by Bill Bumpus in Economy & Poverty, Health Care, Workers' Rights
Posted on December 13, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Last Modified on December 13, 2009 at 7:18 pm
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About 450 laundry workers at Angelica Textile in Somerville went out on strike Thursday, December 10th, at 11a.m. Their current contract had expired on December 1st, and the Angelica employees have been working without an agreement for over a week with no extension. Represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1445, negotiations have been focused on obtaining quality affordable healthcare, well-funded pension benefits, and living wages.
Come support these hard working employees as they stand up for a fair contract!!
Join them daily on the picket line
Angelica Textile
30 Innerbelt RD
Somerville, MA 02143
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Can you provice more information. The things that they are striking for are a little vague in your description (quality affordable health care, well-funded pension benefits, and living wages.). These are very subjective things so it would be good to have a little more info.
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A tentative settlement has been reached! See http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/somerville/2009/12/somerville_workers_on_strike_a.html . Thanks to all Somervilleans who made it out to the picket line.
There’s also some info in the article about what workers were asking for:
“Fernando Lemus, a representative for the strikers’ United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1445, said the Atlanta-based company was urged to raise all wages by $1 an hour (the current average, he said, is $9.46) pay at least 85 percent of the cost of a family health care plan (versus 73 percent now), and contribute 20 cents per hour to the pension plan immediately (versus 10 cents currently) and 30 cents by 2012.”
I’ll post details on the settlement when they come out..
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Somerville workers OK new contract after five-day strike
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/somerville/2009/12/somerville_workers_ok_new_cont.html
“The workers received some concessions but didn’t get everything, according to Fernando Lemus, a representative for the strikers’ United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1445.
“He said the contract gives workers an hourly pay raise of about 45 cents next year, and 40 cents in 2011 and 2012. The average hourly rate at present is $9.46, Lemus said.
“As for health benefits, the company agreed to cover 80 percent of a family plan, and provide $250 per week in maternity leave coverage for up to 12 weeks, according to Lemus.”
He added that Angelica agreed to an hourly payment of 20 cents to the pension plan in 2010, bumping it up to 30 cents by 2012.
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