On April 12, UNITE HERE Local 2 reached a tentative agreement with Starwood Hotels & Resorts in San Francisco. The tentative agreement covers workers from the Westin St. Francis, Palace, and St. Regis hotels, ending the boycotts at the Westin St. Francis and the Palace Hotel.

The new contract–identical to Hilton’s–increases wages by $2.00 over four years, secures affordable health insurance coverage, increases pensions, and reduces work load for room cleaners. A ratification vote will be held soon. Negotiations with the W Hotel will continue as the union and management work to address upcoming renovations and layoffs in food and beverage outlets.

On April 13, Housekeepers from Hyatt and other hotels will appear before the California Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee to demonstrate housekeeping practices that require them to clean bathroom floors on their knees and lift heavy mattresses for lack of fitted sheets as they work to pass SB 432 (DeLeon) to "outlaw the hotel version of the short-handled hoe." Hotel housekeepers frequently clean bathroom floors on their hands and knees, an unsafe and degrading practice that is tolerated by too many hotel employers. This practice, combined with the failure to provide fitted sheets like those used in homes, has led to an unacceptable rate of back and other work-related injuries.

Indianapolis, IN – Following months of investigation, the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (IOSHA) has issued the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis and its subcontractor Hospitality Staffing Solutions (HSS) safety orders with proposed fines totaling more than $50,000 between both companies. The safety orders are the result of investigations following injury complaints lodged by Hyatt housekeepers in November 2010.

Two "serious" safety orders issued to Hyatt include allegedly failing to train HSS subcontracted workers on chemical hazards and on bloodborne pathogens such as blood, needles and other potentially infectious materials that housekeepers had potential exposure to as part of their regular duties. According to OSHA, "a serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known." IOSHA also cited the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis alleging that it failed to record illnesses and injuries on OSHA forms of HSS subcontracted workers who suffered recordable injuries while working at the Hyatt. Proposed penalties for safety orders issued to Hyatt total $4,400.

IOSHA issued a "knowing" safety order, the highest level safety order that Indiana OSHA issues with a more severe proposed penalty of $40,000 to HSS alleging that it failed to turn over injury records and delayed in providing other injury files despite repeated requests. IOSHA has described ‘knowing’ safety orders in the past as the most serious safety violations possible by an employer. Serious citations were issued to HSS alleging that it failed to train its employees on chemical and bloodborne pathogen hazards and other recordkeeping irregularities. Additional proposed fines bring the total for HSS to $49,900. The orders and proposed fines become final unless Hyatt and HSS seek administrative review within 15 working days to challenge them.

"By relying on subcontractors like HSS to staff housekeeping, Hyatt has been able to circumvent its responsibility to provide basic workplace protections for housekeepers that all workers are entitled to under the law," says Marquita Walker, a Labor Studies professor at IUPUI. "In Indianapolis, the multi-billion-dollar Hyatt Corporation is leading the industry in an outsourcing trend that takes advantage of primarily immigrant workers and erodes the quality of jobs for hospitality workers in the region."

Baltimore, MD–More than 60 campus dining workers at Stevenson University have won union representation, choosing to join UNITE HERE Local 7. Campus dining workers at the Maryland liberal arts university are employees of the multinational food service company Sodexo.

The campus dining workers at Stevenson won union representation with UNITE HERE Local 7 on Friday, April 8th and will now prepare to negotiate a first contract.

"I’ve worked at Stevenson for 4 years and am so happy to have been part of winning the union. Now we’re ready to negotiate our first contract. The opportunity for better wages and benefits will mean a lot to our families," said Steven Golder, a cafeteria cook at Stevenson.

The Stevenson workers are the fifth group of cafeteria workers at a college or university to win union representation with UNITE HERE in the past 5 months.

More than 1000 picket at Hyatt before marching to "WE ARE ONE" action on Daley Plaza

Saturday, April 9, more than 1000 housekeepers, teachers from across the state of Illinois, and community allies held a special joint demonstration at the Hyatt Regency. Like the billionaire Kochs in Wisconsin, the Pritzkers in Chicago, who run Hyatt, are contributing funds to back legislation that attacks the hard-won rights of working people in this country. More than 1000 union members and allies picketed at Hyatt before marching to Daley Plaza to join thousands more participating in the "WE ARE ONE" action in Chicago, sponsored by the AFL-CIO, in protest of attacks on workers’ rights nationally.

In Illinois, the billionaire Pritzkers who run Hyatt have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Stand for Children’s Illinois political action committee, which is pushing a "reform package" in Springfield that would weaken teacher tenure and effectively eliminate the ability of teachers to strike. In the hotel industry, Hyatt Hotels is leading the fight against middle class jobs for hotel workers. Hyatt workers in Chicago have been in a protracted contract dispute with Hyatt Hotels (NYSE: H) and have taken part in a wave of demonstrations in recent months, protesting Hyatt and its billionaire ownership family, the Pritzkers. 

Participants in today’s rally at Hyatt included hundreds of members of UNITE HERE Local 1, Chicago’s hospitality workers union, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT), including IFT President Daniel Montgomery, the Illinois Education Association (IEA), including IEA President Ken Swanson, and community allies in the Grassroots Collaborative.

"We are delighted that the teachers are with us today, standing together against the powerful financial interests of the billionaire Pritzker Family here in Chicago, who not only own the Hyatt Hotel chain but also are backing Stand For Children, an initiative that seeks to undermine teachers’ collective bargaining rights in Illinois," says Henry Tamarin, the President of UNITE HERE Local 1. "In Wisconsin, it is the Kochs that are the billionaires behind the attack on workers’ rights. In Illinois, it’s the Pritzkers."

On April 8, 2011 workers at four HEI-operated hotels and students at eight major universities across the U.S. are holding actions, protesting HEI Hotels and Resorts, a company backed by university endowment capital that has sparked controversy on campuses nationwide for its labor record.  The actions build on the momentum of student pressure, which resulted in Brown University’s decision to halt investment in HEI, citing allegations of workers’ rights violations.  On March 25, 2011, after years of refusing to make a public statement on the matter, University of Pennsylvania officials revealed that the University has no current plans to invest in HEI in the future.

Monterey, CA–UNITE HERE Local 483 and the Hilton Garden Inn Monterey announced a new agreement to resolve a lengthy labor dispute between them along with a mutual agreement to move forward with a cooperative and mutually beneficial labor-management approach. Under their new agreement, which directly involves RB Monterey as the hotel’s new owner, employees will continue to be paid at or above the rates that apply at other Monterey Bay area hotels, while now also being provided union pension, medical insurance, and other benefits. The Hotel and the Union also set aside all of their ongoing disputes and agreed to move forward with a new four-year contract addressing all of their mutual labor and hotel business issues.

Todd Walter, a representative of RB Monterey’s ownership group, said: "We genuinely appreciate the time and effort that the Union has put into resolving this dispute. With this resolution and the new cooperative spirit between the Union and our Hotel, we are confident that we can continue with our Hotel’s business goals and remain as both a stable and growing part of the Monterey Bay hospitality industry."

Leonard O’Neill, the Union’s Secretary-Treasurer and chief spokesperson, stated: "We always have been committed to representing our members by providing them not only with the best wages and benefits in the Monterey Bay area hospitality industry, but also by helping the businesses at which they work remain as healthy and growing members of our community."

After a 9-week struggle, workers at the Madison Hotel in Washington, DC, have reached a settlement. "Through the steadfast efforts of members at the Madison hotel and Local 25 members across the city, and with the support of the labor community and our allies, I am happy to announce that there is a tentative settlement," said UNITE HERE Local 25 Executive Secretary-Treasurer John Boardman late Thursday afternoon. "Our thanks to everyone who worked with us and supported our efforts. We couldn’t have done it without you!" The hotel, which has long been unionized, changed hands on January 19 and the new, German-based owners refused to accept the terms of the existing contract with UNITE HERE Local 25, which represents 150 workers at the Madison. In late January dozens of workers abruptly found themselves out of work when the Madison closed the restaurant and the union responded with daily protests in front of the Madison and calls for a boycott of the hotel, which gets over a million dollars a year in union business. Local 25 members voted on the agreement Saturday, April 2.–Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO.

Click here for more information.

UNITE HERE Locals 34, 35, 217, the New England Joint Board and GESO joined with other private and public sector unions, students and New Haven residents in a march and rally on the New Haven Green. Leading up to April 4, unions and communities across the country are coming together to show solidarity with workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states where workers’ rights are under attack.

Click here to view photos from the event.

Visit http://local.we-r-1.org for events in your area around April 4.

Nearly 2,800 union hotel workers employed at the six Hawaii based Starwood-managed properties on Maui, Kauai and Oahu voted on March 18 by a margin of 99% to ratify a new three-year agreement that will expire on June 30, 2013.

Union contracts for workers at the Sheraton Maui, Sheraton Kauai, Sheraton Waikiki, Princess Kaiulani, Moana Surfrider, and Royal Hawaiian Hotels originally expired on June 30, 2010.

The new three-year agreement ensures that current comprehensive family and retiree health and welfare coverage will be continued and provides for significant new wage increases fully retroactive to July 1, 2010. In addition, the package includes contribution increases that protect pension benefits for future and current retirees.

Local 5 represents over 10,500 workers throughout Hawaii who work in the hospitality, health care and food service industries and is an affiliate of UNITE HERE, an international union that represents over 250,000 workers throughout the U.S. and Canada.