Labor will have a direct voice represented in the Democratic National Committee. At last week’s DNC winter meeting in Atlanta, UNITE HERE General Vice-President of Immigration, Civil Rights and Diversity, Maria Elena Durazo, was elected Vice-Chair in a first-round ballot victory. She was the only national labor leading running for an executive position in the DNC, as well as the only Latina woman. Now, more than ever, the Democratic Party needs Maria Elena’s leadership to elevate the voices of all working people, and her experience helping get Democrats elected and flipping red states blue. Maria Elena was elected with more votes than any other winning candidate, proving just how much the DNC members understand the importance of labor’s role for moving the party forward in the next four years and beyond. ¡Si se puede!
Los Angeles, CA – Maria Elena Durazo, UNITE HERE’s General Vice President for Immigration, Civil Rights and Diversity, has issued the following statement in response to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling against reinstating President Trump’s travel ban, targeting Muslim immigrants:
“The Ninth Circuit’s unanimous ruling against Donald Trump’s unAmerican ban on Muslims and refugees is a victory for the Constitution of the United States. It is a victory for the principles of justice and democracy and it is a stinging rebuke to the hateful agenda of the Trump Administration. This is a country of immigrants that has long served as a beacon of hope for the ‘tired, the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ Every generation of immigrants has worked to build our nation, in the mines and as cooks. Donald Trump does not represent the promise and hope of America.
“The decision by the Court is a sign that our country will continue to live up to its ideals. We must all continue to mobilize every day to build a progressive movement that can win victories like this, through the courts and through non-violent public actions.”
— Maria Elena Durazo, UNITE HERE General Vice President for Immigration, Civil Rights and Diversity
BOSTON, MA—UNITE HERE Local 26 members who work in food service at Northeastern University announced today they will hold a 1-day strike starting at 12:00 noon on Friday, January 20. Workers will walk off the job to march with students to rallies in Boston during President-Elect Donald Trump’s Inauguration.
“We call on our country’s leaders to join us and the majority of people who share the values of equality and prosperity for all,” said UNITE HERE Local 26 President Brian Lang. “There can be no compromise on our values.”
UNITE HERE Local 26 dining hall workers at Harvard held a 3-week strike in October.
What: Food service workers at Northeastern University to strike and join protests during President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration
Who: Northeastern Food service workers joined by students of Northeastern University and other Local 26 members
When: Workers will begin the strike at 12:00 noon on Friday, January 20, 2017 and will resume work on the morning shift Saturday, January 21, 2017.
Where: at Northeastern University with a march to Boston Common and other protest locations throughout the day
The 2016 election sounded a powerful wake up call for America and the labor movement. As Congress organizes itself, a new Trump Administration is formed, and the Democrats decide who is to lead their party, we have a choice: learn what works and start to win again, or repeat the same mistakes and end up with more of the same results.
Our Union re-learned two key lessons this election cycle. First, we win when workers talk to our neighbors, and lose when we don’t. Second, issues matter – health care, immigration, jobs, and wages. And we took both directly to the doorstep.
We had important successes based on this approach. Nevada was the only swing state to vote blue. Working with allies in Nevada, we won for Hillary Clinton, elected Catherine Cortez Masto the first latina Senator in US history and elected Ruben Kihuen, the son of a Culinary Union member, to the House. Nevada flipped two GOP incumbent House seats and turned both state legislative chambers from red to blue, the only state to do either. With an inspiring worker, immigrant, faith and student coalition in Arizona, we finally defeated anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio, after registering and mobilizing 150,000 voters.
We all know we need to double down on face to face organizing. But our biggest challenge may be just listening to what voters are saying. A huge portion of our members are immigrants fighting for a decent life. Now, they see the Republicans scapegoating their entire communities as rapists and murders. Our diverse membership also see the Republicans attacking their economic security by trying to tax their health care.
The next few months may get very ugly. We are all going to have to stand strong against attacks on immigrants, health care, unions and working people everywhere. In this climate, it’s clear to me that Rep. Keith Ellison will serve ably as the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He is an organizer who listens, looks you in the eye and can tell uncomfortable truths. Rep. Ellison gets that elections are won on doorsteps, not in Washington consultants’ offices. That’s why our Union endorsed him.
We also urge DNC members to support Maria Elena Durazo, for one of the DNC Vice-Chair positions. She is the only national labor leader running for this position. She is a union organizer and has the experience of turning California from red to blue.
We must put workers at the center of American politics and the economy. When millions of workers are talking to their neighbors about health care, jobs inequality and justice for everyone in this country, we have a chance to win and win big.
Past and present, immigrants have been at the center of UNITE HERE’s work to end poverty and change lives. We can build even greater power when our members choose to become U.S. citizens and participate fully in American political life.
That’s why UNITE HERE helped 5,180 people in more than a dozen cities complete the process of becoming U.S. citizens in 2016. The flagship of our citizenship programs is run by UNITE HERE’s Culinary Union, which helped over 1,700 Nevada immigrants apply for citizenship.
UNITE HERE members will continue to defend the rights of all workers while carrying the torch for comprehensive immigration reform in the United States.
UNITE HERE once again joined the IUF for their annual Global Week of Action for Hotel Housekeepers from October 31 to November 6. Unions from 34 countries and 50 cities participated in solidarity actions to demand safer working conditions and respect for workers in the world’s hotel industry.
From UNITE HERE, eleven locals coordinated protests, delegations and social media campaigns focused on issues that our members face across the hotel industry, every day, including: sexual harassment, pain and injury from inhumane workloads and deceptive “green programs” that cut costs for hotels but put more burdens on housekeepers. And with this year’s week of action taking place just before the U.S. elections, several locals used the opportunity to draw global attention to political campaigns.
Here are the highlights from the 2016 #FairHousekeeping Global Week of Action:
UNITE HERE Local 100 members attended New York Mayor Bill De Blasio’s bill signing, on October 31st 2016 at city hall, enacting legislation that protects food service workers. This bill requires a 90-day retention period, for food service workers, when an owner or operator terminates a food service contract for a corporate cafeteria, college, arena, or cultural institution.
This bill benefits so many hardworking men and women in the food service industry in New York, along with families, who depend on these jobs. The Worker Retention Bill will give these workers job security by giving them time to plan ahead or stay after an evaluation process by their new employer. “This is a victory, not only for our union members, but for all food service workers in New York City. It is also a victory for employers who now have the opportunity to hire an experienced work force,” said Jose Maldonado, Secretary Treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 100, which represents over 15,000 food service workers.
Members of Local 100 work in landmark locations such as MetLife Stadium, Madison Square Garden, Barclay Center, 21 Club and airports. Members of UNITE HERE and non-union workers alike can breathe a sigh of relief knowing they are now protected from this issue. “Job security is a major factor for me and this bill is great for working people. It’s good to know that people can expect that throughout the city,” Andrew Larrier Vendor at Madison Square Garden.
It’s a tough time for many working people in the United States. Many of us are still reeling from the results of the November 8 election, in which our fellow citizens elected Donald Trump and allowed Republicans to keep control of both houses of Congress.
There were a few bright spots this week. Members of UNITE HERE were critical in keeping the battleground state of Nevada blue and defeating anti-immigrant Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio.
We won those victories by focusing on the issues that matter to workers—those with a union and those without a union. Reaching out to all working people is the only way to build a big enough base to win. It sounds simple, but requires commitment and a long-term organization.
After an announcement by the National Labor Relations Board that the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was violating the National Labor Relations Act by refusing to bargain with the Culinary Workers Union after hotel employees voted to join the union last year, Hillary Clinton issued the following statement:
“Donald Trump likes to brag about his skills as a negotiator—but yesterday, he had to be ordered by the National Labor Relations Board to stop breaking the law, respect his workers’ fundamental rights to organize and bargain collectively, and come to the table. It’s appalling, but it’s not surprising. This is a man who personally signed a contract with a union-busting firm to try to stop UNITE HERE and the Culinary Workers’ Union from organizing in the first place, and engaged in a months-long intimidation campaign to bully his workers against voting to form a union.
“I was proud to visit workers on the picket line at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, and even prouder when they overcame Donald Trump’s intimidation campaign and were officially certified as a union earlier this year. I believe that when unions are strong, families are strong—and when families are strong, America is strong. And I will always stand with workers in protecting their rights to organize, bargain collectively, be safe on the job and retire with dignity, and if I am elected President, workers will always have a seat at the table and a champion in the White House.”
With a critical election approaching, millions of Americans who buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges are getting smacked by sticker shock this week: premiums for benchmark Silver plans will rise an average of 25% next year.
The publicity around the 13 million exchange customers obscures an even bigger problem. When measured against inflation, family coverage premiums for 156 million Americans who get insurance from their jobs are growing faster than they were in the five years before the law. In response, employers are shifting premium costs to employees and hiking copays and deductibles.
Why hasn’t this been fixed? Too many “experts” think costs are out of control because we use too much health care. The solution? “Skin in the game” — make us all pay more so we use less.
Unfortunately, these “experts” have it all wrong. Americans already have the second highest of-pocket costs in the world and we visit our doctors and go to the hospital less often than people in other countries.
The problem isn’t us, it’s the prices we pay to health care corporations that are becoming so powerful they can charge whatever they want. New studies show that we pay an average of nearly $1,900 more for the same services in places dominated by one hospital system than in areas with real competition. And every few months, another scandal like EpiPen reminds us that drug companies are so powerful they can also dictate prices.
Rather than take on these powerful corporations and fix the ACA, the Republicans have decided that we really are the problem. Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” budget proposes a punitive tax on employer-based health insurance to try to force us to pay even more and use even less.
This isn’t the first try to tax health care. The ACA included a 40% excise tax on so-called “Cadillac” health care plans. But the tax didn’t target Cadillac owners – it would affect the people who clean your hotel room, prepare your in-flight meal, feed your college students and serve your drinks at the casino. They’re members of our union: low-wage workers, almost all women, who have sacrificed literally billions of dollars in wage raises over the past thirty years so they can build some of the best, highest-quality and most affordable family health care in America.
Our members spoke out last year and convinced Congress to delay the Cadillac tax, and they’ve gotten Secretary Clinton to pledge a full repeal. The odds are good that this tax will go away early next year.
But just as one tax scheme fizzles out, another pops up. This time, the taxes are tucked into Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” budget. His plan would raise the cost of employer-sponsored benefits of 156 million Americans and further discourage employers from offering decent, affordable health insurance. It’s an even worse idea than the Cadillac tax and we need to stop it cold.
The ACA has provided health insurance to millions of people, given hope to people with pre-existing conditions and made insurance fairer for women. So of course the Republican mantra “repeal and replace” is just another phrase for stripping coverage from millions of people and turning corporate health care monopolies loose to charge even more outrageous prices.
But let’s be clear – the ACA is broken and needs major fixes. Congress and the new President have to get rid of the idea that ordinary Americans are the problem and stand up to the billion-dollar industries that put ever-higher prices on our health. There is a lot of work to do to fix the ACA, but step one isn’t complicated: Don’t tax our health care.
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D Taylor is General President of UNITE HERE International Union, the 270,000 member union for North American hotel, food service and gaming workers. UNITE HERE’s non-profit health benefit funds, operated in partnership with industry, are widely recognized as leaders in innovative delivery system design, quality-driven purchasing and patient education.
Labor will have a direct voice represented in the Democratic National Committee. At last week’s DNC winter meeting in Atlanta, UNITE HERE General Vice-President of Immigration, Civil Rights and Diversity, Maria Elena Durazo, was elected Vice-Chair in a first-round ballot victory. She was the only national labor leading running for an executive position in the DNC, as well as the only Latina woman. Now, more than ever, the Democratic Party needs Maria Elena’s leadership to elevate the voices of all working people, and her experience helping get Democrats elected and flipping red states blue. Maria Elena was elected with more votes than any other winning candidate, proving just how much the DNC members understand the importance of labor’s role for moving the party forward in the next four years and beyond. ¡Si se puede!
It’s a tough time for many working people in the United States. Many of us are still reeling from the results of the November 8 election, in which our fellow citizens elected Donald Trump and allowed Republicans to keep control of both houses of Congress.