After months of fighting, Local 75 members at the One King West hotel have voted 99% yes to ratify a new union contract! They were the last major union hotel in Toronto without a fair deal. The new contract will mean fairer wages, better pensions, and stronger protections for all. Congratulations!
In Sacramento, Local 49 was proud to stand with a majority of Railyards residents as they united to reject a plan to give $92 million of taxpayer funds to private developers. The deal would have been a drain on city finances at a time when city workers are being laid off, and required too few affordable housing units—just 6%. They stand ready to defend residents’ rights to protest in court if necessary.
Local 40 members working at the Coast Victoria Hotel and Marina have issued a 72-hour strike notice. This sets the stage for the first hotel strike in Victoria since the 1980s. “Hotel workers in Vancouver have shown what’s possible,” said Local 40’s Vancouver Island Representative Harj Aheer. “Victoria workers deserve no less. This fight is about fairness, dignity, and making it possible to live and work in the same city.”
Local 1 members working at the Emily Hotel in Chicago’s West Loop held a one-day ULP strike in late June. Hotel management has been making changes to working conditions—including schedule adjustments, reduced hours, and increased workload—without bargaining.
On June 9, Local 23 members rallied together with Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) to call on the seven food service subcontractors set to take over Sodexo’s business at the U.S. House to hire workers back with full wages and benefits. Some workers have held their positions for decades.
129 members of Congress and counting have sent a letter to the contractors demanding that they rehire the entire existing food service workforce in the outlets where they were previously employed; recognize the workers’ union with Local 23; and maintain the workers’ existing union contract.
“Our union proudly supports the reintroduction of the Dream and Promise Act. Our country needs leadership that addresses our broken immigration system instead of blaming and scapegoating immigrant workers. Immigrant workers are the backbone of the hospitality industry, and so many live and work here thanks to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Their contribution to our country should be celebrated, not demonized.
“Immigrants deserve a path to citizenship and the Dream and Promise Act would allow US residents who hold these temporary protections that possibility. It is what they have earned, they care for us when we stay away from home, they start early and get home late, and they keep our industry and country running. It has been the failure of Congress to act that has created our current immigration crisis. We are proud to support The Dream and Promise Act which will provide security to so many and will keep millions of hard-working immigrants together with their families.”
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:
The families and coworkers of those mostly immigrant workers talk about their loss, their dreams, and their challenges in the movie “Windows.”
March 25, 1911…The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City’s Greenwich Village was one of the worst workplace disasters since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The fire took the lives of 146 young immigrant garment workers. It also galvanized a reform movement to raise standards for workers.
“It is by remembering our past that we prepare to fight for our future. We are measured by how we protect the most vulnerable and ensure their health and safety to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that is our guiding light.”
—D. Taylor, President, UNITE HERE
Firefighters struggled to save workers and control the blaze at what was then known as the Asch Building, on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place. The tallest fire truck ladders reached only to the 6th floor, 30 feet below those standing on window ledges waiting for rescue. Many jumped from the windows to their deaths. Photographer: unknown, March 25, 1911.
An officer stands at the Asch Building’s 9th floor window after the Triangle Fire. Sewing machines, drive shafts, and other wreckage of the factory fire are piled in the center of the room. Photographer: Brown Brothers, 1911.
In the April 5th funeral procession for the seven unidentified fire victims, members of the United Hebrew Trades of New York and the Ladies Waist and Dressmakers Union Local 25, International Ladies Garment Workers Union, the local that organized Triangle Waist Company workers, carry banners proclaiming, “We Mourn Our Loss.” Photographer: unknown, April 5, 1911.
The Triangle Fire Memorial to the six unidentified victims in the Evergreens Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY, was created in 1912 by Evelyn Beatrice Longman. The six bodies were all recently identified by Michael Hirsch, who worked tirelessly to recognize the names of the unidentified victims.
The tragedy still dwells in the collective memory of the nation and of the international labor movement. The events of the fire galvanized a reform movement to improve conditions in all workplaces by encouraging unions for workers. A nationwide adoption of fire safety standards soon followed, and new labor codes were implemented first in New York State, then across the country.
The victims names:
UNITE HERE is a proud successor union to the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, the union to which some Triangle factory workers belonged. Most years, UNITE HERE staff and members gather at the union headquarters in New York to remember the victims with a reading of their names and testimony from one of the survivors.
In the time since the fire, UNITE HERE members in the U.S. and Canada have continued the fight for safer jobs. We fight for workloads that are safe, for workplaces that are free from violence, for workers to have a voice in guiding safety procedures at their jobs, and for one job to be enough for workers to support themselves and their families.
As a union, we are also committed to helping working people of all backgrounds achieve greater social and economic equality through good jobs that are covered by union contracts.
In 2023, a permanent memorial at the site of the fire was unveiled in memory of the workers, displaying their names along with spoken messages in three languages: English, Italian, and Yiddish.
The memorial tells the stories of the victims and is now a landmark site to visit, mourn, and learn at the very site where factory workers labored… and needlessly perished.
To learn more about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, visit Cornell University’s Kheel Center.
Rosalyn Carter
I moved to Richmond my hometown of Farmville, Virginia when I was nineteen because there no jobs there. Growing up, I watched my parents work around the clock as they struggled to support my brother and me. I started working when I was fifteen at the McDonald’s in Farmville the second I was old enough. That’s why I’ve been knocking doors in support of the resort casino in Southside and the jobs that it will bring.
Southside is hurting. I hear it about it all the time from friends and neighbors. Inflation is making everything so expensive, and we just don’t have enough jobs that are actually in our community. The jobs we do have don’t pay well enough or have good benefits.
The resort casino could change all of that.
I’ve been a food service worker at Virginia Commonwealth University for more than sixteen years. Me and my co-workers spent most of that time talking about how we needed a union. Last year, we fought for and won that union together. Now, I see a future where I can better provide for my four children, where I can retire one day and my kids can have a better life than me.
Workers at Richmond Grand will have a fair pathway to decide on unionization. That means the opportunity to have what we won at VCU, or what my brothers and sisters in Maryland have won at MGM National Harbor. At MGM, the non-tipped minimum wage will go up to $24.50 an on November 1st, the employer pays 99% of healthcare costs, and union members have a pension and legal service plan.
On the construction side, workers can make up to $35 an hour with good benefits in healthcare and retirement. Between the construction union agreement and the organizing agreement on the hospitality side, unions will be part of every phase of this project.
I think Richmond workers, especially Black workers, deserve a shot at those union standards. And for everyone worried about promises of good jobs not being fulfilled, I know firsthand that the best chance workers have of getting the wages and benefits we deserve is through a union.
The company can’t promise us what our wages and benefits will be right now, because if workers at Richmond Grand want the union, they’ll be the ones to make those decisions. That’s why this isn’t just about jobs, it’s about building power for our community and for Richmond workers.
There’s a lot of people of color without jobs or opportunities in Richmond. We really don’t have first dibs at the best opportunities. I need that to change. Not just for me and for my neighbors, but for my kids. I want them to have a better future, and that means having access to good jobs. We have an opportunity to build that for ourselves and our kids with this project. I hope we recognize what’s in front of us and pass it on November 7th.
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:
The families and coworkers of those mostly immigrant workers talk about their loss, their dreams, and their challenges in the movie “Windows.”
UNITE HERE represents workers throughout the United States and Canada.