Author Archives for Ann Kammerer
Sky Chefs workers sent a powerful message to 7-Eleven outside the When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas! 7-Eleven is a Sky Chefs client, and Sky Chefs workers in certain cities make food like salads and sandwiches sold in 7-Eleven stores.
Outside the festival, workers were joined by other Culinary Union members and staff to hand out festival-appropriate ear plugs, glow sticks and palmcards—all calling on 7-Eleven to tell Sky Chefs that Sky Chefs workers need a new contract!
“Sky Chefs clients are corporations with lots of money, including major airlines and 7-Eleven,” said Josefina Rebollar, a porter at Sky Chefs at LAS, “The work we do helps make their business possible. That’s why we’re calling on 7-Eleven to tell Sky Chefs that we need a new contract with better wages and health care that we can afford.”
On Labor Day, hotel workers at the Hilton Americas-Houston walked out on strike to protest wages that were not keeping up with the cost of living in addition to fighting for fair workloads, safety and respect.
After 40 days on the picket line, workers ratified a new contract with historic wage increases making Hilton Americas Houston housekeepers, laundry attendants, and stewards the first to earn a $20 minimum wage with guaranteed wage increases that will bring workers to a $22 minimum by the end of the contract. The new agreement also provides strong job security protections along with improved housekeeping workloads, and job safety raising the standard for hotel workers struggling to survive in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S.
The 40-day strike, the first hotel strike led by union members in Texas, has paved the path for hospitality workers in Texas and across the south.
Room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, banquet servers, and other hotel workers walked off the job at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown, owned by Cambridge Landmark, and the Hampton Inn Center City, owned by Blackstone (a private equity firm with more than $1 trillion in assets under management) a historic 4-day strike. Local 274 is fighting to put “Workers over Billionaires” citing the toll that inflation has taken on the members’ wages and the impending cuts to Medicaid and other services that many workers depend on.
On the anniversary of September 11, 2001, UNITE HERE remembers all those who lost their lives on that tragic day. We hold especially close the memory of our 43 sisters and brothers from UNITE HERE Local 100 who died while working at Windows on the World, a restaurant located at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
In memory of our fallen brothers and sisters at Windows on the World:
- Sophia Buruwa Addo
- Shabbir Ahmed
- Antonio J. Alvarez
- Telmo Alvear
- Manuel O. Asitimbay
- Samuel Ayala
- Ivhan Luis Carpio Bautista
- Jesus Cabezas
- Manuel Gregorio Chavez
- Mohammed S. Chowdhury
- Jose De Pena
- Nancy Diaz
- Henry Fernandez
- Lucille Virgen Francis
- Enrique A. Gomez
- Jose B. Gomez
- Wilder Gomez
- Ysidro Hidalgo Tejada
- John Holland
- Francois Jean-Pierre
- Eliezer Jimenez Jr.
- Abdoulaye Kone
- Victor Kwarkye
- Jeffrey Latouche
- Lebardo Lopez
- Jan Maciejewski
- Manuel Mejia
- Antonio Melendez
- Nana Akwasi Minkah
- Martin Morales
- Blanca Morocho
- Jerome Nedd
- Juan Nieves Jr.
- Jose R. Nunez
- Isidro Ottenwalder
- Jesus Ovalles
- Victor Paz Gutierrez
- Alejo Perez
- Moises Rivas
- David B. Rodriguez Vargas
- Gilbert Ruiz
- Juan Salas
- Abdoul Karim Traore
The families and coworkers of those mostly immigrant workers talk about their loss, their dreams, and their challenges in the movie “Windows.”
Victoria, BC—As Canada celebrates Labour Day, a day dedicated to recognizing the struggles, achievements, and essential contributions of working people, workers at Coast Victoria Hotel continue their fight on the picket line. Today marks the 13th consecutive day of their strike action, a courageous fight for living wages, fair workloads, and proper staffing levels.
The strike began after months of unsuccessful negotiations with hotel management, who have failed to address key issues that workers say are undermining their livelihoods and well-being. Workers are seeking living wages to meet the high cost of living in Victoria; fair housekeeping workloads so that room attendants have sufficient time to complete tasks and avoid injury; and proper staffing levels to address understaffing that impacts the quality of service for guests, as well as the health and safety of workers.
The Coast Victoria Hotel strike has galvanized local support from unions and community organizations. Throughout the strike, supporters and hotel customers have joined the picket line in solidarity with workers who are leading the call for better quality hospitality jobs in Victoria.
Victoria, like many Canadian cities, is facing a severe affordability crisis. The cost of housing, groceries, and other basics have increased, while wages have lagged behind. Hotel workers, the backbone of Victoria’s tourism economy, have seen the hotel business rebound far beyond pre-pandemic levels, while pay and working conditions do not reflect their essential contributions.
The strike at Coast Victoria Hotel is part of a larger wave of worker activism across the hospitality industry and other sectors of BC’s economy. This Labour Day, workers across sectors are voicing similar concerns to demand fair pay, manageable workloads, and dignified conditions.
“Labour Day is about the power and value of working people,” said Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40. “Coast Victoria workers are carrying on a proud tradition of standing up for fairness, not only for themselves but for all workers in our community.”
Local 23 members at the Washington Convention Center, Nationals Ballpark, and Capital One Arena have launched a citywide contract fight. Their priorities for their upcoming contracts are better wages, improvements to health insurance & other benefits, better scheduling, and protections from subcontracting and temp labor.
Hundreds of Local 5 members on Oahu and Maui rallied on August 15 to show Kaiser that they will not be treated like second-class citizens!
Hawaii Kaiser workers in some classifications are being paid up to 30% less than their counterparts on the continent and do not receive some of the same benefits. Contracts expire next month for 62,000 Kaiser workers in the Alliance of Healthcare Unions, including over 1,900 Kaiser workers in Hawaii represented by Local 5. They are ready to WIN the fair contract they deserve.
For three weeks in July, dozens of union members from our union, CWA, the UAW, organizers, and community partners knocked on doors across North Carolina to speak with working-class people about how they’re feeling in this economy and political moment.
Through Workers to Workers, folks came together to listen, learn, and build power, no matter someone’s party, background, or voting history. By having real conversations with union members and their neighbors, we are working to build a working-class agenda rooted in lived experience, and we’re just getting started!
At the Hilton Americas hotel in Houston, workers have voted 99.3% YES to authorize a strike. After their contract expired on June 30th, Local 23 members picketed their hotel for the first time ever, demanding at least $23 an hour to keep up with the rising costs of living. In addition to fair wages, workers are fighting for fair schedule, fair workloads, and respect.
Workers at the Marriott Marquis, GRB Convention Center, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and Houston stadiums are organizing citywide for the same standards that Hilton workers are demanding. The people who make tourism possible shouldn’t have to choose between paying rent and feeding their families!
The price of groceries, gas, and housing keeps going up. Working families are paying sky-high car and home insurance premiums. Campaign promises of relief have been forgotten. Instead, this administration has focused on arresting dishwashers and gardeners and attacking our international allies and customers with tariffs, threats, and claims of annexation.
The result? Visitation to Las Vegas is down. Many are concerned that layoffs and a “Trump Slump” recession is here. “If you tell the whole world that they’re not welcome, they’re not going to come,” said Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge.
