And in a separate triumph, UNITE HERE Local 5 members ended a 3-1/2-year boycott of the Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu, Hawaii, with a win--a new contract--Aug. 1.
But in an indication that the workers’ struggle continues, the other part of the union’s drive, to add new UNITE HERE members in unrepresented hotels in other convention cities, led to arrests in Los Angeles, and no management movement there. Almost 3,000 people rallied to back hotel workers, many of them immigrants, who want to organize the 13 hotels near the L.A. International Airport.
Their peaceful sit-in on the main hotel boulevard just outside the airport produced pre-arranged arrests of 300 people, including UNITE HERE Vice President Maria Elena Durazo, for blockading traffic.
Hotel Workers Rising, launched more than a year ago, has several objectives. One is to get better contracts from the three top hotel chains--Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood--for workers at hotels in the leading convention cities.
The joint campaign, with joint action and common contract expiration dates, was designed to force the hotel chains to negotiate with UNITE HERE on behalf of all their hotels, rather than bargaining local by local and playing off city versus city.
Other objectives were to bring new unrepresented workers into UNITE HERE, and to get card-check recognition at unorganized hotels, should UNITE HERE achieve a majority of cards. The wins were:
* In Chicago, Local 1 agreed in mid-September with Tishman Hotels, owner of the Sheraton Chicago, and Starwood, which owns five downtown hotels. The pacts cover at least 900 workers. “Me-too” agreements signed previously with other hotels--extending the terms of the latest contracts to their workers--cover another 7,000, local President Henry Tamarin said. Local 1 previously signed pacts with Hilton and Hyatt. All the contracts feature substantial raises.
* In San Francisco, community pressure pushed nine of the big convention hotels there to finally sign a 5-year contract, with two years retroactive and three years forward, Local 2 said. Last year, hotel owners briefly locked out their workers, but ended it and returned to the table, when Mayor Gavin Newsome (D) not only threatened to pull the city business but tell the whole country why. The pact gives higher wages, better pensions and full healthcare benefits to more than 4,200 UNITE HERE members.
It also includes card-check recognition for all future Multi-Employer Group hotels in San Francisco and in San Mateo County. The MEG was the hotel coalition.
* The Monterey pact, involving two Hyatt hotels and Local 483, gives wage increases to non-tipped workers, increases health and welfare benefits and gives them a pension increase.
* The Los Angeles rally produced arrests, publicity and political support, but no employer shift yet, said union spokeswoman Amanda Cooper. The day after the rally, several elected officials tried to meet management at the largest of the L.A. airport hotels, the Hilton, but were refused. Workers at the airport hotels earn 20 percent less than their unionized downtown colleagues who work for the same hotel chains.
“It\'s critical that we fight for legislation that protects and respects immigrants, but it doesn\'t end there,” Durazo declared before her arrest.
”The quality of immigrant workers\' lives is dependent on their jobs: Do they earn a living wage? Are they in a safe workplace? Are they treated with respect? Can they take their children to the doctor? Those are the things immigrant workers need, and that is what these workers, and all of us here today, are fighting for,” she said.
* The Turtle Bay boycott ended when the resort was sold and new management realized it made more sense to cooperate than confront the union in one of the nation’s most-unionized states. Prior managers responded to the boycott--called after the previous contract expired--with rampant labor law-breaking and “sometimes even physical assault of picketers by hotel security guards,” Local 5 said. The new pact includes “excellent wages and benefits and sets a high mark for Waikiki hotels, now in negotiations” with the local, the union added.
Written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
Share
And in a separate triumph, UNITE HERE Local 5 members ended a 3-1/2-year boycott of the Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu, Hawaii, with a win–a new contract–Aug. 1.
But in an indication that the workers’ struggle continues, the other part of the union’s drive, to add new UNITE HERE members in unrepresented hotels in other convention cities, led to arrests in Los Angeles, and no management movement there. Almost 3,000 people rallied to back hotel workers, many of them immigrants, who want to organize the 13 hotels near the L.A. International Airport.
Their peaceful sit-in on the main hotel boulevard just outside the airport produced pre-arranged arrests of 300 people, including UNITE HERE Vice President Maria Elena Durazo, for blockading traffic.
Hotel Workers Rising, launched more than a year ago, has several objectives. One is to get better contracts from the three top hotel chains–Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood–for workers at hotels in the leading convention cities.
The joint campaign, with joint action and common contract expiration dates, was designed to force the hotel chains to negotiate with UNITE HERE on behalf of all their hotels, rather than bargaining local by local and playing off city versus city.
Other objectives were to bring new unrepresented workers into UNITE HERE, and to get card-check recognition at unorganized hotels, should UNITE HERE achieve a majority of cards. The wins were:
* In Chicago, Local 1 agreed in mid-September with Tishman Hotels, owner of the Sheraton Chicago, and Starwood, which owns five downtown hotels. The pacts cover at least 900 workers. “Me-too” agreements signed previously with other hotels–extending the terms of the latest contracts to their workers–cover another 7,000, local President Henry Tamarin said. Local 1 previously signed pacts with Hilton and Hyatt. All the contracts feature substantial raises.
* In San Francisco, community pressure pushed nine of the big convention hotels there to finally sign a 5-year contract, with two years retroactive and three years forward, Local 2 said. Last year, hotel owners briefly locked out their workers, but ended it and returned to the table, when Mayor Gavin Newsome (D) not only threatened to pull the city business but tell the whole country why. The pact gives higher wages, better pensions and full healthcare benefits to more than 4,200 UNITE HERE members.
It also includes card-check recognition for all future Multi-Employer Group hotels in San Francisco and in San Mateo County. The MEG was the hotel coalition.
* The Monterey pact, involving two Hyatt hotels and Local 483, gives wage increases to non-tipped workers, increases health and welfare benefits and gives them a pension increase.
* The Los Angeles rally produced arrests, publicity and political support, but no employer shift yet, said union spokeswoman Amanda Cooper. The day after the rally, several elected officials tried to meet management at the largest of the L.A. airport hotels, the Hilton, but were refused. Workers at the airport hotels earn 20 percent less than their unionized downtown colleagues who work for the same hotel chains.
“It\’s critical that we fight for legislation that protects and respects immigrants, but it doesn\’t end there,” Durazo declared before her arrest.
”The quality of immigrant workers\’ lives is dependent on their jobs: Do they earn a living wage? Are they in a safe workplace? Are they treated with respect? Can they take their children to the doctor? Those are the things immigrant workers need, and that is what these workers, and all of us here today, are fighting for,” she said.
* The Turtle Bay boycott ended when the resort was sold and new management realized it made more sense to cooperate than confront the union in one of the nation’s most-unionized states. Prior managers responded to the boycott–called after the previous contract expired–with rampant labor law-breaking and “sometimes even physical assault of picketers by hotel security guards,” Local 5 said. The new pact includes “excellent wages and benefits and sets a high mark for Waikiki hotels, now in negotiations” with the local, the union added.
Written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.