The agreement reached at Lesley follows eith months of negotiations between the Lesley workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 26, and Bon Appetit, the food service company that employs the workers and operates the dining halls on the university’s campus. It also comes on the heels of similar agreements reached across Boston area campuses where Local 26 members work. Workers at Simmons College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences all reached similar agreements earlier this fall.

Union contracts on these campuses will now rise to the standards set by struggles at Harvard University in 2016 and Northeastern University in 2017. On both campuses dining hall workers fought for a minimum annual income of $35,000 a year for full-time workers and affordable health insurance. At colleges like Lesley and Simmons, this will be a dramatic increase, with many workers seeing their hourly wages increase by over 50% during the life of the contract.

Rodamas Moran, a Lesley dining hall worker and Local 26 shop steward, spoke at a Lesley community forum in October and described the struggles of Boston area food service workers to the students and faculty gathered there. “I have two jobs,” Moran told the group. “I start here at 6:00 in the morning and get out at 2:30 and go to my other job until 11 or 11:30. I go home and I sleep maybe 3 hours. Then I get up and do it again.” Moran’s story is not uncommon among workers contending with Boston’s skyrocketing cost of living. The challenges facing Boston’s working class are not disappearing, but the city’s ding hall workers are becoming an example of the best way to confront these challenges – building a fighting labor movement.

#CambridgeMA #PeoplesStruggles #UNITEHERELocal26 #LesleyUniversity #BonAppetit

On Oct. 4, workers voted 316 to 2 to authorize a strike over a set of demands that was inspired in part by the 22-day strike at Harvard University. A key issue was workers’ low incomes, leading many to rely on public assistance to survive, even if they worked full time. Health care was the other main rallying point, as workers demanded affordability, citing lack of funds to seek medical care, or reliance on government health care.

The agreement includes wage increases that will bring full-time workers to $35,000 annually by 2019, and a dramatic increase to the number of full-time schedules available. The new contract will provide a total of $5.65 in hourly wage increases to all workers, across the board.

On health care, the agreement now provides an insurance plan that is paid for by the employer at 97%. In addition, workers were able to maintain access to a platinum-level plan with no takeaways.

The new contract provides enhanced protections for immigrant workers, strengthened non-discrimination language, including the addition of gender identity and expression, and additional sick days.

A new “snow days” provision elicited cheers; workers will now be able to use personal or vacation time if they are unable to come into work on days the state closes offices due to a blizzard or snow storm. Workers who are able to brave the elements to serve the campus will be paid time-and-a-half.

And, importantly, workers at Northeastern University will join the UNITE HERE Local 26 pension plan, allowing them to begin to accrue retirement benefits.

UNITE HERE Local 26 Lead Negotiation Michael Kramer said, “With the determination and leadership of the workers and students we have won an agreement that will be life-changing for our members and impactful in their communities. It raises the standard for campus food service workers across Boston whose value and importance in the university community is often forgotten.”

Northeastern dining worker and bargaining committee member Angela Bello states, “I am so proud of what we accomplished. It’s amazing to feel the power that workers have when we get together and are well organized. The ways this contract will impact our lives is almost hard to believe. Thank you to everyone who supported us and believed in us.”

UNITE HERE Local 26 represents nearly 10,000 members working in the hotel, gaming, food service and airport industries in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. UNITE HERE Local 26 members went on strike for 22 days at Harvard University in October 2016 to win sustainable annual income and affordable health care.

#BostonMA #UNITEHERELocal26

Boston, MA – Northeastern University dining hall workers voted 316 yes to 2 no on Oct. 4 to authorize a strike. They additionally announced that if no resolution is reached by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10, they will strike. Picket lines would begin in the early morning hours of Oct. 11.

Inspired by the 22-day strike at Harvard University last fall, Northeastern workers are calling for the same two core demands: the ability to earn at least $35,000 a year for full-time work and affordable health care.

The average Northeastern food service worker made less than $22,000 last year, well below Boston’s median income of $35,000 a year. Because of this gap, many workers qualify for and rely on public assistance like low-income housing, food stamps and Mass Health.

“I am currently facing eviction from low-income housing in Boston, and I work full time at Northeastern,” said food service worker Roxanna Santana. “My daughter wants to go to college next year, but how can I possibly afford that when I am unable to save anything for my family's future?”

Also Oct. 4, the Boston City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of the workers. More than 40 student groups have joined a coalition backing food service workers’ demands.

“I support dining service workers' call for dignity and justice in the cafeterias,” said second-year Northeastern law student Keally Cieslik. “3$5,000 a year and affordable health insurance are reasonable asks that a university like Northeastern should be proud to agree to. It's the right thing to do.”

“When I first came to Northeastern, the first people that made me feel like I was at home were dining hall workers in Stetson East. They make my day,” said second-year Northeastern student Rebeca Muñoz. “I'm here supporting them the same way that they have supported me every day.”

“We will continue negotiating this week with hopes of reaching a resolution that meets our modest demands,” said food service worker Angela Bello. “We can’t continue to live with what we earn as food service workers at Northeastern. If it’s going to take a strike to wake up Northeastern administrators to this crisis, we’ll put down our utensils and pick up picket signs next Wednesday.”

“It is shameful that workers at a multi-million dollar institution in the heart of Boston must make personal sacrifices to win the basics,” said UNITE HERE Local 26 Lead Negotiator Michael Kramer. “Northeastern administration doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo that poverty wages on campus are abhorrent to students, faculty and the surrounding communities. Northeastern needs to step up.”

#BostonMA #strike #Strikes #UNITEHERELocal26

Julie Procaccini, a banquet captain at Twin River and a bargaining committee member, said that the union is giving the company until 3:59 a.m. on Friday to meet the workers’ demands. If an agreement is not reached by this deadline, the Twin River workers will be on strike beginning at 4 a.m.

One of the primary demands being made by the workers is affordable health care coverage. The casino made a unilateral change to health insurance benefits earlier this year, which resulted in significant increases in costs for workers. Beverage server Alexis Maciel commented on the unaffordable health insurance by saying, “If I were to put me and my daughter on Twin River’s health care, it would cost up to $1200 a month – as much as rent or a mortgage. I’d have to move my family to afford Twin River’s health care.”

If the Twin River workers strike, it will be the first strike of UNITE HERE members in Rhode Island since 1980.

#LincolnRI #strike #Strikes #UNITEHERELocal26 #TwinRiversCasino

Boston, MA – Food service workers at Northeastern University launched a one-day strike on Jan. 20, the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president. A majority of the 375 workers employed in the university’s dining halls joined in the work stoppage to protest Trump’s policy proposals.

Shortly before noon, groups of Northeastern students filed into campus dining halls with signs expressing support for workers, immigrants rights, and denouncing Donald Trump. At noon, students began chanting in support of the workers as they walked away from their work stations and off of the job. Many students had walked out of classes as well.

The Northeastern strikers marched to the Boston Common, where they joined demonstrations throughout the afternoon and evening. The overwhelming majority of the Northeastern food service workforce is made up of immigrant and oppressed nationality workers. Throughout the day, striking workers expressed their desire to show the strength and unity of immigrant workers. Striker Angela Bello told the crowd of protesters in the Common that she wanted to send a message that “immigrant workers are here to stay” and that “together we will move mountains.”

The Northeastern workers are members of UNITE HERE Local 26, the same union that led a 22-day strike of food service workers at Harvard University last October. These strikes are a hopeful sign of growing militancy from some sectors of the labor movement.

The Northeastern workers were not the only ones to hold a political strike in protest of the inauguration. Bay Area Longshore workers union, ILWU Local 10, stopped work for the day, as did University of California graduate students represented by UAW Local 2865. In addition, subcontracted janitors who clean Home Depot stores in Minnesota engaged in a one-day strike.

#BostonMA #strike #Strikes #DonaldTrump #UNITEHERELocal26

The Northeastern workers will be joined by students who are walking out of classes and marching to the Boston Common, which will be the site of mass demonstrations throughout the afternoon and evening.

#BostonMA #strike #Strikes #DonaldTrump #UNITEHERELocal26

Cambridge, MA – Oct. 24 marks day 20 of the Harvard University Dining Service (HUDS) workers’ strike. The HUDS union, UNITE HERE Local 26, has been negotiating since May of this year with management. Harvard bosses refuse to budge on two key demands: fair healthcare and sustainable salaries for all full-time employees.

Harvard’s students and workers are organizing together to put pressure on Harvard administrators.

“There are two competing visions for the future of the Harvard community; a school that runs like a corporation and puts profit over people, or one that teaches solidarity and is controlled by the working-class people who keep this place running,” said Daniel Espo, a second-year student at Harvard Law School.

Workers sent a loud message earlier in the struggle by focusing on the financial elites who rule over the Harvard Corporation. Local 26 coordinated with union locals across the country to send worker solidarity delegations to the corporate offices of each of the 12 fellows of the Harvard Corporation.

Following this strategy of targeted disruption, students at Harvard organized phone bank events. Students called the Harvard Fellows on their personal and work phone numbers, leaving messages to express their outrage at the poor treatment given the people who prepare and serve their meals. One fellow, William Lee, was visited multiple times at his office in downtown Boston, first by workers and then by students. Students also sent hundreds of signed postcards to Harvard Fellows demanding they give HUDS a decent contract.

On Saturday, Oct. 22, Teamsters, SEIU and other unions joined HUDS workers in a march of over a thousand. The rally marched through rain and heavy wind before gathering on the front steps of the Cambridge City Hall. Vice Mayor Marc McGovern came out and spoke in solidarity.

On Oct. 24, Harvard students escalated their tactics. 400 students walked out of their classrooms and into the streets. The students marched to 124 Mount Auburn Street, where negotiations are held. Hundreds of students packed the building lobby, with the crowd erupting into chants, “When Harvard workers are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

Harvard negotiators were peeking out of their office windows to get a better look at the crowd. After 15 minutes of chanting, students decided to launch a spontaneous sit-in. The students chose not to leave the building lobby until Harvard negotiators gave the union a new offer. To keep spirits high, students sang songs including Solidarity Forever and We Shall Overcome.

“The only way to make sure the strike succeeds is to continue this kind of direct action that confronts the financial elites at the top of the ladder,” said second-year law student Collin Poirot.

Poirot continued, “Right now the administration thinks it can handle the strike without causing too much disruption. Our job is to amplify the strike by creating new crises that the Administration can’t handle.”

#CambridgeMA #Strikes #UNITEHERELocal26 #HarvardStrike #HarvardUniversityDiningService #HUDS

Cambridge, MA – The union of the 750 food service workers at Harvard University held a briefing and rally on Sept. 7 to announce their intent to hold a strike vote. The union, UNITE HERE Local 26, has been in negotiations with the university administration since late May, and workers say that little progress has been made on their two major issues.

One of the Harvard workers’ primary concerns is a management proposal to increase their health insurance costs. Similar increases were imposed on Harvard faculty and agreed to by some of the other unions at the university. The dining services workers have rejected this proposal because of the devastating effect that it could have on workers’ health.

Anabella Pappas, a member of the union’s bargaining committee, said during the briefing that university proposed co-pay increases would mean that “many of us will have no choice but to neglect to go to the doctor.” A group of Harvard Medical School students stood beside workers at the briefing and voiced their support for their struggle, arguing that from a medical perspective, the insurance plans being forced on Harvard’s workers are some of the worst in the country and would reduce access to preventative and life-saving medical treatment.

In addition to fighting against health insurance takebacks, the union is also fighting to secure a minimum annual income of $35,000 for Harvard workers. Many of the dining service workers are laid off for four months out of every year- when students are on summer holiday – and are barred from collecting unemployment during that time. Laquiesha Rainey, another member of the bargaining committee, described the hope for a better life that she felt when she got a job at a prestigious university. These hopes were soon dashed by the reality of cyclical layoffs. “I can’t feed my daughter off of prestige,” Rainey said. “I fail to understand how the richest university in the world can’t provide workers with a minimum of $35,000 a year.”

As the Harvard workers spoke, they were surrounded by a wall of photographs of workers who have committed to strike, if necessary. Organizers said there were over 600 photographs. Following the announcement of the Sept. 15 strike vote, workers and students took the wall of photographs and marched through Harvard Yard. Students across the Harvard system have also been organizing in support of the workers’ decision to strike.

Collin Poirot, a second year student at Harvard Law School, said that it is especially important for students to show up in support of staff. “We’re here to show the university administration that students and workers are united, and that we will always have the backs of Harvard workers, just as they have always had ours.”

No strike date has been announced, but the struggle on Harvard’s campus is likely to intensify in the weeks ahead.

#CambridgeMA #Strikes #Harvard #UNITEHERELocal26