Showing posts with label Labor Strikes. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Strike over: Bay Area transit workers reach compromise with management

By LISA LEFF and SUDHIN THANAWALA 20 hours ago

With the BART transit system on strike, people line up along the Embarcadero near the Ferry Building to catch a ferry to Oakland, Calif., during the afternoon commute Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, in San Francisco. Frustrated bay area commuters started the work week Monday facing gridlocked roadways and long lines for buses and ferries as a major transit strike entered its fourth day, increasing pressure on negotiators to reach a deal that resumes train service. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco Bay Area's main commuter train system and its unions reached a tentative agreement on a new contract Monday night, ending a crippling four-day strike.
Union officials announced the deal, which still requires approval from union members, then from the Bay Area Rapid Transit's board of directors.
BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said limited service would begin Tuesday at 4 a.m. on all lines. BART officials hoped trains would be running at full strength in time for the afternoon commute.
BART is the nation's fifth-largest rail system, with an average weekday ridership of 400,000.
Workers walked off the job on Friday after talks broke down. Commuters endured jammed roadways and long lines for buses and ferries, as they looked for alternate ways around the region.
The talks between BART and its two largest unions dragged on for six months— a period that saw two chaotic dayslong strikes, contentious negotiations and frazzled commuters wondering if they would wake up to find the trains running or not.
"The public expects us to resolve our differences and to keep the Bay Area moving," BART general manager Grace Crunican said Monday night.
Crunican said there would be no immediate announcements on the details while union leaders explained the agreement to their members, but she said it was a compromise and added: "This deal is more than we wanted to pay."

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Strike over: Bay Area transit workers reach compromise with management

A transit strike that for four days halted normal commutes in San Francisco has ended, but the deal was not immediately released

Rory Carroll in Los Angeles
theguardian.com, Tuesday 22 October 2013 10.11 EDT

Striking Bart workers picket on Friday in Oakland. Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

A transit strike that crippled the San Francisco Bay Area has ended, raising hopes of a swift return to normality after four days of commuting chaos.
Union leaders and managers of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) system agreed a tentative deal late on Monday; service is expected to slowly come back on line over the course of Tuesday.
The stand-off had paralysed the US's fifth-largest commuter rail system, which has an average weekday ridership of 400,000. Gridlocked roads and long queues for buses and ferries caused widespread disruption and recrimination since Bart workers walked off the job last Friday in a dispute over pay and conditions, and both sides were under immense pressure to come to an agreement.
"This offer is more than we wanted to pay but it is a new path with our workers and it delivers the Bart of the future," said the agency's general manager, Grace Crunican, after emerging from negotiations on Monday.
Bart strike over

The standoff had paralysed the US's fifth-largest commuter rail system, which has an average weekday ridership of 400,000. Photograph: Eric Risberg/AP
Details of the deal were not immediately released, and it is still pending ratification by Bart's board of directors and members of the Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555. The accord was brokered by a federal mediator, Greg Lim. A previous strike in July had halted services for four days.

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Sunday, September 1, 2013

Fast-food workers went on strike and protested outside McDonald's, Burger King and other restaurants in 60 U.S. cities demanding a living wage

U.S. fast-food workers protest, demand a 'living wage'

Strikers march outside a Wendy's restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts August 29, 2013, as a part of a nationwide fast food workers' strike asking for $15 per hour wages and the right to form unions. REUTERS-Brian Snyder

By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian

NEW YORK | Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:52pm EDT

(Reuters) - Fast-food workers went on strike and protested outside McDonald's, Burger King and other restaurants in 60 U.S. cities on Thursday, in the largest protest of an almost year-long campaign to raise service sector wages.
Rallies were held in cities from New York to Oakland and stretched into the South, historically difficult territory for organized labor.
The striking workers say they want to unionize without retaliation in order to collectively bargain for a "living wage."
They are demanding $15 an hour, more than twice the federal minimum of $7.25. The median wage for front-line fast-food workers is $8.94 per hour, according to an analysis of government data by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), an advocacy group for lower-wage workers.
"It's almost impossible to get by (alone)," said McDonald's worker Rita Jennings, 37, who was among about 100 protesters who marched in downtown Detroit Thursday. "You have to live with somebody to make it."
Jennings said that in her 11 years at McDonald's, she has never received a raise above her wage of $7.40 an hour.
In Atlanta, about 20 fast-food workers at two different chains presented their managers with "strike letters" before walking out, Roger Sikes, a coordinator with the nonprofit group Atlanta Jobs With Justice, told Reuters.
And in Oakland, about 80 fast-food workers from various restaurants and their supporters rallied outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet.
"I'm doing it for the respect for myself and for my other coworkers," said Ryan Schuetz, 20, who works at McDonald's. He said his work hours have been reduced recently and that he was struggling to keep a roof over his head.
Several politicians came out in support of the protesters on Thursday.
In New York City, mayoral candidate and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined several hundred demonstrators outside a McDonald's in midtown Manhattan, holding a sign that read "On Strike: Wages Too Damn Low."
"Better pay will put more money into local businesses and spur economic growth," Democratic Representative George Miller of California said in a statement.
Robert Hiltonsmith, a policy analyst at Demos, a liberal think tank, said that if the minimum wage had kept up with productivity and inflation, it would be closer to $17 per hour.

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Analysis & Opinion

Breakingviews: Minimum wage woes

Thu, Aug 29 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Colombia braced for nationwide protests

Students and labour unions to march in support of farmers unhappy with free trade agreements

Sibylla Brodzinsky in Bogotá
theguardian.com, Thursday 29 August 2013 11.19 EDT

Demonstrators and riot policemen near Bogota Colombia

Demonstrators banging on pots in support of farmers at the entrance of La Calera near Bogotá. Photograph: Jose Miguel Gomez/Reuters

Colombia's largest cities were braced on Thursday for marches by students and labour unions in support of a growing nationwide strike by miners, truckers, coffee growers, milk producers and potato farmers protesting against everything from high fuel prices to free trade agreements that farmers say have them on the brink of bankruptcy.
The protests began on 19 August, with demonstrators joining striking miners,to block some of the country's main highways using tree branches, rocks and burning tyres. At least one protester and one policeman have died in the demonstrations, dozens have been injured and more than 150 have been arrested.
The protests spread to the cities where residents banged pots in solidarity with the farmers after president Juan Manuel Santos, in a failed effort to downplay the importance of the strikes, said the "supposed national farmers' strike does not exist".
Forced to apologise for the statement, he sent out high-level officials to begin negotiating separately with the different sectors. "We recognise that the farmers' protests respond to real needs and problems. We are listening to them and offering solutions," Santos said on Wednesday night.

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At least 20 injured as police, protesters clash in Colombian capital

Souce:Xinhua Publish By Joseph A. Cambra Updated 30/08/2013 7:05 pm i

At least 20 people were injured and some stores damaged here on Thursday in clashes between riot police and demonstrators gathering at central Bolivar Square to show support for striking farmers.
Local media reported that as many as 30,000 people, including more than 20,000 university students, began the protest three days ago at the square to support a nationwide farmers strike. The clashes broke out as several groups of young demonstrators attacked the police.
At least 20 people, including protesters as well as policemen, were injured as the police tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons, local media said.
In a related development, supporters of the farmers also clashed with riot police trying to remove roadblocks and waterworks pipes placed by demonstrators on the South Highway to Bogota.

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