Author Archives for Ann Kammerer
I.M.P. has committed to recognizing the union for the door and food & beverage workers!
These service workers are calling for more stable scheduling, better safety protections, and pay that reflects the real demands of the job. They point to the example set by Minneapolis’s First Avenue, where workers were able to organize freely and later won a strong first contract. Now D.C. workers are hoping for that same fair shot at forming their union.
They are thrilled by this VICTORY and proud of all work done to get to this point.
128 Aramark workers at Jacksonville University recently have become the first UNITE HERE members at a higher ed cafeteria in Florida! They are now members of Local 362. The organizing team was five out of six women, and a super majority of them were rank and file food service workers. Two were LOAs from the Aramark Lockheed Martin cafeteria in Orlando, which organized their own union with Local 362 last year and won a great union contract just a few months ago. Welcome to the union!
Workers at hotels owned by RLJ Lodging Trust on both coasts walk off the job in effort to win wages and benefits that enable them to afford to raise families in the cities where they work
CONTACT: Rachel Sulkes | [email protected] | 602-327-4084
LOS ANGELES: In the shadow of the Hollywood Bowl, hotel workers at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Hollywood started a picket line at 6 AM local time today.
The 160-room hotel, owned by RLJ Lodging Trust and operated by Aimbridge Hospitality, expected high occupancy this weekend for one of the last Hollywood Bowl concerts of the year.
In Philadelphia, workers at the Wyndham Historic District hotel—also owned by RLJ Lodging Trust and operated by Aimbridge—walked off the job earlier today, just ahead of the Thanksgiving travel season.
“Whether we strike is up to the employers and how willing they are to pay us fairly for the work we do,” said Maria Christina Velasquez, a shop steward with UNITE HERE Local 11 and laundry attendant at the Hilton Garden Inn Hollywood since 2019. “We’re ready for anything.”
“Hotel workers like me go on strike to win raises that keep up with the rising cost of living, pensions, high quality union healthcare, and safe workloads,” said Brent Allen, a restaurant server and member of UNITE HERE Local 274 at the Wyndham Historic District since 2023. “We’re going to welcome millions of visitors to Philly in 2026, but most of us can’t pay our basic bills. We deserve to be able to live dignified lives but that can only happen if the hotel owner and operator pay us what we deserve.”
RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE: RLJ) owns a portfolio of nearly 100 hotels across 23 states and the District of Columbia. The company just this week announced a year-over-year drop in both revenue and net income. According to campaign filings, between July and September of this year, RLJ Lodging Trust contributed $25,000 to the effort to defeat a $30 minimum wage for hospitality workers that the Los Angeles City Council passed in May.
Aimbridge hospitality operates hotels across the world under known brands like Hilton, Hyatt, and Windham. Aimbridge-operated properties were among the last to settle during the 2023–2024 Southern California Hotel Strike, the largest hotel strike in modern U.S. history.
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UNITE HERE Local 11 is more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona who work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers, and airports.
UNITE HERE LOCAL 274 is 4,000 private-sector hotel and food service workers at stadiums, universities, cafeterias, and hotels throughout the Philadelphia region.
Both are affiliates of UNITE HERE, a labor union representing 300,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
Kaldi’s Coffee workers rallied outside the company headquarters in St. Louis, calling on owner Tricia Zimmer to recognize their union and respect their right to organize. A supermajority of workers at one location have already signed union cards with Local 74, and they’re pushing for recognition at all Kaldi’s stores across the city. Workers from eight locations joined the rally, alongside hundreds of community supporters, elected officials, and fellow workers showing solidarity.
On November 5th, nearly 400 airport workers held the line at Harry Reid International Airport. The Local 226 members employed by DBE businesses in the airport are fighting for a fair contract. Workers had active picket lines at multiple terminals calling for fair wages, protection of union health care benefits, and respect on the job.
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.”
