S.F. hotel owners defy mayors ultimatum
SAN FRANCISCO — The fat was in the fire Oct. 26 as operators of 14 large downtown hotels defied San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s demand to end a four-week lockout of their workers and accept a proposed 90-day cooling-off period previously agreed by the union.
N.Y.-Phila. transit workers are in the war together
GRASSROOTS POWER New York City Transit Workers Union Local 100 members boarded buses bound for the presidential electoral battleground state of Pennsylvania Oct. 9.
Conn. unionists cast wider net for votes
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Pat Highsmith spent her day off last Saturday traveling 150 miles to Bethlehem, Pa., to discuss the presidential election with fellow union members. One of 3 million industrial workers whose plants closed during the last four years, Highsmith now works as a certified nurse’s assistant, with less pay and no benefits.
Hotel, casino workers battle on two coasts
Undaunted by the challenge of four high-stakes contract struggles on two coasts, the union representing hotel and casino workers has revved up its solidarity machine.
IBEW rank and file powers up electoral grid
Commentary When Dick Cheney boasted during the vice presidential debate that he had “carried a ticket with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for six years,” he didn’t impress many IBEW members.
Iron Range fired up
HIBBING, Minn. — The 2004 presidential election is “historically far more important than any other … in my lifetime,” Steelworkers District 11 Director David Foster told a get-out-the-vote training session in the heart of Minnesota’s Iron Range Oct. 2.
Kerry walks Ohio picket line
Presidential candidate John Kerry visited the picket line in front of the RMI Titanium plant in Niles, Ohio, Oct. 3 before he proceeded to a town hall meeting in nearby Warren. For a half hour he marched with the locked-out steelworkers, talking with them about the hardships they are going through.
L.A. County Fed gears up for offensive
LOS ANGELES — Labor history was made Sept. 30 as the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, held U.S. labor’s first-ever central labor council congress.
Hotel workers check out in SF
San Francisco hotel workers walked out Sept. 29 as part of a three-city struggle to force giant hotel chains to agree to a common contract expiration date.
