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Hotel Workers Fight Cutbacks with Peaceful Civil Disobedience |
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Nearly 300 UNITE HERE members protesting demands from major hotels in Chicago and San Francisco for cutbacks, and the firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston, were arrested in peaceful civil disobedience demonstrations in recent days.
In a statement, UNITE HERE says the big hotel corporations have enjoyed record profits—more than $200 billion in the past decade—while many of their workers live in poverty.
“Now, hospitality companies are using the economy as an excuse to further squeeze workers and communities—eliminating jobs, trying to roll back benefits, and getting a smaller pool of workers to risk injury by working harder and faster.”
Contracts covering some 7,500 workers at 37 hotels in Chicago and 9,000 at 32 San Francisco hotels expired in August. Talks are continuing with the largest employers in each city, including Hyatt Hotels Corp., Blackstone Group and Starwood Hotels and Resorts, all of which operate properties under several different banners.
In San Francisco, some 1,700 UNITE HERE members from the hotels and other employers took part in the demonstrations and 92 were arrested, while 700 union members participated in the Chicago protest that resulted in 200 arrests. (See the video, and thanks to Richard Negri at Union Review for passing along the video.)
Along with the demands for a fair contract, the workers blasted the recent firings of 100 long-term housekeepers at three Hyatt hotels in Boston who were replaced with low-wage workers from a subcontractor. The fired workers were earning about $15 an hour with health care and other benefits, while the subcontractor’s workers earn just $8 an hour without benefits.
The Boston Globe reports that before the workers were fired, they had been asked to train new housekeepers as “vacation replacements.”
On Aug. 31, staffers learned the full story: None of them would be making the beds and cleaning the showers any longer. All of them were losing their jobs. The trainees, it turns out, were employees of a Georgia company, Hospitality Staffing Solutions, who were replacing them that day.
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We consumers need to complain. Untrained housekeepers obviously do not clean properly. Someone who makes $8 an hour with no benefits is not going to be committed to doing a proper job. It might be good for the fired housekeepers to reveal a little about what goes on behind the scenes at these “fine” hotels. I think they should make sure we consumers know that people who aren’t paid well do not properly clean guest rooms. With the spread of bed lice in places like NYC, a bit of publicity about the importance of having rooms properly prepared.
In San Antonio the Grand Hyatt continues to use brutal anti-union tactics intimidating, and firing key organizing committee activists. The organizing drive is being done by UNITE HERE and has the support of the Central Labor Council and various community organizations and individuals.
The Grand Hyatt received around $200 million from the City of San Antonio to get started and build the present hotel site. Despite repeated requests from the workers, and community activists Mayor Julian Castro has declined to intervene in this issue. Local UNITE HERE and community activists are requesting that labor and other justice loving advocates contact the Mayor and urge him to take a stand in this most historic struggle. He can be reached at: mayorjuliancastro@sanantonio.gov
Long Live UNITE HERE, Keep your head up stay & stay strong we’ll win this thing eventually