DFS Employees Vote to Unionize

Workers at DFS North America, a chain of duty-free stores at Los Angeles International Airport, voted to join the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union this week, ending a two-year campaign by the union.

The 172 DFS employees at LAX became the first unionized employees in the national chain.

The vote is another victory for a multi-union effort to organize the airport that was started three years ago with substantial backing from the AFL-CIO. Since then, thousands of janitors, security workers and retail employees have signed up for unions, sometimes after acrimonious campaigns.

In this case, DFS agreed in 1999 to remain neutral and recognize the union if more than 50% of the workers signed authorization cards.