Hotel workers were among over 2,000 demonstrators who closed Century Boulevard near the Los Angeles International Airport during evening rush hour on September 28 to demand an end to the exploitation of immigrant workers at nearby hotels. UNITE HERE and the We Are America Coalition sponsored the march and civil disobedience. The event was widely covered by the media, including MTV, which interviewed Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello before he was arrested along with over 400 others. "These hotel workers by the airport make 20 percent less wages than hotel workers around the rest of Los Angeles," Morello said. "We’re here to express our solidarity with them, to help them unionize and to help them close the gap between their sub-poverty wages and the millions and millions of dollars the people who own these hotels make."

For the full story, visit www.hotelworkersrising.org.

After almost two years of working without a contract, San Francisco hotel workers concluded a new contract this week with the Multi-Employer Group (MEG), that encompasses five years, three years forward and two years back. The contract grants higher wages, better pensions and full healthcare benefits to more than 4,200 members of UNITE HERE Local 2.

"It shows that when we start together fighting for our rights, we can keep whatever we deserve," said Rafael Leiva, 33, who delivers room service at the Hyatt Regency. Most importantly, the contract includes card check for all future hotels by all the MEG employers in San Francisco and in all of San Mateo County. Local 2 still faces the task for settling with a large number of hotels which are not in the MEG, including the San Francisco Marriott.

In Chicago, UNITE HERE Local 1 announced a tentative agreement with Starwood covering over 900 workers at five hotels. The agreement was reached Tuesday with Tishman Hotels, the owner of the Sheraton Chicago, and yesterday with Starwood Hotels, which owns and operates four other properties: Westin Michigan Avenue, the W City Center, the W Lakeshore Drive and the Tremont.

"We are very pleased to reach this settlement with Starwood. With the conclusion of bargaining, nearly 7,000 Chicago hotel workers will see major progress in wages, benefits and working conditions," said Henry Tamarin, President of UNITE HERE Local 1. "In addition, we expect to see a ripple effect as non-union hotel workers in Chicago also receive raises." The tentative Chicago agreement with Starwood parallels one reached with Hilton on August 31 and Hyatt on September 3. Another 11 Chicago properties have signed "me-too" agreements with the union. A "me-too" agreement means the hotels will adopt the same terms negotiated for the Starwood- managed properties.

And in Monterey, UNITE HERE Local 483 reached an excellent settlement with two Hyatts early this morning. The contract is a four-year agreement, with wage increases for non-tipped workers, an increase for health and welfare, pension increase, and other important language.

During a two-day organizing conference held in Cincinnati last weekend, approximately 500 UNITE HERE service sector members and staff gathered together to launch the Service Workers Rising! campaign, an effort to unite 100,000 UNITE HERE members employed in the Laundry, Airport concessions and the Food Service industries across North America. Service companies like Compass, Sodexho and Aramark are taking over the "non-core" work of food service, laundry, and cleaning from hospitals, universities and airports. These companies consider it all one industry, so UNITE HERE members are organizing into one strong division as well.

Members participated in breakout sessions during which they planned on how to increase organizing in their shops, and listened to presentations made by sector and affiliate leaders as well as General President Bruce Raynor and President/ Hospitality Industries John W. Wilhelm. Actor and activist Danny Glover joined civil-rights activist Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and several laundry workers on Saturday to offer his support and to highlight some of the abuses committed by Cintas, the uniform and laundry company with headquarters in Cincinnati.

"It’s shameful that I have to stand here, that all of us have to be here and talk about [the labor abuses committed by Cintas]," said Glover during the press conference. "There’s just so many other things we need to talk about in the world, in our communities, in elevating those communities," said Glover, "because what we have here are people who deserve the opportunity to live their lives in dignity."

Cintas recently announced plans to stop processing laundry at its Detroit plant, one of the few where Cintas workers have a voice through a union. Susan Amos, who has worked at the Detroit plant for the last 18 years, said, "I think Cintas still has a problem with discrimination. They made some moves to take the heat off after these lawsuits started. But the better jobs still mostly go to white men. The people losing our jobs are almost all African-American."

For more information on Service Workers Rising and its campaigns, go to www.serviceworkersrising.org.

Atlantic City, NJ- Thousands of UNITE HERE members were laid-off earlier this week during a one week stand-off by the NJ Legislative Assembly that shut down casino operations and racetracks in New Jersey. The state government was shut down over the weekend when lawmakers failed to pass a budget by the July 1 deadline. Various state government operations closed down as a result.

Following a rally of UNITE HERE members at the steps of the State House in Trenton, and intense mobilizing by workers and their supporters, state leaders met on Thursday and finally agreed on a state budget for 2006. "The working families of Atlantic City depend on their tips and wages to support their families," said Bob McDevitt, President of UNITE HERE Local 54 in a press statement earlier this week. "If the stand-off continues, many families will not be able to cover their most basic necessities at the end of the month. This will hurt not just our members but the more 60,000 workers that depend on the industry in South Jersey."

"We are deeply concerned about the economic impact that the state budget will have on our members who work in the hotels, casinos and race-tracks in New Jersey," said General President Bruce Raynor. "Workers, both in the private and public sector, deserve a budget that puts the interest of working families first and not the political ambitions of some politicians in the State Assembly." Governor Jon Corzine was instrumental in ending the stand-off and announced details of the budget during a press conference Thursday. For a full story, go to http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/06/nj.budget.ap/index.html.

Washington, DC-"During an exciting reception this Wednesday attended by dozens of high profile national organizations and community leaders, the Informed Meetings Exchange (INMEX) was launched to help advise meeting planners that want information on the labor situation at hotels in cities across North America. UNITE HERE has established INMEX to help organizations spend their hotel group business dollars in a way that is more consistent with their institutional values. INMEX is also designed to transform the hotel industry into one that treats its employees fairly and provides them with living wages, access to affordable healthcare, retirement security and a voice in the workplace.

INMEX has already signed up more than 100 organizations that spend more than $196 million annually on hotel costs and count about 418,000 meeting attendees. To learn more, go to www.inmex.org.

This week, a new campaign developed in coordination with the gay and lesbian community was released to support hotel workers across North America in their effort to achieve the American Dream for themselves and their families. According to recent statistics, the American gay and lesbian population represents close to a $60 billion travel market, patronizing hotels across North America. With the participation of key figures in the gay and lesbian movement, such as Cleve Jones (founder of the NAMES Project and AIDS Memorial Quilt), this campaign promises to help build support for thousands of hotel workers who are being paid poverty wages, have unaffordable benefits and want to build up their communities. For more information about Sleep With the Right People, go to www.sleepwiththerightpeople.org.

Millions of Americans are working their hearts out every day but still falling short of the basics of the American Dream -” a paycheck that can support a family, affordable health care, retirement security, a voice on the job and a chance to give their kids an education and a better future. This week, Change to Win launched “Make Work Pay!,” the nation’s biggest ever effort to unite the more than 50 million workers providing the vital services that our communities depend on. These are the people who heal the sick and comfort our elderly, harvest and serve our food, and clean and protect our offices and homes.

Change to Win – a federation of seven unions representing six million working people including UNITE HERE – is working with community groups, people of faith and public officials to build an unprecedented movement to ensure that our lowest-paid workers join the middle-class and share in the American Dream.

To join this movement, go to www.changetowin.org/MWP/index.htm.

In an incredible showing, over two million documented and undocumented immigrants and supporters turned out in energetic rallies across the United States this week to demand overall immigration reform for the 11- 12 million undocumented workers living in the United States, including a path to citizenship, protection of workers’ rights and the ability to bring families together.

UNITE HERE affiliates and members turned out with other Change to Win unions from New York to Los Angeles, and helped organize the massive rallies in downtowns across the country. "I’ve been here like 15 years and I’m still a resident, not a citizen, because it takes longer and it’s more expensive," Priscilla Molina, a hotel housekeeper from El Salvador and a UNITE HERE member, told the New York Times. "We work hard, we pay taxes every year. We want all the immigrants to get to be citizens."

May Chen, manager of the New York Metropolitan Joint Board and UNITE HERE vice-president, told the crowd in New York City that "a temporary guest-worker program that simply provides a cheap labor source for employers" was unacceptable. "The road ahead is complex and dangerous," she said. "Any major change in our immigration will surely impact all of us for the next generation."

Toronto, ON-“Hundreds of UNITE HERE members, staff as well as hotel workers and supporters will be turning out for the International Women’s Day march in Toronto on Saturday, March 11. Attendance at the march will be a symbol of current labor struggles and women’s movements. UNITE HERE members have been meeting with Toronto feminist groups to strategize for the upcoming negotiations between the union and 23 Toronto hotels.

“What this struggle is about is transforming our society so that service workers can have a decent standard of living,” said Judy Rebick, CAW-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University to the website www.rabble.ca.

As in other North American cities, the majority of Toronto’s housekeepers are immigrant women who must support their families on low wages and have little job security. For a complete article, please click here. For more information about the Hotel Workers Rising campaign, visit www.hotelworkersrising.org.