Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

O’Hare Airport Workers Threatening Thanksgiving Strike

Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Photo Courtesy of Nicola at Flickr.
Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Photo Courtesy of Nicola at Flickr.

In order to maximize attention to their working conditions and wages, employees at O’Hare International Airport are threatening to strike during the busier than usual Thanksgiving weekend.

The workers are not in a union, but are being organized by the Service Employees International Union Local 1. Airplane cabin cleaners, baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants and janitors voted on whether to strike over a two-day period. In an all-but unanimous decision of 499-1, the workers voted to strike, according to union spokesperson Izabela Miltko-Ivkovich. There are an additional 1500 workers at the airport who did not participate in the vote.

The workers are not threatening to close the airport. They intend to picket outside O’Hare and walk through the airport terminals with placards voicing their complaints. President of SEIU Local 1, Tom Balanoff, said that the strike, “will cause some disruption, no doubt.”

“Workers are really frustrated because they’ve been fighting and they’ve been trying to get the powers to be to hear their voice,” Balanoff said. “So they’re hoping that with this strike, the powers that be — the city, the Department of Aviation, American, United and other airlines — that they’ll listen and come to a rational way so that these workers have the right to be recognized, and they have a right to bargain over their working conditions.”

Mall of America Will be Closed for Thanksgiving

mall_of_america_logo13America’s largest mall, known as the Mall of America, located in Bloomington, Minnesota, announced that it will be closed this coming Thanksgiving. Mall representatives “tweeted” last week that

“We’re pleased to give this day back to our 15,000 employees and their families.”

They will re-open for “Black Friday,” a day traditionally set aside for large discounts and slashed prices on many consumer goods.

The Mall America, by deciding to remain closed during the holiday, is taking a stand against a trend for large retailers to remain open during this universally celebrated day. Last year several chains like Wal-Mart and Target stayed open, while others remained closed, like the more upscale department store Nordstrom.

“We’ve been talking about this for months, looking at the numbers, looking at the pros and the cons,” Jill Renslow, the mall’s senior vice president of marketing and business development, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “We’re excited to give this day back to our employees so they can celebrate with their families.”