L.A. Hotel Worker Rally Caps off Trumka’s California Jobs and Justice Tour
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At a rally last night in front of the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a cheering crowd of about 1,000 members of UNITEHERE! Local 11 and supporters from the unions of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor:
It’s time to take on the Hyatt Hotel Corporation!
The rally, filled with hundreds of people and chanting drums so loud they echoed off high rise buildings, wrapped up his jobs and hotel worker justice swing through California.
The Hyatt is one of several national hotel chains that are using the recession as an excuse to demand cuts in health care benefits and other concessions in contract talks. In Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, some, 20,000 UNITEHERE! members since last year have been working without contracts, while contracts for hotel workers in a half dozen other cities are set to expire soon.
Hotel Workers, Trumka Arrested at Sit-In for Fair Contract
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More than 100 union members, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and UNITEHERE! President John Wilhelm were arrested at a sit-in demanding justice and a fair contract for San Francisco hotel workers last night. The workers have been without a contract since August.
The sit-in in front of the Hilton San Francisco followed a march by nearly 1,000 members of UNITEHERE! Local 2, other union members and community and political supporters. Says Ingrid Carp, a cook for 29 years at the Hilton:
“We’re determined as ever to win a good contract. It’s wrong for corporations to position themselves to make billions with the coming economic recovery, and expect us to go backward.”
The action is part of a campaign to win fair contracts at several national hotel chains, including Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood. The profitable chains are using the recession as an excuse to demand health care benefit cuts in contract talks with more than 16,000 workers at dozens of hotels in San Francisco, Chicago and other cities.
UNITE HERE Rejoins AFL-CIO
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The last day of the AFL-CIO Convention opened with a big bang as newly elected AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka stood on stage with UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm to make the dramatic announcement that UNITE HERE is reaffiliating with the federation. The 250,000-member UNITE HERE was one of the unions that left the AFL-CIO in 2005 to form a new federation.
Trumka, who said he developed a special bond with Wilhelm around the struggle for Horse Shoe and Frontier Hotel workers in Las Vegas more than 15 years ago, hailed the reaffiliation, saying:
The solidarity of the American labor movement is about to grow.
It pained me personally when UNITE HERE left this federation four years ago—and I can’t think of a more uplifting way to begin this day than by welcoming UNITE HERE back to our union family as an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.
