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Current News

Last Updated: August , 2010
Current News gives you just that — a first, capsulized look at current stories and photos from around the Joint Board which have not appeared anywhere else. In most instances, you'll find the full version of each story, and often additional pictures, in the next issue of "Reflections", the Joint Board's quarterly newspaper.

Rachel Clothier named Local 471 business rep

Rachel Clothier

Local 471 has a new business rep — Rachel Clothier. She replaces Paul John, who is pursuing a master’s degree at SUNY New Paltz.

Clothier will represent Local 471 members who work in Saratoga Springs at the Gideon Putnam Hotel and Spa, Hilton Hotel, Hall of Springs, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, the Saratoga Racecourse, and a number of seasonal operations related to the Racecourse. In Albany, she also represents workers at the Times Union Center, Dale Miller Restaurant, and 677 Prime Restaurant.

Clothier became a 471 member four years ago when she began working in her spare time as part of the “overflow staff,” which the union provides to hotels and other organizations needing additional help for large events. Through that work, Clothier met and became friends with many of the 471 members she will now represent.

Her first union involvement began in 2008 when she took a job with the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board and became a member of CSEA, the County and State Employees Association labor organization. Clothier worked for the Compensation Board until taking her new post as a Local 471 business rep.

Clothier is a certified insurance arbitrator and worked as an insurance claims adjuster during an eight-year stint with two companies. She notes that her experience negotiating medical and auto insurance claims should prove valuable in her new job. Clothier is the current president of the Warren County League of Women Voters and is a member of the American Association of University Women. She holds also two associate’s degrees.
 

Local 471 members ratify new pact with Sodexo at Empire State Plaza

Nicki Weiner

Local 471 members working for Sodexo at the Empire State Plaza have won significant wage hikes and the maintenance of employer-paid health care in their new contract, business rep Nicki Weiner announced. Sodexo holds the food service contract at the Plaza.

Members overwhelmingly ratified the three-year agreement — “a clear indication about how positively our members viewed this contract,” Weiner noted.

Key victories in the new pact include:

* Wage hikes totaling $1 an hour over term

* Maintaining 100% employer-paid health insurance

* Fifty percent employer-paid dental insurance

* Creation of a "bidding" system for catering — “a huge win for us,” Weiner emphasized.

She added that there were a number of other victories, including tools of trade language and other non-economic achievements.