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 Ann Kammerer 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 Ann Kammerer 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 Ann Kammerer Leave a comment

On 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.

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

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

March 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.

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:

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

January 24, 2019 6:16 pm Published by Ann Kammerer 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

Washington Post: “If we don’t work we don’t get paid”

January 9, 2019 4:04 pm Published by Ann Kammerer Leave a comment

From the Washington Post. Federal contract workers like Pablo Lazaro worry about saving money and paying bills as the government shutdown continues.