For immediate release
June 15, 2017
UNITE HERE Union Celebrates 2017 Pride With Worker Actions Across 30 Cities
Touts Role as Trailblazer in LGBT Rights at Work
New York, NY – This month the UNITE HERE union is touting its role as the premier labor trailblazer on LGBTQ protections at work, and marking the 2017 Pride schedule with worker actions across 30 cities all over the United States and Canada.
UNITE HERE has been a pioneer in securing equal protections for its LGBTQ members at work – protections that exist in places where no state or federal laws afford gay or trans Americans equal rights at work. By staking out this ground early and fighting and winning contract language barring sexual discrimination for workers, over 200,000 UNITE HERE members have contracts that prohibit their employer from discriminating based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Along with leading the way on groundbreaking contract language protections, UNITE HERE has also been unique in the labor movement for doing revolutionary healthcare work for members around HIV/AIDS. National leadership for the union also reflects the deep commitment to LGBTQ rights, with openly out leaders serving UNITE HERE at high ranks.
This Pride season will see UNITE HERE member workers organizing at Pride actions in 30 cities across the United States and Canada, in every region of America, in places as far flung and diverse as Alaska, Texas, Montana, New York City, and Toronto.
Prominent LGBTQ leader, author of When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, and UNITE HERE member activist Cleve Jones summed up UNITE HERE’s historic pioneering of LBGTQ protections and jam-packed Pride actions thus; “At UNITE HERE, we’re proud every day of our LGBTQ sisters and brothers who make up and lead our union, and we’re proud to continue our work as the premier labor union fighting for and winning civil and LGBTQ rights for our workers. This month, and every month, we have Pride.”
UNITE HERE represents 270,000 members working in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries in the U.S. and Canada. Learn more at www.unitehere.org.