Workers at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa went on a one-day strike yesterday to protest working conditions and other issues.

Hyatt employees and supporters walked picket lines at the 1,229-room hotel, starting in the pre-dawn hours.

The work stoppage was the third organized union action this year by Unite Here Local 5. The union represents 501 Hyatt workers of a total work force of 725.

The contract for the Hyatt workers expired June 30. Lewin said talks with resume Oct. 14.

The protest was expected to last until about 9:30 p.m., according to Cade Watanabe, community and political organizer for Local 5. Workers were expected to return to their jobs for the 10 p.m. shift, he said.

"Hyatt is the starkest example of an owner of a hotel that has been using the economy as an excuse to lock workers into a permanent recession," Watanabe said. "As the visitor industry rebounds and as the economy recovers, there’s no reason why workers should be left behind."

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(Chicago, IL) – Today, UNITE HERE Local 1 members are gathering in front of Hyatt Global Headquarters in Chicago to call for a boycott at several area Hyatt Hotels—the Hyatt Regency Chicago, the Hyatt O’Hare, and the Park Hyatt. Hyatt workers will be joined by Jewish allies, who are releasing a pledge signed by over 250 Rabbis and other Jewish leaders nationwide in support of Hyatt workers across North America. The boycott and national pledge represent the latest escalation of a labor dispute with Hyatt, which has become the target of labor demonstrations across North America in recent weeks.

The boycott announcement comes almost one year after union contracts with Hyatt in Chicago have expired (Aug. 31, 2009). Hyatt workers have taken several actions in recent months, including a work stoppage on May 26, 2010, a picket of Hyatt’s annual shareholders meeting on June 9, 2010, a massive demonstration outside the Hyatt Regency Chicago on July 22, 2010, and a strike vote on July 29, 2010. Hyatt protests in Chicago have been echoed by other major demonstrations this summer in 15 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

Under grim and damp skies, more than one hundred hotel workers and labor allies rallied outside the 15th and Pennsylvania Bank of America branch in Washington, DC on August 18 to demand that the bank protect their jobs. "We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!" said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker outside the Treasury Department, which helped bail out BOA last year. UNITE HERE represents hotel workers whose jobs are in jeopardy as a result of the potential default of $1 billion in loans made by Bank of America to Columbia Sussex, which owns 14 hotel properties nation-wide – including the Hilton Crystal City and the Baltimore Sheraton City Center. "We helped bail them out, now it’s time for them to bail us out to keep our jobs," said DeLouise Eggleston, who works at the Baltimore Sheraton. "Columbia Sussex expects us to pay back their loan through big cuts in our pay and benefits – it’s not fair and we won’t allow it." Added Nelly Villalobos  – a laundry worker at the Hilton Crystal City for over 17 years – "Since Columbia Sussex took over our hotel, they have made our lives very difficult. We are not going to let workers pay for their mistakes. We’re going to keep fighting and moving forward together to protect our jobs!"

– Report by Adam Wright; photos by Chris Garlock, Metro Washington Council 

Today, Hilton Hotels workers in Chicago voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike at 4 area properties – the Chicago Hilton, Hilton O’Hare, the Palmer House Hilton, and the Drake, according to UNITE HERE Local 1 and Local 450. With 96% of union members voting in favor of a strike, the vote authorizes the rank-and-file bargaining committee to call a strike, if necessary.

"Hilton’s business is coming back, but it seems like they want housekeepers like me to live in the recession forever," says Sherri Steverson, a room attendant at the Chicago Hilton downtown, one of Hilton Hotels’ largest owned hotels. "I already have to take pain medication to get through the day, and the workload increases that Hilton is proposing for housekeepers at my hotel just might break me all together. I came here today with 90 other room attendants at the Hilton to the strike vote to say enough is enough."

Hilton workers are among 6,500 other hotel workers in downtown Chicago and over 2,000 hotel workers near Chicago’s airports affiliated with UNITE HERE Local 450 that have been in contract negotiations since August of 2009.

On August 18th, UNITE HERE Local 1 hosted a gathering of labor, community and political leaders at the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago for the Chicago premiere of Show us the Tax Breaks. This short film tells the story of how the Pritzker Family’s Union Tank Car company gathered millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies while destroying good, family-sustaining jobs in Northwest Indiana.

As the film demonstrates, Union Tank Car’s actions serve as a sharp example of the problems that arise when companies are able to collect economic development subsidies without creating any new jobs. The film points to a deepening crisis for companies owned by the Pritzker Family, whose collective wealth is estimated to exceed $15 billion and who have become an emblematic obstacle to our nation’s recovery.

Kelly Hounshell, who had worked at Union Tank Car’s East Chicago plant for 22 years as a head burner before the plant closed, said that "I don’t want to see more companies taking advantage of their workers and their communities like Union Tank Car did to us."

On August 1, maintenance, food and beverage workers at the elite Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton, CA, rallied to demand the Club end the lockout and bargain in good faith with their union, UNITE HERE Local 2850. The locked out workers were joined by their families, community and labor allies.

The workers have been locked out of their jobs for over 150 days and are held the protest.

"The BP oil spill in the Gulf hasn’t last this long! We need to get back to work," said 5-year Castlewood banquet server Sergio Gonzales.

The lockout began on February 25, 2010, when management turned employees away when they reported to work. Negotiations stalled when the Club insisted that their employees contribute $739 per month toward their family health care costs, nearly 40% of the average take-home pay of the locked out employees.

Workers offered to increase their share of health costs from 0 to $225 per month, restrict health benefits to full-time employees, and accept a wage freeze in the first year and very low raises in later years. These concessions would have more than offset the costs of retaining family medical benefits.

According to the Club, it has spent over $337,000 on expenses related to the labor dispute. That price tag includes at least $35K lost margin on events."It would have taken them years to spend that kind of money if they accepted the union’s proposal and didn’t lock the workers out" said Wei Ling Huber, president of UNITE HERE Local 2850.

"They don’t realize we are fighting for our families. We are not going to go away." said Angel Melendez a 15-year Castlewood cook.

EDD ruled that the lockout is an offensive action on the part of the Club and the locked out workers have been receiving unemployment benefits.

Workers have also received donations to help them keep a roof over their heads. "The community supports us," says Maria Ramriez, 4-year maintenance worker at Castlewood. "We’ve been receiving a lot donations and messages of strength. People do not want us to be starved into giving up hope and a good contract."

Members of UNITE HERE Local 11 in Los Angeles will be among more than 550 members of Los Angeles unions, faith, and community groups, who will travel in a long caravan of 11 chartered buses bound for Phoenix on the day SB 1070 is scheduled to go into effect. Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the L.A. activists will meet with working Arizonans already hit hard by a struggling economy and now facing the state’s new immigration law.

L.A. unions will also kick off a new partnership with Arizona groups to increase Latino voter participation in the state.

"In 1994, California Gov. Pete Wilson’s attack on immigrants spurred Latinos to organize and fight for their rights alongside the rest of California’s working people, as never before in our state’s history," says Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the L.A. labor federation. "The renewal of that attack in the form of SB 1070 has made our members realize that to protect our rights as working people we must reach out beyond our state’s borders and find ways to build a real long-term partnership with our neighbors in Arizona."

Bus riders will gather at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles at 4 a.m. on Thursday, July 29. They will eat breakfast on the California-Arizona border in Blythe before crossing the border. In Phoenix, they will participate in a community forum on SB 1070 with Phoenix Councilman Michael Nowakowski, Phoenix Chief of Police Jack Harris and others. They will march to the Arizona state Capitol and end their journey with a vigil there before returning to L.A. The delegation will return to Dodger Stadium by midnight.

Petra Falcon, director of Promise Arizona and one of the event’s Arizona hosts, says she helped arrange the visit because "we believe it is extraordinarily important to look at the passage of SB 1070 and other similar legislation in the context of the continued struggles of all working people in Arizona, and of our state and federal lawmakers’ failure to address those struggles."

The Phoenix events are also being hosted by CASE (Central Arizonans for a Sustainable Economy), a Phoenix non-profit concerned with raising the standards of people who work in Arizona’s low-wage service sector.

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Hospitality workers marched through Anaheim’s central tourist district on Monday evening with one message for area tourism employers: “Don’t follow Disney.”

Donning “Black-Eye Mickey” masks, protesters said Disney’s greedy insistence on slashing its workers healthcare has put a black eye on the whole city of Anaheim.

Since Disney’s attack on hotel workers began two years ago, the bellman, housekeepers and cooks have taken to the streets with picket lines, marches and even a week-long hunger strike, intent on getting the multi-billion dollar Disney to understand this serious problem.

Now, as contracts covering 3,000 other Anaheim tourism workers expire, employees are urging companies like Aramark, which staffs Angel Stadium and the Convention Center, to agree to fair contracts with affordable benefits and avoid a messy labor dispute like the one that has plagued Disney for more than two years.

The noisy demonstrations and relentless leafleting of Disneyland guests have become emblematic of the two-year battle for affordable healthcare at Disneyland. The on-going struggle has gained national and even international press attention, marring the image of the so-called “happiest place on Earth.”

“For two years, all we’ve been trying to do is hold on to the affordable, decent healthcare we already have,” said Jorge Iniestra, a bellman at the Disneyland Hotel. “We truly do not understand why a company that profited $3.3 billion in 2009 is so insistent on taking that away from us. It’s corporate greed at its worst.”

Employed by Aramark, workers at Angel Stadium and the Anaheim Convention Center have been working without a contract for several months and have just started negotiations.

“As a resident of Anaheim and member of Local 11, I have witnessed the tremendous struggle Disney workers have gone through just to hold on to their family healthcare,” said Jessica Rodriguez, an Aramark employee at Angel Stadium. “Although I hope we can settle a fair agreement quickly, we’ve been inspired by the Disney workers’ courage and aren’t afraid to fight for what we deserve as well.”

For more information, go to www.unitehere11.org

On June 7, members of UNITE HERE Local 1 ratified new contracts covering over 400 workers at Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, Indiana. The contract settlement represents a major victory for workers at the casino, who have been in negotiations since November of 2009.

Terms of the settlement include retroactive raises across the board and first-time pension benefits for Blue Chip workers. Workers also were able to preserve low-cost health care coverage at a time when employers nationally are slashing employer-provided healthcare and raising health plan costs. Most significantly, Blue Chip agreed to language in the contract that protects jobs for Blue Chip workers by guaranteeing limits on the use of part-time employees.

By contrast, over 30% of the unionized staff at nearby Ameristar Casino are now working part-time and are not eligible for health benefits, and reports surfaced late last week that Ameristar intends to layoff dozens of workers in the coming weeks. The average buffet beverage server at Ameristar currently makes $9.85 an hour, meaning an employee who works part-time at 28.5 hours a week at part-time status, has a gross annual income of $14,598. At that level, one would fall below the federal poverty line as a head of a two-person household and qualify for Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) and Hoosier Healthwise, Indiana’s health insurance program for low-income families. Ameristar workers have testified before the Indiana Gaming Commission in June on the adverse effect of staffing cuts, resulting lost benefits and reduced income, to the regional economy.

“I am really pleased with the outcome of the negotiations,” says Jo Von Lindsey, a snack bar attendant who has worked at Blue Chip for five years. “For the first time, we were able to open the door for a pension plan, while still holding onto health care with no cost to employees. Most importantly, we’ve seen a big increase in part-time employment at the casino this year, and we were able to put a stop to the number of part-time jobs that can be created with this new agreement.”

While the gaming industry nationally has been affected by the economic downturn, northwest Indiana’s casinos have weathered the storm with fewer losses than the industry strongholds of Las Vegas and Atlantic City, but union members have seen their employers use the Cline Ave. closure and the economy as an excuse to reduce hours and benefits.

Contracts between members of UNITE HERE Local 1 and three Indiana casinos–Ameristar East Chicago, Majestic Star Casino in Gary, and Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City expired Saturday, October 31, 2009. In 2004, workers at these casinos won historic contracts that secured fully employer-paid health insurance for individuals for the first time. Workers cite keeping that healthcare coverage as among their top concerns in negotiations for the new contracts. Layoffs and reduced hours, resulting in the loss of health insurance and other benefits, are among other top concerns.

Food service workers at Camp Merrill in Dahlonega, GA, recently joined UNITE HERE Local 804 and along with their brothers and sisters at Ft. Benning now enjoy the benefits of a strong union contract.

Camp Merrill handles the second stage of training for the U.S. Army Rangers.  Food service workers employed by L&S Services proudly prepare meals for Camp Merrill’s soldiers.

Local 804 members from Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA, helped in the Camp Merrill organizing drive, the first of its kind for the Georgia UNITE HERE affiliate.

As Local 804 members with a new collective bargaining agreement, the food service workers at Camp Merrill  will now have family health insurance that is fully-paid by the company; a pension plan; significant wage increases; and a new grievance resolution process that will ensure dignity and respect on the job.