Disney Hunger Strikers Continue Fight for Healthcare Benefits
Eight Walt Disney Company workers ended a week-long hunger strike on Tuesday at Disney headquarters in Burbank, Calif. The hunger strikers, represented by Unite Here Local 11, have been camping out along Disneyland Drive, protesting a two-year contract dispute about healthcare costs.
The union wants to keep its current healthcare plan, which has no employee contributions, while Disney wants the hotel workers to adopt a new plan which will require employees to pay for benefits. The hunger strikers were joined by around 500 other picketers, along with four protesters who picked up the hunger strike. Read more here and here. (See video above)
Transportation Security Officers Demand Same Collective Bargaining Rights as Other Federal Employees
Around 100 union members, activists, and political and labor leaders rallied last Friday at Oakland International Airport in California, in support of union rights for transportation security officers (TSOs). About 13,000 TSOs have joined the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) in the fight to obtain the same collective bargaining rights that other federal employees enjoy.
Ultimately, it is the Transportation Security Administration’s decision whether airport screeners will be able to organize with labor unions. A bill that would grant TSOs this right, among others – the Transportation Security Workers Enhancement Act introduced last April – is still in committee. Read more about it here.
Workers Fight Cost Cutters Unionbusting
Tompkins County Workers Center members gathered last Saturday to protest unfair labor practices at Cost Cutters salon in Ithaca, N.Y. The Workers Center filed charges with the NLRB claiming salon employees were asked to sign an agreement relinquishing their self organization and collective bargaining rights. According to Workers Center Executive Director Pete Myers, around 100 people participated in the rally.
Read more here.
Security Workers Protest Loss of Affordable Healthcare Coverage
Bank of America security officers, along with dozens of union members and community leaders, protested outside of the bank’s Charlotte headquarters in North Carolina on Tuesday, demanding the bank restore jobs and healthcare benefits to its security officers. More than 34 security officers working at Bank of America buildings in New York City were recently laid off, while 130 other officers lost healthcare coverage. Read more about it here.
I hope you found this article important. Before you leave, I want to ask you to consider supporting our work with a donation. In These Times needs readers like you to help sustain our mission. We don’t depend on—or want—corporate advertising or deep-pocketed billionaires to fund our journalism. We’re supported by you, the reader, so we can focus on covering the issues that matter most to the progressive movement without fear or compromise.
Our work isn’t hidden behind a paywall because of people like you who support our journalism. We want to keep it that way. If you value the work we do and the movements we cover, please consider donating to In These Times.
