After unsuccessfully trying to get owners and management at five Canal Park hotels to voluntarily recognize the collective bargaining wishes of their housekeeping staff, Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 99 is about to mount an aggressive campaign against them.

The union sent letters in early September asking the five owners to accept card check/neutrality agreements for housekeeping employees. Only the Goldfine family's Inn on the Lake responded. It was a negative response.

A huge rally in Duluth Sept. 22 on behalf of the workers with the Rev. Jesse Jackson didn't move the owners either. In fact, Inn on the Lake's manager Leanne Joynes made derogatory remarks about Jackson's visit.

So on comes a statewide economic campaign against the hotels that will kick off with a rally Thursday, Dec. 6, at 5:30 p.m. starting at Lake Avenue and Superior Street.

"We'll have a quick rally and probably a candlelight march to Canal Park," said HERE 99 Organizer Rainbow Hirsh. "We can use all the help we can get."

Union effort growing
She said after an initial round of weak anti-union meetings by hotel managers, they've backed off. Workers remain committed to organizing as evidenced by attendance at the committee meetings, she said. In fact, Hirsh said, workers in other units at the hotels are calling about organizing. If management wants to play a waiting game, HERE figures it's time to turn up the pressure, she said.

"Statewide we're starting with a letter-writing campaign to the five general managers," she said. "We're asking labor organizations from around the state to let them know that their facilities will not be used until they recognize the card check/neutrality agreements."

Nationally, HERE like many unions, has found that traditional National Labor Relations Board elections are tilted in favor of employers, not employees. Rather than fight a drawn-out election campaign in the courts, HERE State Organizer Alan Kearney said the union would rather fight it out in the streets for two years.

The statewide campaign was to have been against six hotels, but the Holiday Inn River Center in St. Paul recognized a card check/neutrality agreement on Nov. 2 with HERE Local 17. That leaves the five in Duluth's Canal Park. They are: