Monthly Archives: July 2015

On July 14, UFCW Local 99 janitorial workers at the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, Ariz., ratified their first union contract. The 250 employees work for a company called ISS Facility Services.  The contract was organized by a card check and includes wage increases, seniority provisions, as well as paid holidays. The contract is the result of a five-year campaign of workers fighting to have a voice at work.

“It’s been a long journey. I am very happy that we finally have a union contract and that we are part of a union here,” said UFCW Local 99 member who is also an ISS worker Refugio Diaz.

“It was a long battle but we finally have job security and set wages thanks to our union contract,” said Amparo Gomez from UFCW Local 99 and also an ISS worker.

Sky Harbor Airport parking lot and ground transportation workers and other units are already members of UFCW Local 99. The janitorial staff decided that they wanted to become union members as well in order to improve their jobs and working conditions. To help these workers become union members, the Local launched a global, political, and worker campaign to help them organize and secure a good contract.

ISS is a global company with headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. UFCW Local 99 worked with UNI to visit their headquarters and call on the company to honor the global agreement for worker protections that they signed with UNI for the staff at Sky Harbor Airport. Following that trip they secured a card check and workers became UFCW Local 99 members.

Workers also had strong political allies throughout the campaign to have a union voice and ratify a good contract. The mayor and city council were open to meeting with workers when there were problems on the job. Then the allies on the city council would meet with ISS to address the workplace issues. This helped hold the company accountable during the organizing campaign and contract negotiations. 

Workers also stuck together and stayed strong throughout the campaign and negotiations. They held several rallies at the airport and were joined by local political and labor allies. They also wore buttons to show solidarity and worked together to sign up as many of their coworkers as possible.

“We are happy that now we can provide more to our families. We are really grateful that we have job protections and a better workplace,” said UFCW Local 99 member Farhiya Duh.

Currently, a salaried employee making as little as $24,000 per year is exempt from earning overtime pay – 1.5 times their hourly wage – when they work more than 40 hours in a week. The Department of Labor has proposed raising the overtime eligibility threshold to $50,440 to help fix this problem.

Last week, The Hill published an op-ed by UFCW International President Marc Perrone regarding the new overtime regulation that will increase the overtime salary threshold and extend overtime protection to almost 5 million additional Americans. The full op-ed can also be read here.

Overtime pay is long overdue

“Every day, millions of hard-working Americans wake up to the realization that they will work more than 40 hours per week, but will not compensated for their hard work. Even though employers have to provide overtime pay to employees who work more than 40 hours per week under the Fair Labor Standards Act, many salaried workers are exempt. While it may be hard to believe that this is still possible, it may have to do with the simple fact that salary threshold for overtime pay has been raised only once since 1975.

“How low is the threshold for these workers? The exact threshold is $23,660, which is lower – if you can believe – than the federal poverty level for a family of four. Even worse, because the overtime regulation has not been updated and adjusted for inflation, it has allowed employers to classify workers with salaries as low as $24,000. These are workers that have very low level supervisory authority, even though many will essentially perform the same work as their hourly coworkers. As a result, employers have used this overtime exemption to their advantage by requiring these low level supervisors to work for free after 40 hours.

“The new overtime regulation will increase the overtime salary threshold to $50,440 per year by 2016, and extend overtime protection to almost 5 million additional Americans.
Under the new regulation, some workers will no longer be required to work long hours for no pay, and that means they can spend more time at home with their families or they can get paid for the work they do. Others will get a pay increase in the form of time-and-a-half pay for overtime work. As to be expected, some workers will get a salary bump to exceed the new threshold. And in what could help spur the creation of countless of jobs, hard-working Americans who are struggling in low-wage, part-time jobs may see those jobs converted to full-time work, while some unemployed workers will get a new job when employers increase hiring to “spread the work.”

“While executive actions will not solve the fundamental economic challenges facing millions of families across this country, this new regulation is one of the most significant steps the Obama Administration can take on its own. It will also help cement a basic American value enshrined within the Fair Labor Standards Act that men and women who do the hard work would receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

“While it is clear there are many areas our elected leaders must address to truly improve the lives of every hard-working American—such as paid leave, the minimum wage and fair scheduling—one would hope our elected leaders, especially Republican Members of Congress and leadership, would remember that no American in this day and age should ever be exploited simply because they want a job.

“Those who oppose this rule change will have difficulty explaining why to their salaried workers in their districts and states, and that’s something to look for as we approach the 2016 election.”

You can help support expanding overtime eligibility rules by signing and sharing the UFCW petition.