Question: What year did workers of the Space Needle begin working without a contract?
About the article "Space Needle", section "Labor dispute".

Candidate passages:
In 2012, the union workers of the Space Needle started working without a contract when the current contract expired.
The workers, working with the union, Unite Here Local 8, have entered into contract negotiations with the owners.
The owners have made it clear that they don't want to extend a contract with the workers or the union because of terminology used in the contract.
The Space Needle believes it offered employees enough security under past contracts without explicitly promising no subcontracting, which is what the workers want in the new contract.
This would likely limit the company's ability to hire workers on a needed basis such as peak seasons or special events.
But instead of striking this item from the contract, Unite Here has pushed for picketing outside of the Space Needle on a weekly basis until such contract terms are accepted.
In 2013, federal mediation was set to begin between workers and the owners of the Space Needle.
Charles Fredrick Wiesenthal, a German-born engineer working in England was awarded the first British patent for a mechanical device to aid the art of sewing, in 1755.
His invention consisted of a double pointed needle with an eye at one end.
In 1790, the English inventor Thomas Saint invented the first sewing machine design, but he did not successfully advertise or market his invention.
His machine was meant to be used on leather and canvas material.
It is likely that Saint had a working model but there is no evidence of one; he was a skilled cabinet maker and his device included many practically functional features: an overhanging arm, a feed mechanism (adequate for short lengths of leather), a vertical needle bar, and a looper.
His sewing machine used the chain stitch method, in which the machine uses a single thread to make simple stitches in the fabric.
A stitching awl would pierce the material and a forked point rod would carry the thread through the hole where it would be hooked underneath and moved to the next stitching place, where the cycle would be repeated, locking the stitch.
Saint’s machine was designed to aid the manufacture of various leather goods, including saddles and bridles, but it was also capable of working with canvas, and was used for sewing ship sails.
Although his machine was very advanced for the era, the concept would need steady improvement over the coming decades before it could become a practical proposition.
(In 1874 a sewing machine manufacturer, William Newton Wilson, found Saint's drawings in the London Patent Office, made adjustments to the looper, and built a working machine, currently owned by the London Science Museum.)
In 1804, a sewing machine was built by the Englishmen Thomas Stone and James Henderson, and a machine for embroidering was constructed by John Duncan in Scotland.
An Austrian tailor Josef Madersperger began developing his first sewing machine in 1807.
He presented his first working machine in 1814.
The first practical and widely used sewing machine was invented by Barthélemy Thimonnier, a French tailor, in 1829.
His machine sewed straight seams using chain stitch like Saint's model, and in 1830 he signed a contract with Auguste Ferrand, a mining engineer, who made the requisite drawings and submitted a patent application.
The patent for his machine was issued on 17 July 1830 and in the same year, he opened (with partners) the first machine-based clothing manufacturing company in the world to create army uniforms for the French Army.
However, the factory was burned down, reportedly by workers fearful of losing their livelihood following the issuing of the patent.
A model of the machine is exhibited at the London Science Museum.
The machine is made of wood and uses a barbed needle which passes downward through the cloth to grab the thread and pull it up to form a loop to be locked by the next loop.
The first American lockstitch sewing machine was invented by Walter Hunt in 1832.
His machine used an eye-pointed needle (with the eye and the point on the same end) carrying the upper thread and a falling shuttle carrying the lower thread.
The curved needle moved through the fabric horizontally, leaving the loop as it withdrew.
The shuttle passed through the loop, interlocking the thread.
The feed let the machine down, requiring the machine to be stopped frequently and reset up.
Hunt eventually lost interest in his machine and sold it without bothering to patent it.
In 1842, John Greenough patented the first sewing machine in the United States.
The British partners Newton and Archibold introduced the eye-pointed needle and the use of two pressing surfaces to keep the pieces of fabric in position, in 1841.
The first machine to combine all the disparate elements of the previous half-century of innovation into the modern sewing machine, was the device built by English inventor John Fisher in 1844 for the processing of lace materials.
His machine was substantially similar to the devices built by Isaac Merritt Singer and Elias Howe in the following years.
However, due to the botched filing of Fisher's patent at the Patent Office, he did not receive due recognition for the modern sewing machine in the legal disputations of priority between the two Americans. 
Traditional shuttle tatting may be simulated using a tatting needle or doll needle instead of a shuttle.
There are two basic techniques for needle tatting.
With the more widely disseminated technique a double thread passes through the stitches.
The result is similar to shuttle tatting but is slightly thicker and looser.
The second technique approximates shuttle tatting because a single thread passes through the stitches.
Needle tatting originated in the early twentieth century, but did not become popular until much later.
A tatting needle is a long, blunt needle that does not change thickness at the eye of the needle.
The needle used must match the thickness of the thread chosen for the project.
Rather than winding the shuttle, the needle is threaded with a length of thread.
To work with a second color, a second needle is used.
Although needle tatting looks similar to shuttle tatting, it differs in structure and is slightly thicker and looser because both the needle and the thread must pass through the stitches.
In the late twentieth century, tatting needles became commercially available in a variety of sizes, from fingering yarn down to size 80 tatting thread.
Patterns are written specifically for needle tatting, although shuttle tatting patterns may be used without modification.
There are currently two manufacturers of tatting needles. 
Detachable Needle Design.
Low dead space needles.
Currently, the design of the low dead space needle incorporates a plastic neck that fits within the neck of a standard syringe hub. 
The architecture of the Space Needle is the result of a compromise between the designs of two men, Edward E. Carlson and John Graham, Jr.
The two leading ideas for the World Fair involved businessman Edward Carlson's sketch of a giant balloon tethered to the ground (see the gently sloping base) and architect John Graham's concept of a flying saucer (see the halo that houses the restaurant and observation deck).
Victor Steinbrueck introduced the hourglass profile of the tower.
The Space Needle was built to withstand wind speeds of 200 mph, double the requirements in the building code of 1962.
An earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter Scale jolted the Needle enough in 2001 for water to slosh out of the toilets in the restrooms.
The Space Needle can endure serious structural damage during earthquakes of magnitudes below 9.
Also made to withstand Category 5 hurricane-force winds, the Space Needle sways only 1 inch per 10 mph (16 mm per 10 km/h) of wind speed.
For decades, the "hovering disk" of the Space Needle was home to two restaurants above the ground: the Space Needle Restaurant, which was originally named Eye of the Needle, and Emerald Suite.
These were closed in 2000 to make way for SkyCity, a larger restaurant that features Pacific Northwest cuisine.
It rotates 360 degrees in exactly forty-seven minutes.
In 1993, the elevators were replaced with new computerized versions.
The new elevators descend at a rate of .
On December 31, 1999 (New Year's Eve), a powerful beam of light was unveiled for the first time.
Called the Legacy Light or Skybeam, it is powered by lamps that total 85 million candela shining skyward from the top of the Space Needle to honor national holidays and special occasions in Seattle.
The concept of this beam was derived from the official 1962 World's Fair poster, which depicted such a light source although none was incorporated into the original design.
It is somewhat controversial because of the light pollution it creates.
Originally planned to be turned on 75 nights per year, it has generally been used fewer than a dozen times per year.
It did remain lit for eleven days in a row from September 11, 2001, to September 22, 2001, in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The same 1962 World's Fair original poster showed a grand spiral entryway leading to the elevator, but this, too, was omitted from the final building plans.
This stairway was added as part of the Pavilion and Spacebase addition/remodel in June 2000.
The main stairwell (generally emergency access) has 848 steps in all from the basement to the top of the observation deck.
At approximately , the Space Needle was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River at the time it was built by Howard S. Wright Construction Co., but is now dwarfed by other structures along the Seattle skyline, among them the Columbia Center, at .
Unlike many other similar structures, such as the CN Tower in Toronto, the Space Needle is not used for broadcasting purposes.