Weekend News & Commentary

Striking workers at Hilton hotels in downtown Chicago reached a deal Saturday, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.  Unite Here Local 1 was behind the strike, which started September 7.  The union has now approved deals with 15 of the 26 hotels affected by the action.  Bargaining talks have appeared to hit a wall at the remaining 11 hotels, however.  The strike included up to 6,000 housekeepers, servers, cooks and doormen.

The number of part-time workers seeking full-time work hit its lowest point since 2006 in August, the Wall Street Journal reports.  Between 2006 and 2010 the number of Americans working involuntarily in part-time jobs went from 3.9 million to 9.2 million, according to the Labor Department.  That number hit 4.4 million in August, or 2.7% of the overall workforce.  This could signal that some part-time employees are dropping out of the workforce, but economists say it’s more likely that part-timers are finding full-time work.

Los Angeles port workers plan to launch a three-day strike on Monday, Bloomberg reports.  Workers claim that the companies targeted, XPO Logistics Inc. and NFI Industries, owe significant back wages.  The action marks the 16th strike mounted by the Teamsters union in recent years among nonunion workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.  The Teamsters hope to heighten public pressure on the logistics firms and on their prominent clients, which include Amazon.com Inc., Best Buy Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Puma and Rio Tinto Plc.

Airport workers around the world will be demonstrating for better pay, better working conditions, and union rights, Travel & Leisure reports.  According to the SEIU, workers from more than 40 airports in 13 countries will be participating in the demonstrations.  SEIU sources told Travel & Leisure that nearly half of all airport workers in the U.S. are paid so little that they have to skip meals or go hungry, and nearly 30% have to rely on public assistance.