The Reverend Jesse Jackson brought a message of healing and hope to over 400 at a march and rally in Duluth Saturday.

The healing was meant for the nation as a whole following the terrorist attack of Sept. 11. The hope was more directed at the 150 housekeeping workers at five Canal Park hotels who are trying to organize with Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees Local 99.

Jackson participated in the silent march with about 250 others from 5th Ave. W., past the hotels to a rally in Lakeplace Peace Park. Skies that had threatened all afternoon opened and poured a cold rain on the rally.

Jackson warmed the crowd up with participatory chants of "Save the workers, save the families, Keep hope alive!" He said we must all have a shared commitment to economic justice.

"We?ve all experienced our fears over the terrorist attacks, now we must turn to each other, not against each other," he said before leading the march, which was marshalled by members of Carpenters Local 361.

Jackson said the hotel workers that are trying to organize don't buy bread, milk or gas any cheaper than anyone else, the inference being they shouldn't be expected to work for poverty wages. And if war does break out, they will be the first ones to go, Jackson said.

Seeking neutrality
HERE Local 99 sent letters to the five hotels asking owners and management to allow their employees to make a decision on whether or not to organize by a card check/neutrality agreement. In such a campaign, if a majority of workers in a unit sign cards authorizing a union to represent them for the purpose of collective bargaining, the employer promises to stay neutral in the democratic wishes of their employees, rather than intimidate and harass them to vote against a union, as so often happens.

In return, the union promises to not take any action against the employer such as strikes or boycotts.

Four of the hotels are owned by local families including the Goldfines (Inn on the Lake), the Pauluccis (Hampton Inn and Comfort Suites) and the Meierhoffs (Hawthorne Suites). The Canal Park Inn is owned by the Sontag family in Colorado, which does business as Hotel Management Systems.

Only the Goldfine family has responded thus far and they said no, the union said. Their manager at the Inn on the Lake has started captive audience meetings as have Canal Park Inn management.

Goldfine's General Manager Leanne K. Joynes handed out a letter to employees when they received their paychecks last week. Joynes made derogatory remarks about Jackson's impending visit and said a card check/neutrality agreement would take away the employees' right to a secret ballot election.

NLRB not working
HERE contends that traditional union organizing elections actually take away workers' rights. Carol Carlson, president of HERE Local 99, told those at the rally that the union demands that workers be given the freedom to choose a union without the fear, intimidation and threats that are associated with normal National Labor Relations Board campaigns.

"The NLRB is a tool of employers to keep unions out," Carlson said from beneath an umbrella. "The five hotels need to do the right thing and sign a labor peace agreement (with the union)." HERE Local 99 has promised an aggressive boycott and campaign against any of the hotels that don't sign on.

HERE Minnesota State Organizing Director Alan Kearney said the National Labor Relations Act and process were a way to get workers from agitating in the streets.

"So we need to go back there (in the streets) to make the NLRB get back to being a place for unions," he told delegates to the last Central Labor Body meeting.

Speakers at the rally took issue with Joynes' statement in her letter that Inn on the Lake employees' jobs, wages and benefits are equal or better than any provided in local union contracts.

HERE Executive International Vice President Ron Richardson, who traveled with Jackson, issued a challenge to "Mr. Goldfine" to prove that statement was true. Richardson said if the statements were true the union would apologize and walk away from the Inn on the Lake.

"Some think you are a liar," Richardson stated, referring to John Goldfine, who runs the family business.

Richardson said not only are wages better in the union contracts but they also have pensions, health care, paid holidays, biohazard pay, grievance procedures, seniority and free meals.

Richardson also accused hotel owners of sucking public money for economic development and then exploiting workers. Rep. Dale Swapinski and Sadie Green, an employee at Hawthorne Suites, also touched on that subject.

"Owners got hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and the best real estate in Duluth," Green said in addressing the rally, "but my co-workers need some level of public assistance (to get by)."

Remember the workers
In closing the march and rally, Jackson wound a theme around the terrorist attacks and the plight of the low-wage service workers who get few hours a week. He freely quoted scripture and called upon God for healing.

"We have heavy hearts but the terrorists have not broken our spirits," he said. "We are unified in our pain over the bombings, we are unified to stop fear, but we can?t unify only around fear, we must unify around hope."

He said the $15 million bailout of the airline industry must remember the sky caps, flight attendants, and other workers, not just the owners.

"Those who work every day deserve an honorable wage, health care, and pensions," he said as the crowd warmed up to his style of interactive preaching.

The march and rally was well attended by area politicians and political candidates alike. A bus was chartered from the Twin Cities. Minnesota AFL-CIO President Ray Waldron and state Building & Construction Trades Council President Dick Anfang led a contingent of Harley-Davidson motorcycles to Duluth for the rally.

A new coalition of Twin Ports organizations calling themselves United for Social & Economic Justice is proving very valuable to HERE Local 99's efforts. The coalition, which includes the Central Labor Body, is a natural progression from the Living Wage Coalition, said Kearney.

Willard Munger Inn signs agreement
In a related development, Willard Munger Jr. has signed HERE Local 99?s first card check/ neutrality agreement for his Willard Munger Inn.

HERE International Vice President Richardson announced the agreement to great cheers at Saturday's rally. He called Munger a role model that other hotel owners should follow.

Munger, son of the legendary Rep.Willard Munger, who started the motel, was out of town and unavailable for comment on the agreement. There are five employees at his motel, which is across from the Lake Superior Zoo.

The author of this article, Larry Sillanpa, is editor of the Labor World, the official publication of the Duluth Central Labor Body. E-mail him at labrwrld@cpinternet.com Used with permission.