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Senator Edward M. Kennedy Was Our Lion
As hospitality and textile workers, we remember Senator Ted Kennedy for dedicating his life to bettering ours. He was with us when the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride pulled up in front of the U.S. Capitol in 2003. He rallied immigrant hospitality workers who came again in 2006 to call on Congress to pass rational, humane immigration reform, honoring the hard work immigrants do to build and serve America. His legislative legacy improves our daily lives -- from the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which took a movement of sacrifice to pass, to Medicare, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and many efforts to raise the minimum wage. Until the end, Sen. Kennedy fought for the "cause of my life," as he called it, "... that every American ... will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right, not just a privilege."
In his eulogy for his father, Ted Kennedy Jr. remembered what his father taught him about hospitality workers: "I once told him that he had accidentally left some money -- I remember this when I was a little kid -- on the sink in our hotel room. And he replied, Teddy, let me tell you something, making beds all day is back breaking work. The woman who has to clean up after us today has a family to feed."
The women who make the beds, the servers, dishwashers, laundry workers and all the members of UNITE HERE say "Thank you, Sen. Kennedy. We will carry on the fight for equality and health care for all."
