D. Taylor, the president of Unite Here, the union that conducted the Chicago and Marriott hotel strikes, voices dismay that walkouts have grown so rare. “I thought it was important to restore the strike to the arsenal of the labor movement,” Taylor says. “If you’re in a fight against powerful forces, why are you taking tactics off the table?”
As for why Marriott’s housekeepers, bellhops, and kitchen workers walked out in eight cities, Taylor said, “The workers we represent were very frustrated because the industry is doing quite well and the hotels got an added special Christmas gift with the Trump tax cuts, but our members more and more couldn’t afford to live in the cities they’re working in. We thought it was an opportunity to spread the economic prosperity to our members and their families, and we were prepared to do whatever it takes—up to and including strikes.”
Read more by Steven Greenhouse in The American Prospect about how UNITE HERE members are among tens of thousands of U.S. workers whose strikes show that collective action works.
UNITE HERE members across the United States describe their life changing campaigning to win sexual harassment protections through a combination of legislation and organizing. Click to read more
Before the hotel industry embraced panic buttons, cities including Chicago and Miami Beach, Fla., mandated them through ordinances passed by their city councils. Collective bargaining agreements have also required the devices at union hotels.
New York was the first city to require panic buttons on a broad scale when the provision was included in a contract struck in 2012, the year after a hotel housekeeper accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the chief of the International Monetary Fund and a French politician, of sexually assaulting her. Washington, D.C., followed suit with its own agreement.
Click here to read the entire story by Julia Jacobs in the New York Times
In a most horrific act, anti-Semitism showed its face at the Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We grieve with the families and the Jewish community in Pittsburgh and across the United States in the face of this murderous act. Our hearts are broken.
Today we grieve but we are also called to action. Anti-Semitism is not something new. Sadly there has been an increase in incidents of anti-Semitism in this country recently. We all remember the images of neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the President’s moral equivalency in the face of that. UNITE HERE members oppose anti-Semitism in every form.
The President said yesterday “the scourge of anti-Semitism cannot be tolerated.” We at UNITE HERE agree and we re-commit ourselves as a union to eradicate wherever it shows its face. We also demand that our political leaders, especially our President, cease and desist from fanning the flames of fear and hate in our country by their divisive rhetoric. Their words have consequences.
How can we console the Jewish community in Pittsburgh and across America today? What comfort for the families who have experienced such terrible loss? What words of reassurance and encouragement can we offer young Jewish children in America today so that they know they are loved and valued and secure
Today every one of us must become “repairers of the breach” (Isaiah 58:12). We must all work together to protect the human dignity of every person. We must call out all acts, and even words, of anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry. We must challenge even an iota of moral equivalence.
UNITE HERE will continue to fight for the dignity of every man and woman and child. Together with people of good will across this country let us begin the work of “repairing the breach.”
Thousands of hotel workers in eight U.S. cities say they’ll remain off the job until a new contract is reached with Marriott International. About 7,700 employees of the world’s largest hotel chain are now walking picket lines in Boston, Detroit, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose, as well as two cities in Hawaii.
Watch “Marriott hotel strike leads to mass employee walkouts” on CBS News’ Moneywatch https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marriott-hotel-strike-leads-to-mass-employee-walkouts/
Read the full story by Annalise Frank in Crain’s Detroit Business
Workers at the Westin Book Cadillac hotel in downtown Detroit went on strike early Sunday morning.
Housekeepers, servers, door attendants and cooks represented by Detroit-based hospitality union Unite Here Local 24 walked off the job and joined a picket line, with higher wages among their demands.
Union contracts with Local 24 expired June 30. Ninety-eight percent of the approximately 160 workers represented by the union at the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit voted in September to authorize a strike.
Click here to read “Westin Book Cadillac Detroit hotel workers go on strike” by Annalise Frank in Crain’s Detroit Business.
On the 17th 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.”
Unions in nine cities will be holding strike authorization votes that could lead to work stoppages at the world’s largest hotel chain
Read the whole story at Huffington Post.
One of the Hawaii workers who plans to vote in favor of striking is Jason Maxwell, a 45-year-old bartender at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa who works a second hotel job to keep up with the high cost of living in Honolulu. As a member of his local union’s organizing committee, Maxwell said he has seen little progress in contract talks.
“That’s the only leverage we have to push this company to give workers what they really deserve,” Maxwell said, referring to the strike threat. “We know these properties do well because of the workers, especially here in Hawaii. The [same] guests come back year after year. They know our names, and we remember their drinks. It’s our labor that’s creating the wealth.”
Story by Dave Jamieson. Read it now at Huffington Post.
In her ruling Wednesday, NMB General Counsel Mary Johnson wrote that after interviewing employees, the agency’s investigators had determined that “there is no evidence that employees did not understand that Unite Here was a union and was not a representative of United. Almost universally, employees either signed a card out of a desire to support the organization’s campaign, or they declined to sign a card without feeling pressured.” She rejected, however, the union’s request to let it be certified via a count of union cards, rather than secret ballot. The union had based its request on a claim of alleged company misconduct.
Airport workers are going to ask you for a raise. No, they don’t work for you, but Denver voters can force their employers out at the airport to pay them a higher minimum wage – $15 by 2021.
On August 15, hundreds of UNITE HERE members will join thousands of other union members and faith and community allies for a demonstration to call for an end to family separation and detention.
Liberty & Justice For All: Labor United to Free Our Children will be the largest labor-led demonstration on immigration in the nation.
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
4 PM
Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia
The labor movement is committed to liberty and justice for all, regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or income. All working people have the right to be safe and live with dignity.
Click here for more information and to RSVP on Facebook.
