I happened to see this on the PR Newswire and thought that even the smaller labor struggles need highlighting and as much attention as can be given to them.

Airport concessions workers and supporters, including New York City Councilwoman-Elect Julissa Ferraras, gathered at LaGuardia International Airport this afternoon to protest airport concessions company OTG’s failure to comply with a recent Port Authority policy for its operations in the new JetBlue terminal (Terminal 5) at John F.Kennedy International Airport.

Approximately 75 protesters, many members of airport concessions labor union UNITE HERE, chanted and leafleted passengers with a message to the public that OTG should obtain a labor peace agreement as the policy requires, and that OTG’s failure to do so has gone on too long.

So what is stopping OTG from getting this peace agreement? On their website they highlight all these awards they’ve received but fail to realize its the people they employ that have helped them to get these awards. It is not management alone that achieved their accolades.

UNITE HERE represents 2,000 airport concessions workers in the Port Authority airports, and first reached out to OTG about a labor peace agreement in May 2008. OTG’s operations in Terminal 5 opened in October, and the company has failed to obtain a labor peace agreement to date. Its first counterproposal was not made until March 2009, and failed to include most of the provisions contained in all other concessionaires’ labor peace agreements.

Bennie Farrar, a concessions worker at Newark airport, said, "Companies like OTG should not win any new business until they prove they can do the right thing."

If OTG continues noncompliance with this policy and fails to obtain a labor peace agreement, its JFK Terminal 5 airport operations are at risk of ongoing and escalating actions.

OTG is the only national concessionaire that has not yet complied with this Port Authority policy.

So what is the hold up all about OTG?