Live Tweet Chat Explores Benefits of Union Membership for Women
UNITEHERE! and Fem2.0 will hold a Tweet chat (#unionwomen) Wednesday from 2 p.m.–3 p.m. EDT to talk about the unique role women play in the union movement and the benefits of union membership for women.
Nafissatou Diallo, the housekeeper who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of assaulting her, is just one of the millions of women across the country who are subjected to dangerous work environments every day. They face abuse by their clients and customers, are forced to work under brutal conditions and often suffer permanent injuries.
Diallo is also one of the millions of women across the country who are members of labor unions—an affiliation that can offer protection to women like her in speaking out when they face such abuse in the workplace.
Taking part in the chat will be Annemarie Strassel from UNITEHERE! and Janel Charles, a housekeeper at the Hyatt Hotel in Chicago, who is on strike to protest the treatment of housekeepers and other hotel workers.
The chat will be tweeted from @Fem2pt0 and @UNITEHereUnion and you can join the chat at #unionwomen.
Mitch McConnell Found His Calling: Scrooge of the Year
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch “No, No, a thousand times No!” McConnell (R-Ky.) today won the role of the 2010 Scrooge of the Year. Voters selected McConnell in Jobs with Justice’s (JwJ) 11th annual contest to find the politician, CEO, corporation or politician who has done the most to “scrooge” workers in the spirit of Ebenezer.
It was a crowded field with half a dozen other candidates, but McConnell won handily with 42 percent of the vote. After all, he spent the year leading filibusters against unemployment insurance, job creation, health care reform, Wall Street reform, health care for 9/11 first responders, the DREAM Act, Social Security cost of living adjustments, collective bargaining rights for public safety officers and just about anything that might benefit working families.
Old Ebenezer—before he had the greed and nasty scared out of him by some otherworldly visitors—would be quite proud of McConnell’s victory. Says JwJ Executive Director Sarita Gupta:
We hope that by being elected national Scrooge of the Year, Sen. McConnell will see the “Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come” and understand the dire consequences that his actions will have for generations of Americans. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
