Berkeley, CA– For over three years, approximately 100 non-union spa workers at the Claremont Resort & Spa in Berkeley have been fighting for the right to unionize without management interference, while over 300 union members have been fighting for a fair union contract with affordable family healthcare. Please support the Claremont Resort workers by clicking here to send a free fax to John Martin, Fairmont’s Corporate Director of Professional Relations, urging Fairmont to turn over a new leaf at the Claremont Resort & Spa by settling the long-standing labor dispute.

Two weeks ago, thousands of UNITE HERE members and retirees participated in several actions across the country to protest the Bush administration’s plan to privatize Social Security. In actions targeting Charles Schwab offices, the union activists demanded that Wall Street firms, which stand to make billions of dollars in investment fees, keep their hands off retirement benefits. –

San Francisco.The 4,300 hotel workers who are members of Local 2, continue their fight for respect on the job, decent healthcare, fair wages and the right for non-union workers to choose union representation in an environment free of coercion and intimidation. If you are in the Bay area, please join them on their picket lines to show your solidarity. Join us:

• Friday, 4/8 Grand Hyatt 2pm-6pm
• Tuesday, 4/12 Hyatt Regency 2pm-6pm
• Thursday, 4/14 St. Francis 11am-1pm

Los Angeles. Local 11 hotel workers and allies are planning a picket line and rally on Wednesday, April 13 at the Century Plaza Hotel. The action will include an "Eat in the Street" demonstration involving a banquet to bring attention to the continuing boycott of the Century Plaza Hotel.

On March 29, Maida Springer Kemp, a lifelong activist and ILGWU leader, passed away after a long illness. Born on May 10, 1910 in Panama, Springer Kemp came to the United States and settled in Harlem at the age of seven. She became influenced by the civil rights activism in Harlem, and when she became a garment worker in the 1930s, she brought her political ideals to the ILGWU, a predecessor of UNITE HERE. Springer Kemp became an ardent labor activist, and helped build important alliances between the black community and labor. Her leadership abilities were recognized and respected, earning her the reputation as the –

Another large group has pulled their business out of a boycotted San Francisco Multi-Employer Group hotel. The California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, whose members represent injured workers, has moved its June conference out of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. One thousand members were expected to attend. Local 2 members and supporters continue to turn out in full force to demonstrate against the lack of progress at the bargaining table and to spread the word about the hotel boycott. Picket lines are scheduled April 6 at the St. Francis, April 8 at the Grand Hyatt, April 12 at the Hyatt Regency and April 14 at the St. Francis.

When UNITE HERE launched the drive to save the Plaza Hotel several weeks ago, it was hoped that the campaign would draw the attention of the New York public. But it has done better than that, garnering worldwide attention. At a rally held outside the hotel on March 14, television news crews from Italy, Spain, Brazil, Germany and Japan joined local reporters in covering the event. More than 500 Local 6 members attended the event and were joined by supporters from all walks of life in New York.

Speakers included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, Father Peter Colapietro and Assistant Imam Tariq Shareek, who all said that the Plaza was more than a building and that efforts should be made to save the hotel and the employees who work inside it.

Hotel Trades Council President Peter Ward has reported that talks between the union and Elad Properties continue. The company has proposed creating a small luxury hotel on the 58th Street side of the Plaza that would save 150 of the Plaza’s 900 union jobs.

The union is demanding that a larger portion of the Plaza remain as a hotel and is joined in this demand by numerous elected officials, celebrities, historians, preservationists and other prominent New Yorkers.

In the weeks ahead the union will be engaging in arbitration and will appear with experts before the LPC to save some of the Plaza’s most renowned interior spaces and prevent them from being converted to retail use. There is a general membership meeting scheduled for Tuesday, April 5 at Radio City Music Hall at 4:00 p.m. Seating is on a first come first saved basis. Following the meeting is a march to the Plaza and a rally.

In an effort to advance their 3-year struggle for a new contract and counter the hotel’s latest union-busting tactics, Turtle Bay workers gathered 224 signatures on a petition to management demanding that the hotel pay for their medical care and return to the bargaining table. The hotel’s underpayments for workers’ health care has created a pending crisis and fueled increased anger among employees.

On March 18, the AFL Hotel and Restaurant Workers Health and Welfare Trust Fund–a joint labor management fund which provides Local 5 retirees, members and their families with health care coverage–wrote a letter to the hotel and the union stating that if the hotel does not begin to pay the current contribution rate in 60 days, Turtle Bay workers will lose their retiree medical coverage. The union petition urged -�the hotel to immediately return to the bargaining table and settle a fair contract so that we can end the boycott and help make Turtle Bay Resort a success.-�

Meanwhile, an Administrative Law Judge of the NLRB has rescheduled from April 12 to June 7 a hearing on eight separate alleged unfair labor practices. Sixteen additional unfair labor practice charges have been filed against Turtle Bay Resort and are now under investigation.

San Francisco. The Multi-Employer Group has been getting little relief as San Francisco hotel workers and supporters keep taking it to the streets with more picket lines. Hotel guests were greeted with a four-hour picket line at the Fairmont Hotel last Friday. And the actions keep getting longer and longer. This Thursday, another picket line goes up at the Palace Hotel.

Additionally, members of the American Philosophical Association picketed the Westin St. Francis Hotel on Wednesday March 23rd. The philosophers wanted to show their support for members of UNITE HERE Local 2. They were also protesting the decision of the APA’s Pacific Division to hold its annual meeting at the St. Francis, one of fourteen San Francisco hotels under a UNITE HERE boycott. Other academic organizations, including the American Anthropological Association and the Organization of American Historians, have honored the boycott by moving their conferences to other cities. A last minute attempt to move the APA conference to San Jose was unsuccessful. As a result, many APA members have canceled hotel reservations at the St. Francis or canceled their trips entirely.

Los Angeles. "Keep Hope Alive," was the catchphrase of the day as the Reverend Jesse Jackson led workers from the Century Plaza in a delegation to the office of the hotel’s general manager on March 17 in another chapter in Los Angeles’ hotel workers fight for a fair contract. Starting out in the employee dining room and winding his way through kitchens and work areas of the hotel, Rev. Jackson and Local 11 shop stewards got the hotel buzzing as the delegation made its way to the GM’s office. Upon arriving at the executive office, chief shop steward Donald Wilson announced that the Rev. Jackson and the workers wanted to meet with the general manager. Told that the general manager was unavailable and in a meeting with the hotel’s owners, Rev. Jackson requested to meet with the owners, too. The hotel’s owners met with Rev. Jackson and were told about the need to find a fair resolution to the conflict immediately, particularly in light of the effect that the boycott was having on the hotel’s business and the need of the hotel to maintain a dedicated and professional workforce.

94th Anniversary of Workplace Disaster
March 24, 2005, Noon -" 1 p.m.
Each year, UNITE HERE commemorates the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the 1911 industrial fire that killed 146 workers, most of them young immigrant women. This tragedy was a turning point for the efforts to win safe workplaces and union rights for garment workers, and was a key point in our union’s history.

What: In 1911, 146 young immigrant garment workers died in a tragic fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. This tragedy galvanized a city to fight for labor reforms and for fire safety in the workplace.

Who: Bruce Raynor, General President, UNITE HERE John Wilhelm, President/Hospitality Industry, UNITE HERE Other labor leaders and representatives of the NYFD -Family members of workers who perished in fire

Where: Corner of Washington Place & Greene Street-"just east of Washington Square Park

When: March 24, 2004* Noon -" 1 p.m. *The actual anniversary of the event is March 25. Because the anniversary falls on Good Friday this year, we are holding the commemoration the day before.

Ceremony: Fire officer tolls bell, as students and workers read a name and lay a flower for each of the 146 victims. New York City firefighters will slowly raise the ladder of their truck to the highest point the firefighters could reach in 1911, which was two floors below where workers were trapped.

New York, NY–On February 1, 2005, Cablevision cut off union health insurance for over two hundred Madison Square Garden workers and their families. This is part of Cablevision’s attempt to force these workers to agree to changes in their contract that would cut work opportunities, health insurance and pension benefits for many employees. Many workers at Madison Square Garden already earn less than $10 an hour. Please visit www.fightatthegarden.info to send a free fax to James Dolan, Chairman of Madison Square Garden, urging him to restore health insurance coverage Madison Square Garden workers and work to negotiate a fair contract.