Author Archives for Ann Kammerer

Action Alert! Congress: Put Workers First!

March 21, 2020 3:26 pm Published by Leave a comment

Thousands of workers—not just billionaire companies—need cash in their pockets RIGHT NOW.

Call Congress today to tell them to put workers first. Tell them that you do NOT support any COVID-19 bailout package for the rich that does not: 

  • Keep unemployment insurance in place
  • Extend workers’ health insurance coverage
  • Require companies to pay emergency sick-pay to workers affected by the virus
  • Guarantee family and medical leave
  • Maintain funding for nutrition programs like food stamps and WIC
  • Provide emergency rent and mortgage relief for workers who have been laid-off

Ready to call? Enter your information below and you’ll immediately receive a call to connect you to the Capitol Switchboard:











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UNITE HERE’s Culinary Union Hosts Town Halls with Democratic Contenders

January 20, 2020 12:27 pm Published by Leave a comment

UNITE HERE’s Culinary Union Local 226 hosted a series of seven Town Halls throughout November, December, and January in Las Vegas with Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Tom Steyer to hear more from leading 2020 Democratic contenders on where they stand on issues that matter most to our members: creating more good union jobs, healthcare, immigration, and more.

Hundreds of hospitality workers who are members of UNITE HERE’s Culinary and Bartenders Unions in Nevada—joined by UNITE HERE members from key swing states like Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—packed into our Las Vegas union hall to hear from the candidates.

 

Airline Caterers Union Plans Airport Protests On Nov. 26, A Day When 2.8 Million People Will Be Flying

November 20, 2019 9:04 am Published by Leave a comment

UNITE HERE, which represents airline catering workers, plans demonstrations at 17 airports including Charlotte, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas, Newark, JFK and Washington National. (See list of airports at the end of this story.)

The union expects the number of demonstrators at each airport to range from about 200 to as many as 1,000 at JFK.

Read the rest of the article.

UNITE HERE Statement on Trump Administration’s Proposed Fee Hikes Limiting Access to Citizenship, DACA, Asylum, and Other Relief

November 18, 2019 10:54 am Published by Leave a comment

“The Trump administration’s proposed fee hikes are a brazen attempt to restrict access to citizenship, DACA, asylum, and other forms of relief to the wealthy, continuing their despicable campaign to limit immigration reform to the 1% through requirements that make wealth a prerequisite for access to the American Dream. As we head into 2020, we must intensify our fight to reclaim our country, remove politicians who spew racism and anti-immigrant animus from power, and achieve the real immigration reform that our families need.”

—Enrique L. Fernández
General Vice President for Immigration, Diversity and Civil Rights

UNITE HERE Remembers and Honors those Lost on September 11

September 10, 2019 9:02 pm Published by Leave a comment

commemOn this 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 video “Windows,” also available in Spanish.

 

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to Join UNITE HERE Airline Catering Workers and Hundreds of Supporters at Reagan National Airport Rally, Tell American Airlines That One Job Should Be Enough

July 19, 2019 2:16 pm Published by Leave a comment

PRESS ADVISORY for July 23, 2019
Contact: Meghan Cohorst, 239-503-1533, [email protected]

WHO: UNITE HERE Airline catering workers and political, labor and community supporters from DC and elsewhere, including: 

  • Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA), New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (CT), Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH), Sen. Jacky Rosen (NV)
  • Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT), Rep. Steven Horsford (NV), Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Rep. Barbara Lee (CA), Rep. Stephen Lynch (MA), Rep. Grace Meng (NY), Rep. Ayanna Presley (MA), Rep. Darren Soto (FL), Rep. Dina Titus (NV), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI), Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ)
  • UNITE HERE President D. Taylor, ALPA President Captain Joe DePete, AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson, AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler
  • Representatives from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and German trade union ver.di  

WHERE AND WHEN: 
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
4:30-5:15p: Informational Picketing at Terminal C North Terrace (Departures Level)

5:30p: Rally/Speaking Program Begins in Terminal A Historic Lobby
6:30p: Elizabeth Warren scheduled to speak 

WHY: 

In the past month, following a breakdown in bargaining for a new contract, 15,000 airline catering workers at 32 U.S. airports voted to authorize a strike when released by the National Mediation Board. They say that poverty wages and unaffordable health care have created a crisis for workers in their industry, making it impossible for them to meet their basic needs. And while American Airlines reported a 2018 annual profit of $1.9 billion, wages for catering workerssubcontracted workers who prepare, pack, and deliver inflight food and beveragesin American Airlines’ major hub cities remain the lowest in the country. 

This week, UNITE HERE will formally request release to strike from the National Mediation Board, which would be followed by a 30-day cooling off period if granted. UNITE HERE is prepared to strike whenever it becomes lawful.  

For more information, visit www.AirportStrikeAlert.org. 

### 

UNITE HERE is a union of more than 300,000 members in in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries in the U.S. and Canada. This includes over 20,000 workers in the airline catering industry who are employees of Flying Food Group, Gate Gourmet, LSG Sky Chefs, and United Airlines

D. Taylor: Democrats must focus on kitchen-table issues to win the White House

May 9, 2019 1:39 pm Published by Leave a comment


https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/442435-democrats-must-focus-on-kitchen-table-issues-to-win-the-white-house

“The Democratic presidential candidate who connects with American workers on kitchen-table economics will win the nomination and win the general election in 2020.

The political campaigns of 2020 will end at the ballot box, but they must start at the kitchen table. That is where elections are won and lost, where we meet the real issues of concern to Americans struggling to join the middle class. And the central issue today is economic anxiety in an era of plenty for the top 1 percent of America.”

Read D. Taylor’s full op-ed on The Hill here.

2019 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Commemoration

March 24, 2019 4:38 pm Published by Leave a comment

1March 25, 2019, is the 108th 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.

At UNITE HERE’s headquarters in New York, staff and members will gather to remember the victims with a reading of their names and testimony from one of the survivors. The ceremony will be accompanied by a special display in the union building lobby at 275 7th Avenue, located in the heart of New York’s Garment District.

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.

“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

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.

triangle2
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.

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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.

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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.

triangle5

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, 18
• 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

MSNBC: Federal subcontractor gives emotional plea to lawmakers: “Do something before it’s too late.”

January 24, 2019 6:16 pm Published by Leave a comment

Watch Pablo’s interview on MSNBC

Furloughed federal subcontractor Pablo Lazaro, a cook at a Smithsonian museum and a member of UNITE HERE Local 23, implores Congress to take action and do their jobs.

Trump’s shutdown has hurt over 800,000 workers in the United States who have been working without pay for weeks. But for subcontracted workers, there’s another abysmal side effect: they currently aren’t eligible for back pay. Workers like Pablo and their families aren’t set to receive a dime in the wages they’ve lost, which is why it’s imperative that Congress doesn’t just reopen the government, but pass a law giving back pay to all workers affected by the shutdown.

Watch Pablo’s interview on MSNBC