On the picket line

Hotel workers protest coast to coast

Hotel workers have recently flexed their muscles coast to coast by staging rallies and civil disobedience protests. Represented by the UNITE HERE union, members of Local 26 in Boston, Local 1 in Chicago and Local 2 in San Francisco took to the streets in the thousands. They were protesting layoffs in Boston and demanding decent contracts with full health care benefits in Chicago and San Francisco. Local 26 demonstrated outside Boston’s Hyatt Regency on Sept. 18 to protest the firing of about 100 housekeepers, all immigrant women of color. Many had worked at three area Hyatts for years, making more than $15 an hour plus benefits. According to the Sept. 26 San Francisco Chronicle, Hyatt has $1.2 billion cash in its coffers, but it replaced these women on Aug. 31 with workers making $8 an hour and no benefits.

Though the housekeepers are not represented by the union, Local 26 took up their cause. They also are being supported verbally by some local politicians. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has called for a boycott of the Hyatt chain and, in a show of solidarity, the National Employment Lawyers Association canceled a convention there. (New York Times, Sept. 25) Local 1 took up the Boston struggle on Sept. 24 when hundreds rallied in Chicago and 200 members were arrested for blocking traffic in front of the Park Hyatt. The 6,500-member local, whose contract at 30 Chicago hotels expired on Aug. 31, held the solidarity protest as part of its ongoing struggle for a fair contract. Also on Sept. 24 about 1,700 members of Local 2 rallied at two hotels, and 43 activists were arrested for trespassing inside the Grand Hyatt and 49 were arrested for blocking the street in front of the Westin St. Francis.

The contract covering the 9,000 room cleaners, dishwashers, cooks, bellpersons and other workers at 62 San Francisco hotels expired on Aug. 14. Here, too, the main issue is health care coverage, with the Starwood chain saying it is “unwilling to continue paying the full cost of health care benefits that escalate 10 percent a year.” (SF Chronicle, Sept. 26) This demonstration followed Local 2’s militant march through downtown on Labor Day.

One-day strike on 10 U.C. campuses

Thousands of students, faculty members and employees at the 10 University of California campuses marched and picketed on Sept. 24 to protest budget cuts, unpaid faculty furloughs and tuition hikes. The union representing 11,000 professional and technical staff members called the one-day strike, which was supported by many of U.C.’s 19,000 faculty members. According to the draconian state budget, tuition will be raised 32 percent by 2010 and mandatory faculty furloughs will reduce pay by 4 to 10 percent. The problem, according to U.C. Davis professor Joshua Clover, is that these actions will “disproportionately harm those who can least afford it among both the workers and the students.” (New York Times, Sept. 25)