On November 20, 2014, housekeeping staff struck the hotel.
Workers at the Harvard-owned DoubleTree Suites by Hilton in Allston announced Saturday that they have won a union.
Workers joined UNITE HERE Local 26, Boston’s hotel workers union, ending a more than 2-year public fight and boycott. During the course of their campaign housekeepers educated the public about the pain they experienced cleaning hotel rooms. Undergraduate and graduate students at Harvard launched a campus campaign to encourage Harvard to support the workers’ demands.
“It is inspiring to see that when workers and students come together, real change can be made,” said Harvard freshman Angela Leocata. “The DoubleTree workers winning a union proves the power of collective action and the promise of student-worker solidarity.”
The workers made national news in May when they appealed to Facebook COO and feminist Sheryl Sandberg. Sandberg declined an invitation to “lean in” with immigrant housekeepers.
More recently, housekeepers at the hotel held the first hotel workers’ strike in Boston in more than 100 years. On November 20, 2014, housekeeping staff struck the hotel and joined hundreds of students and supporters on Harvard’s campus where more than 3000 cards of support were signed and delivered to administration.
“Working while pregnant at the hotel was a difficult time for me,” said housekeeper Delmy Lemus. “I am joyful today.”
Ongoing picket lines, rallies, and leaflet actions on campus and at the hotel were a major part of the workers’ campaign and boycott. Already unionized hotel workers from Local 26 often joined them.
“Our members believe all workers deserve the standard that we’ve fought for,” said Boston hotel workers union President Brian Lang. “We will be relentless until all hotel and hospitality workers in Boston can work safely and can provide a better life for their families.”
With union recognition, workers will now sit down to bargain their first contract.
“It will be powerful to negotiate with management as partners and equals,” said housekeeper Sandra Hernandez.
Learn more at www.local26.org.
Last week, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which would allow businesses, governments, and even first responders to discriminate against the LGBTQ community and other minority groups on religious grounds.
UNITE HERE Local 23 applauds a revised bill that was announced this morning and will be carefully monitoring policies that affect workers in Indiana. We stand with the labor movement and the business community in calling on Governor Mike Pence to repeal this statute and pass workplace protections for all working people in Indiana.
Our membership is diverse. We are predominantly women and people of color, and we hail from all corners of the planet. We have different gender identities and sexual orientations. Together, we are building a movement to enable people of all backgrounds to achieve greater equality and opportunity. A law like this is discriminative and we stand firmly against it.
Amanda Tompkins, a UNITE HERE food service member and shop steward at Chartwells IUPUI says: “As a Christian gay female, I am angry with the way that RFRA is perceiving God. My loving God is being labeled as hateful and discriminating. The thought that I could be denied services due to my sexual orientation breaks my heart and leaves me in fear.”
March 25, 2015, is the 104th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York’s Greenwich Village. This tragedy took the lives of 146 young immigrant garment workers and galvanized a reform movement to raise standards for workers.
To learn more about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, visit Cornell University’s Kheel Center.
This incident has had great significance to this day because it highlights the inhumane working conditions to which industrial workers can be subjected. To many, its horrors epitomize the extremes of industrialism.
The tragedy still dwells in the collective memory of the nation and of the international labor movement. The victims of the tragedy are still celebrated as martyrs at the hands of industrial greed.
The fire at the Triangle Waist Company in New York City is one of the worst disasters since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The Asch Building was one of the new “fireproof” buildings, but the blaze on March 25th was not their first. It was also not the only unsafe building in the city.
On the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, fire fighters struggle to save workers and control the blaze. The tallest fire truck ladders reached only to the sixth floor, 30 feet below those standing on window ledges waiting for rescue. Many men and women 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 victims names:
• Lizzie Adler, 24
• Anna Altman, 16
• Annina Ardito, 25
• Rose Bassino, 31
• Vincenza Benanti, 22
• Yetta Berger, 18
• Essie Bernstein, 19
• Jacob Bernstein, 38
• Morris Bernstein, 19
• Vincenza Billota, 16
• Abraham Binowitz, 30
• Gussie Birman, 22
• Rosie Brenman, 23
• Sarah Brenman, 17
• Ida Brodsky, 15
• Sarah Brodsky, 21
• Ada Brucks, 18
• Laura Brunetti, 17
• Josephine Cammarata, 17
• Francesca Caputo, 17
• Josephine Carlisi, 31
• Albina Caruso, 20
• Annie Ciminello, 36
• Rosina Cirrito, 18
• Anna Cohen, 25
• Annie Colletti, 30
• Sarah Cooper, 16
• Michelina Cordiano, 25
• Bessie Dashefsky, 25
• Josie Del Castillo, 21
• Clara Dockman, 19
• Kalman Donick, 24
• Nettie Driansky, 21
• Celia Eisenberg, 17
• Dora Evans, 18
• Rebecca Feibisch, 20
• Yetta Fichtenholtz, 18
• Daisy Lopez Fitze, 26
• Mary Floresta, 26
• Max Florin, 23
• Jenne Franco, 16
• Rose Friedman, 18
• Diana Gerjuoy, 18
• Molly Gerstein, 17
• Catherine Giannattasio, 22
• Celia Gitlin, 17
• Esther Goldstein, 20
• Lena Goldstein, 22
• Mary Goldstein, 18
• Yetta Goldstein, 20
• Rosie Grasso, 16
• Bertha Greb, 25
• Rachel Grossman, 18
• Mary Herman, 40
• Esther Hochfeld, 21
• Fannie Hollander, 18
• Pauline Horowitz, 19
• Ida Jukofsky, 19
• Ida Kanowitz, 18
• Tessie Kaplan, 18
• Beckie Kessler, 19
• Jacob Klein, 23
• Beckie Koppelman, 16
• Bertha Kula, 19
• Tillie Kupferschmidt, 16
• Benjamin Kurtz, 19
• Annie L’Abbate, 16
• Fannie Lansner, 21
• Maria Giuseppa Lauletti, 33
• Jennie Lederman, 21
• Max Lehrer, 18
• Sam Lehrer, 19
• Kate Leone, 14
• Mary Leventhal, 22
• Jennie Levin, 19 • Pauline Levine, 19
• Nettie Liebowitz, 23
• Rose Liermark, 19
• Bettina Maiale, 8
• Frances Maiale, 21
• Catherine Maltese, 39
• Lucia Maltese, 20
• Rosaria Maltese, 14
• Maria Manaria, 27
• Rose Mankofsky, 22
• Rose Mehl, 15
• Yetta Meyers, 19
• Gaetana Midolo, 16
• Annie Miller, 16
• Beckie Neubauer, 19
• Annie Nicholas, 18
• Michelina Nicolosi, 21
• Sadie Nussbaum, 18
• Julia Oberstein, 19
• Rose Oringer, 19
• Beckie Ostrovsky, 20
• Annie Pack, 18
• Provindenza Panno, 43
• Antonietta Pasqualicchio, 16
• Ida Pearl, 20
• Jennie Pildescu, 18
• Vincenza Pinelli, 30
• Emilia Prato, 21
• Concetta Prestifilippo, 22
• Beckie Reines, 18
• Louis Rosen (Loeb), 33
• Fannie Rosen, 21
• Israel Rosen, 17
• Julia Rosen, 35
• Yetta Rosenbaum, 22
• Jennie Rosenberg, 21
• Gussie Rosenfeld, 22
• Emma Rothstein, 22
• Theodore Rotner, 22
• Sarah Sabasowitz, 17
• Santina Salemi, 24
• Sarafina Saracino, 25
• Teresina Saracino, 20
• Gussie Schiffman, 18
• Theresa Schmidt, 32
• Ethel Schneider, 20
• Violet Schochet, 21
• Golda Schpunt, 19
• Margaret Schwartz, 24
• Jacob Seltzer, 33
• Rosie Shapiro, 17
• Ben Sklover, 25
• Rose Sorkin, 18
• Annie Starr, 30
• Jennie Stein, 18
• Jennie Stellino, 16
• Jennie Stiglitz, 22
• Sam Taback, 20
• Clotilde Terranova, 22
• Isabella Tortorelli, 17
• Meyer Utal, 23
• Catherine Uzzo, 22
• Frieda Velakofsky, 20
• Bessie Viviano, 15
• Rosie Weiner, 20
• Sarah Weintraub, 17
• Tessie Weisner, 21
• Dora Welfowitz, 21
• Bertha Wendroff, 18
• Joseph Wilson, 22
• Sonia Wisotsky, 17
UNITE HERE Local 5 members who work at Kaiser Permanente have moved forward with their plans to go on strike for six days. The strike began at 12:01 AM Hawai’i time Monday.
On the island of Oahu, Kaiser workers will be picketing for six days at Kaiser’s facilities in Moanalua, Honolulu, and Waipio. Picket lines will also be organized on the island of Maui at Maui Lani and Wailuku, and on Big Island at Hilo and Kona.
Workers on strike are not discouraging patients from entering the facilities. In fact, they encourage patients to come the facilities for any services they may need, especially in the case of an emergency. Workers will be passing out leaflets to patients and community members to inform them about the decisions Kaiser has made that have negatively affected patient care, including closing Honolulu urgent care and laying off staff. Four one-day work stoppages have been organized since 2013
“When I first started working at Kaiser, we were trained to care for our patients like family. But with all of the cuts to staff, Kaiser is making it harder to provide that kind of care to our patients,” says Shanelle Simpliciano, a certified nurse’s aid at Kaiser Permanente Moanalua.
“Kaiser has changed for the worse since I started working here 17 years ago,” says Momi Hai, a lead front desk employee at Kaiser Permanente Maui Lani. “We’ve struggled with our jobs getting subcontracted, or our jobs getting cut completely. It has a real impact on workers and patients. Meanwhile, Kaiser makes $11 million a day. Kaiser is thriving, but what about us?”
Local 5 represents around 1900 Kaiser Permanente workers across Hawai’i. The strike will end on Saturday, February 7 at midnight local time.
Visit Local 5 on Twitter or Instagram for up-to-the-minute pictures and news.
Download the strike bulletin for Day 5: Friday, February 6, 2015
Download the strike bulletin for Day 4: Thursday, February 5, 2015
Download the strike bulletin for Day 3: Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Download the strike bulletin for Day 2: Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Download the strike bulletin for Day 1: Monday, February 2, 2015
Kaiser lab assistant Gerald Penaflor on Hawaii Public Radio talking about the upcoming strike.
Local 5 members who work for Kaiser Permanente Hawaii voted yes by 88% to go on strike. Local 5 officially gave notice to Kaiser Permanente that workers will be going on strike for six days from Monday, February 2, 12:01am through Saturday, February 7, 12:00 midnight.
Over the last few years, workers organized four SWATA’s (Stop Work and Take Action) to protest the negative changes that Kaiser has been making, like urgent care clinic closures and mass layoffs. These changes hurt patients and impact the workers’ ability to care for patients.
Local 5 represents around 1900 Kaiser Permanente workers on Oahu, Maui, and Big Island.
Learn more at www.unitehere5.org.
On Wednesday afternoon, USC Hospitality and Auxiliary Services workers held a protest on Childs Way near the Ronald Tutor Campus Center demanding higher wages.
About 20 food service workers marched and chanted from noon until about 5 p.m.
This marks the first protest by USC workers in the spring semester. Though the workers conducted larger protests in 2014, this is the first demonstration on campus grounds.
The dialogue between the workers, represented by Unite Here Local 11 union, and the university began last summer.
“We have been negotiating since July but we have not reached an agreement,” said Maria Villalobos, a university food service worker. “Our lawyer and their lawyer have been in talks but we have not reached a deal.”
Read the rest of the article here.
We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished in Boston.
