S. for the Fight for 15,” reported the Times.
By July 8 the workers had returned to their jobs, reported Reuters,
after the company said they would consider the issue.
— Brian Williams
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