Honolulu, HI–In preparation for potential labor disputes ahead, UNITE HERE Local 5 members overwhelmingly voted to contribute to a strike and defense fund. The series of special membership meetings on four islands concluded yesterday with 6 meetings throughout the day at Honolulu’s Blaisdell Center. By a 72% margin, union members voted to amend the union’s bylaws to include a special assessment of $10 per month on all members in the hotel and health care industries for the strike and defense fund. The $10 per month contributions will begin in January 2005 and continue through December 2006. The fund is projected to reach $2 million by the end of 2006. “Workers are under attack, employers everywhere are trying to force workers to pay for increases in medical costs,” said Eric Gill, Local 5’s Financial Secretary-Treasurer. “Health care has been at the core of almost every recent labor dispute in the country and employers are getting more aggressive. Supermarket workers in Southern California, hotel workers in San Francisco and health care workers in Northern California have all been locked-out by their employers. The vote yesterday helps us to be prepared to defend our medical benefits and to continue to fight to improve working conditions.”

On November 23, more than 500 Local 274 members in Philadelphia held a candlelight vigil and march beginning at the Radisson Plaza Warwick Hotel and ending with a rally at Love Park. The press reported crowds of more than 1,000. Hotel workers in Philadelphia are entering the eighth week of contract extensions. After numerous bargaining sessions, very little progress has been made in key areas such as comprehensive health care for hotel workers and their families, secure pensions, and fair wage increases. The rally demonstrated to the community the workers’ dedication and commitment to achieving a just and fair contract.