On May Day, Workers Will Strike Demanding Proposed Hotel In West Oakland Be A ‘Sanctuary Workplace’
OAKLAND – More than 60 workers from hotels in Oakland and Emeryville will walk off the job on May 1 to send a message to Donald Trump and his fellow hotel developers demanding that they respect immigrant workers. They will join other UNITE HERE Local 2850 members and community allies at a picket at the proposed site of a new hotel in West Oakland. The developer, RAM Hotels, has refused to commit to allowing workers there to exercise their right to decide whether to organize a union without fear of retaliation.
“I am walking off the job with my coworkers on May 1st to demand sanctuary workplaces for all,” says Yolanda Maron Carmona, a striking Emeryville hotel housekeeper. “For us, as immigrant workers and UNITE HERE members, ‘sanctuary workplaces’ include protection from retaliation, ensuring that the employer cannot use workers’ immigration status against them.”
The site is less than a mile from the former Woodfin Suites hotel, where ten years ago the hotel owner notoriously called in ICE in the midst of a worker organizing campaign for a living wage, costing many workers their jobs.
WHAT: Picket Line, Piñata, and Hotel Workers Wearing “Miss Housekeeper” Sashes
WHEN: Monday, May 1, 2017, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: Mandela Parkway and Yerba Buena, Oakland, CA (between Target and Extended Stay)
WHO: Striking Hotel Workers, Community Allies and Supporters
East Bay hotel workers are sending the message that, without millions of immigrants from all over the world, the American hotel industry could not function. They will encircle the proposed hotel site on Mandela Parkway and Yerba Buena, chanting and tearing down a prop wall that symbolizes the wall that Trump wishes to build along the U.S.-Mexico border and his rhetoric that seeks to divide workers. Hotel workers will wear “Miss Housekeeper” sashes and break a piñata of Donald Trump, then head to Fruitvale to join the main May Day march.
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UNITE HERE Local 2850 is the union of hotel, food service, and gaming workers in the East and North Bay.