Pipe Trades to ‘turn up the heat’ on Holiday Inn Express

The demonstration will run from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday, June 21, in front of the downtown Holiday Inn Express, 220 S. Broadway. It comes just days before a federal district judge is scheduled to hear a National Labor Relations Board request for a 10J injunction that would force the hotel to reinstate 19 fired workers and bargain with their union.

The workers, who have come to be known as the "Rochester 19," were fired just days before Christmas after new owners, CPMJ Enterprises, took over the hotel. The workers, who were employed as housekeepers, attendants and maintenance workers, were members of UNITE HERE Local 21, which had represented workers at the hotel for decades.

According to workers, the new owners said they didn\’t want a union at the hotel. While unionized workers were fired, non-union workers were retained.

That action and others prompted the National Labor Relations Board to issue an unfair labor practice complaint in March against the Holiday Inn Express management. The hotel is appealing the complaint, which could take months and even years. So the regional office of the NLRB took the unusual step of requesting a 10J injunction, which will be heard by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis on Monday in Minneapolis.

The community has rallied around the workers, Local 21 said in announcing Thursday\’s solidarity rally with the Pipe Trades. "This is a fight for all working people in Southeast Minnesota who want to stand up for their rights."

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