About 75 workers of all ages turned out Dec. 6 for a rally on behalf of Canal Park hotel workers. The rally had been called by Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 99 to kick off their newly announced boycott campaign against the five non-union hotels in Duluth's tourist district.

For several months now Local 99 has been organizing workers at the five hotels, and calling on their owners to sign a card-check neutrality agreement with the union. Such an agreement would allow workers to skip the slow and often pro-employer National Labor Relations Board and would allow workers to decide independently if they wanted to be represented by a union without any fear of reprisal or intimidation on the part of the company.

To date, only one of the five hotels have responded to Local 99's call for neutrality agreement, the Goldfine-owned Inn on Lake Superior. Their response was no.

Despite the icy cold winter winds coming off of Lake Superior, the 75 protesters marched through Canal Park chanting and calling on folks to boycott the hotels. The largest contingent in the protest came from the Steelworkers union, which pledged the support of all their members from across the state. Folks representing other area unions, Labor World newspaper, the Greens, Youth for Socialist Action, Community Action Duluth and hotel workers from Rochester and the Twin Cities were also on hand, as were several housekeepers from the non-union hotels.

Among the chants the marchers sang were "no justice, no peace," "there ain't no power like the power of the people, cause the power of the people won't quit" and the ever-popular "we'll be back, we'll be back."

After marching and chanting in front of the hotels, a brief rally was held in front of the Inn on Lake Superior. Ida Rukavina, an organizer for Local 99, spoke about working conditions in the non-union hotel and why housekeeping and laundry workers need other workers' support. Kyle Makarios of HERE Local 17 in the Twin Cities spoke, as did Dave Foster, director of the Steelworkers district. Wrapping up the rally was Carol Carlson, the president of Local 99, thanking everyone for turning out.

Additional rallies and other actions are being planned for the weeks and months ahead. The union urges a boycott of the Canal Park Inn, Hampton Inn, Inn on Lake Superior, Comfort Suites or Hawthorne Suites until they come to terms with the union. For more info on the campaign, call Ida Rukavina or Rainbow Hirsh at 218-728-6861.

Adam Ritscher is a member of Lake Superior Socialist Action.

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