Philadelphia, PA -" In a unanimous decision, members of UNITE HERE Local 274 ratified their new three-year collective bargaining agreement between the union and the Holiday Inn Stadium on Thursday, June 16, 2005. The union membership was pleased with additions to the contract, including new healthcare benefits for spouses and dependents. The UNITE HERE Philadelphia Joint Board Manager, Lynne Fox, was the union’s chief negotiator. The union and employer bargained for eight months, with health care the focal point for the union. In addition to the expanded health care, the union made significant gains in pension contributions as well as the ability to participate in the union’s 401(k) plan.

(Los Angeles) -" Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa, UNITE HERE! Local 11 President Maria Elena Durazo, Mark Liberman of LA INC., hotel workers and general managers conducted a news conference to announce the results of a ratification vote on a new collective bargaining agreement and to end the hotel boycott and invite businesses, conventioneers and tourists to come to Los Angeles.

With help and mediation from Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa, a tentative contract deal was reached last Saturday, morning at 4:55 a.m., five minutes before a scheduled lock-out, ending 14 months of labor turmoil.

Hotel workers voted at the seven luxury hotels yesterday and overwhelmingly ratified the contract with a 98 percent vote in favor of a 2006 contract. Under the deal, "non-tipped" hotel employees will get wage increases totaling 65 cents per hour over a 31-month period ending on Nov. 30, 2006, with some raises retroactive. Housekeepers, bellhops, servers, pbx operators, among other workers will keep current employee benefits and free healthcare will be maintained under the agreement.

The contract will end in the same year as contracts with hotels in other major cities like New York City, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Sacramento, Monterey, and Honolulu.

"The workers fought very hard for the past 14 months, because they understood the value of aligning their contract with those of other major cities, as they understood the value of keeping free health care for them and their families," said Durazo.

In the meantime, the $1 million dollar settlement of unfair labor practices includes:

– Repayment of the $40 monthly co-pays, which workers were forced to pay to keep their health benefits, (with 10 percent interest).

– Payment to the workers health and welfare fund (More than half a million dollars)

– Covering the expenses of the workers who lost health care coverage and currently owe medical bills

However, the settlement does not cover the unfair labor practices of four employees that were discharged as a result of the labor dispute, -�we will allow the NLRB to decide on those cases,-� said Tom Walsh Secretary-"Treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 11. The cases are still under investigation.

As a result of the agreement, the union has called-off the boycott and joined the mayor and the hotel employers council in inviting meeting planers and tourist back to Los Angeles.

The contract covers 2500 housekeepers, bellmen, front desk workers, banquet servers, cooks and other workers at these hotels: Hyatt West Hollywood, Westin Bonaventure, Sheraton Universal, Regent Beverly Wilshire, the Westin Century Plaza, the Wilshire Grand, and the Millennium Biltmore.

For more than a year, Angelica and UNITE HERE have been engaged in a dispute over the best way to provide free choice to Angelica’s non-union employees in deciding whether they wish to join the union. But under a new agreement with the company announced on June 14, employees at Angelica’s non-union facilities will have a fair selection process through which they may choose whether they wish to have UNITE HERE as their exclusive bargaining representative. The union is expected to soon initiate organizing efforts at the company’s non-union facilities under the terms of this agreement.

In connection with this agreement, the company and the union have negotiated new, tentative collective bargaining agreements covering those facilities where existing bargaining agreements had expired. These facilities include the company’s laundry plants in Antioch, Fresno and Sacramento, California; Batavia, New York; Tampa, Florida; and Dallas and Wichita Falls, Texas.

The settlement agreement is subject to employees at each of these plants voting to ratify the collective bargaining agreements.

After over a year and half of picket lines and an intense boycott at the Hotel del Coronado, UNITE HERE! Local 30 and the hotel manager KSL Resorts have reached a tentative settlement agreement covering 900 members in San Diego, CA. The agreement came just after midnight, last Saturday. Workers lost their previous contract and were forced to reapply for their jobs when the hotel was sold in December 2003 to a CNL Hotels & Resorts and KSL Resorts partnership. -�It’s been a long, hard fight. Members held the line throughout and will be very pleased with the settlement,-� said Jef Eatchel, Secretary Treasurer of Local 30.

Workers will vote on ratification shortly. Highlights include:

• Rehiring workers who were not rehired after the sale
• Full restoration of seniority rights lost when the hotel was sold
• Recognition and inclusion in the contract of 3 newly organized departments
• Phasing out a two-tiered categorization for new hires imposed with the hotel sale
• Healthcare and pension improvements
• Workload protections for housekeepers
• Wage increases for all departments
• Binding successorship language in the event the hotel is sold

Chicago, IL-"This Tuesday, hundreds of protestors showed their support for striking hotel workers at the Congress Plaza Hotel in downtown Chicago. An energetic, determined group of union workers marched the picket line outside the Congress, commemorating the two-year anniversary of the day Local 1 workers went on strike. The labor dispute has sparked large protests and even some arrests since its start in June 2003, when workers had walked off their jobs over a seven-percent pay cut.

(Los Angeles) -" At 5:00 AM today, Los Angeles Mayor Elect Antonio Villaraigosa called a press conference to announce a tentative agreement between UNITE HERE Local 11 and the Los Angeles Hotel Employers Council. The last minute deal came just in time to call off a scheduled lockout of 2500 hotel workers from seven of the cities’ most famous hotels.

-�I am happy to say that cooler heads have prevailed, and we have arrived at an agreement and avoided a lockout,-� said Mayor-Elect Villaraigosa. -�Now we can work together to start bringing tourists and conventions back to Los Angeles. Today, we are saying to the world -�Welcome to Los Angeles.’-�

-�I feel very emotional because I woke up at 3 am in the morning expecting to be locked out, but at about 4:30 we got the great news that we won,-� says Maribel Barrenchea, a housekeeper at the Bonaventure, for 8 years, -�At first I couldn’t believe, but now we are celebrating. Somebody pinch me!-�

-�I am so grateful to the other workers, the city council members, and the new mayor and others in the community stood by us when we went on strike. Together we won,-� says Morena Hernandez a Hyatt West Hollywood housekeeper.

The tentative agreement is subject to ratification by the workers. Key agreements include a $.65 wage increase over the life of the contract, maintenance of free family health care benefits, and a new provision which will allow workers to use sick time to deal with family issues. Workers will get some of their raise retroactively, and the agreement will expire in November of 2006. Workers will vote on ratification early next week.

The contract covers 2500 housekeepers, bellmen, front desk workers, banquet servers, cooks and other workers at these hotels: Hyatt West Hollywood, Westin Bonaventure, Sheraton Universal, Regent Beverly Wilshire, the Westin Century Plaza, the Wilshire Grand, and the Millennium Biltmore.

-�This is a wonderful day in Los Angeles. Good jobs and benefits make strong families and communities, and thanks to our new mayor, our members and the Employers Council, we are creating a better Los Angeles,-� says Maria Elena Durazo, President of UNITE HERE Local 11. -�Because of this agreement, both local workers and the visitors who fill the hotels and count on their service will get what they need.-�

For more information, or to arrange an interview, please contact Amanda Cooper (917-533-4050) or Hilda Delgado (213-276-3375).

Hundreds of workers at the Hyatt West Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles went on strike today in protest of the hotel’s refusal to return the thousands of dollars in healthcare co-pays the hotel collected from the workers over a period of eight months after their contract expired in April. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) now alleges that the hotels collected this money illegally. Approximately 500 of the nearly 3,000 housekeepers, bellman, dishwashers, waiters, and other hotel workers at the employer council hotels lost their health insurance because they did not or could not make payments.

The NLRB will be taking the hotels to trial because of their findings that the hotels bargained with the union in bad faith, but litigation can take years. The Los Angeles hotel workers need their money now. Workers hope the 2-week strike will convince the hotels to return their money and teach them that they must obey the law.

Hundreds of workers walked off the job early this morning, leaving hotel managers scrambling to tend to guests. Workers from the other six Employer’s Council hotels, elected officials, community supporters, and labor leaders will meet at the Hyatt West Hollywood at 5:00PM to join the Hyatt West Hollywood workers picket line and rally.

Prior to the strike, hotel workers in Los Angeles achieved significant victories in their yearlong contract fight last month when the unity of the L. A. Hotel Employer’s Council (EC) was broken by two actions–the General Manager of the Wilshire Grand Hotel, an EC member, agreed with Local 11 that the EC hotels should accept the 2004-2006 agreement the union has already signed with six other L.A. hotels and the EC shrank from eight to seven hotels after the former Hyatt Regency Downtown was acquired by a new owner, who, not being bound by the EC’s rules, signed a 2004-2006 agreement with Local 11.

The Wilshire Grand’s action established a precedent that other EC hotels may follow. In recent days, the Millennium Biltmore hotel has joined the Wilshire Grand hotel in agreeing to accept a 2006 contract, even though both are prohibited from signing such deals because they have committed to joint negotiations with the five other hotels.

For more information, visit www.HotelWorkersUnited.org

Illinois: In Illinois, housekeepers have been standing up for justice on the job. Hotel room attendants -" mostly women -" have been facing increasingly heavy workloads, leading to injury and exhaustion on the job. Room attendants are starting to fight back.

Locals 1, 450 and the Midwest Joint Board backed state legislation that would require hotels to give hotel room attendants two paid 15-minute breaks per day. Under the sponsorship of State Rep. John Fritchey, the bill passed through the State House of Representatives in April. It was referred to the State Senate, sponsored by Sen. Ira Silverstein.

Local 1 swung into action and planned a lobby day in Springfield in early May. On May 4th, 120 Local 1 members took a day off without pay, and rode buses 200 miles to the State Capitol in Springfield to lobby for the bill.

Hotel workers packed the Senate Labor Committee hearing that afternoon. Local 1 President Henry Tamarin testified in favor of the bill, and the committee voted in favor of it. After a preliminary unsuccessful vote, the Senate President Emil Jones and Asst. Majority Leader Jim DeLeo worked hard to line up the 30 votes to pass the bill on May 20.

Subject to the approval of the Governor, Cook County hotel room attendants will be the only workers in the State of Illinois with paid rest breaks. This law will be an exciting new opportunity for room attendants to stand up for a fair workload. Local 1 will continue to build a strong committee of housekeeper leaders to lead the fight.

Philadelphia, PA — On Monday, May 23rd, members of UNITE HERE Local 274 ratified a new three-year contract with the Hilton Garden Inn. The new contract was ratified overwhelmingly during meetings held at the hotel. UNITE HERE Philadelphia Joint Board Director Lynne Fox was the chief negotiator for the union. "My coworkers and I are very excited about our new contract," said Deborah Blunt Hill, a member of the Bargaining Committee and a housekeeper, at the end of the ratification meeting. "Everybody worked so hard and showed so much solidarity. We won and we are looking forward to June 1st when this goes into effect. We wore buttons, marched in the street and stood strong as a group and it paid off." The new contract contains many improvements including expanded health insurance coverage that includes the members’ children and spouses. Read more.

And also last week, over 300 food service workers at the Pennsylvania Convention Center voted to join UNITE HERE. The new members are employed by catering giant ARAMARK Corporation, which has approximately 200,000 workers worldwide, and will be part of the UNITE HERE Philadelphia Joint Board. These food service members are part of the quickly growing industrial sector within the union now known as the UNITE HERE Multi-Services Division, which includes food service, airports and laundry workers across the United States and Canada.

On Tuesday, May 31, UNITE HERE Local 2 and the Multi-Employer Group (MEG) representing fourteen San Francisco hotels headed back to the bargaining table for the first time in three and a half months. Local 2 members had been waiting for a response to their latest contract offer made to the hotels on February 14th.

The MEG’s latest proposal fails to address any of the core issues for Local 2 members such as continued comprehensive health care, fair wage increases, fully funded pensions and card check neutrality. Instead, the only proposal the MEG made on Tuesday was regarding co-payments for doctor and emergency room visits. The MEG proposed a $10 co-payment per office visit (their previous proposal was $15) and a $20 co-payment for each emergency room visit (their previous proposal was $75 for active members and $50 for retirees). Local 2 members currently pay $5 per office or emergency room visit.

The employers continue to keep proposals on the table that would a) eliminate health care coverage for hundreds of members and their families; b) make no improvement in pensions; and c) fail to provide fair wage increases.

Meanwhile, the boycott of the MEG hotels is having dramatic impact on hotel business. Large convention, conference and meeting customers continue to cancel their events scheduled at the 14 hotels. Most recently, the Young Democrats of America pulled their biennial national convention to be held in August out of the St. Francis Hotel. The Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation moved their 16th Annual Media Awards Event which will be held in June out of the St. Francis Hotel to Fort Mason. Business for Social Responsibility, an organization that helps companies leverage corporate ethical behavior, is moving its 2005 meeting out of the San Francisco Hilton.

Additionally, the American Federation of Teachers, which has a convention of several thousand people scheduled for July 2006, recently sent a letter to the MEG hotels stating that they will move their convention if the labor dispute is not resolved by August 1st. The convention will require 13,000 rooms and is worth $3 – $4 million to the hotels.

Local 2 members and allies continue to hold regular picket lines at the 14 MEG hotels, engage in leafleting at the hotels and participate in delegations to hotel customers to inform the public about the labor dispute and boycott.

The next bargaining session is scheduled for June 8. Local 2’s next large-scale demonstration and picket lines will be held June 9. Participants will congregate on Market Street next to the Four Seasons Hotel at 4:15pm.

Los Angeles–Hotel workers in Los Angeles achieved significant victories in their yearlong contract fight last month. The unity of the L. A. Hotel Employer’s Council (EC) was recently broken when the General Manager of the Wilshire Grand Hotel agreed with Local 11 that the EC hotels should accept the 2004-2006 agreement that the union has already signed with six other L.A. hotels. While legally prevented from negotiating separately with Local 11 by virtue of EC membership, individual EC members can still express opinions as to the course the hotel group should follow in negotiations. As a result, Local 11 has agreed to no longer actively implement the boycott of the Wilshire Grand, which has lost an estimated $2.1 million in revenues. The Wilshire Grand’s action establishes a precedent that other EC hotels may follow.

Second, the EC shrank from eight to seven hotels after the former Hyatt Regency Downtown was acquired by a new owner, who, not being bound by the EC’s rules, signed a 2004-2006 agreement with Local 11. The hotel will now fly a Sheraton flag but will not be operated by Starwood. Moreover, as a signatory to a collective bargaining agreement with Local 11 the hotel will no longer be subject to a boycott.

In the face of the split in the EC, the increasing number of hotels that have signed onto the 2004-2006 contract and the powerful solidarity among Local 11 members, the EC’s recent 4-year proposal, freighted with -�signing bonuses-� and wage improvements, is essentially a dead letter.

Visit HotelWorkersUnited.org for more information.