140 arrested to demand hotel workers’ contract

At least 1,000 San Francisco hotel workers and supporters rallied, marched and picketed during downtown evening rush hour on Jan. 5, kicking off a boycott of the upscale Hilton San Francisco hotel. Working without a contract since Aug. 19, the 9,000 union workers at more than 30 of the fanciest San Francisco hotels continued their fight for a new contract during the last months of 2009 right into 2010.

Protest and sit-down/civil disobedience in front of the Hilton San Francisco. WW photo: Joan Marquardt

Sitting down in front of the main lobby doors, workers in UNITE HERE Local 2, members of the S.F. Labor Council, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and many other union workers and community supporters — 140 people in all — were arrested and cited for “trespassing.”

Community organizations like California Universal Healthcare/Single Payer Now, the Filipino Community Center and Jobs With Justice organized their members to participate. The Day Labor Program of San Francisco had two banners, including one written in Spanish carried by a Women Day Laborers contingent. Unions came out in numbers showing spirited solidarity with the hotel workers. Unions represented included the Transit Workers Union, Service Employees International Union Local 87 janitors, United Transportation Union Local 1741 school bus drivers, the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific, the Marine Firemen’s Union, the California Nurses Association and the United Educators of San Francisco.

A leaflet distributed to passersby and hotel guests read: “The Hilton Corporation ... has made $2.15 billion in profits since 2006 to 3Q 2009, thanks to the hard work of people like us. ... Yet Hilton wants to pretend none of this matters. This company is trying to churn out even more profits by squeezing workers like us. In wage and benefit agreements over the last several decades, we have forgone larger wage increases to keep our medical benefits affordable for ourselves and our families. Now Hilton is pushing proposals that would make health care unaffordable, or would make us slash our coverage.”

The San Francisco hotel workers will continue to fight alongside the more than 40,000 other union hotel workers across the U.S. Hotel workers in Los Angeles and Chicago are currently working without contracts; and in Minneapolis; Monterey, Calif.; Washington, D.C.; and Honolulu; as well as Vancouver and Toronto, Canada; the hotel workers will see their current contracts expire soon. They are united and they will fight!

For more information, see: www.unitehere2.org.