Two Smithsonian Institution museums find themselves with an obligation to negotiate next month with their unionized food service workers. The unionization drive, which featured several one-day strikes over the summer and fall, was in partnership with Unite Here, who says that the affirmative vote is a tangible payoff for the employees involved. The biggest issue at stake is the wages most of which currently rest near the federal minimum. The negotiations will cover about 220 of the 2 million low-wage workers employed by the federal government. The federal government is the largest employers of low-wage workers and there have been calls for the president to issue an executive order to force the federal government and its contractors to offer a living wage.
See "Union to represent low-wage food workers at two Smithsonian museums", Michael A. Fletcher, The Washington Post, December 16, 2013