On Tues., Jan. 5, Local 2 UNITE HERE hotel workers started the New Year with a strong march through downtown San Francisco. Since August 2009, Local 2 has been fighting in the streets for a fair contract with the Hilton Hotel chain. Hilton wants to cut pay for new hires by 25 percent and shift health care costs to the workers.
While the workers make an average of $30,000 per year, the CEO of the Blackstone Group, which owns Hilton, earned more than a billion dollars in 2008. Industry wide, hotels made more than $200 billion in profits in the last decade. This is the priority of the capitalist system— maximize profit and exploit the labor and wages of the working class.
The action drew more than 1,300 participants, who marched through the streets of downtown to the doorstep of the highly profitable Hilton Hotel. It united workers from throughout the labor movement, students and community activists. Both AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm spoke at the rally and expressed the need for solidarity with the hotel workers.
The union also organized an act of civil disobedience in which 130 people were arrested for blocking the entrance to the main lobby of the Hilton Hotel. ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War an End Racism) and Party for Socialism and Liberation activists were among those cited by the police.
Local 2 has promised to continue the fight until their demands are met and the PSL will continue participating and supporting their struggle.
“If we don’t protect the wages and benefits and health care for hotel workers, no job is safe, no worker is safe, no family is safe, and we won’t tolerate it,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
On Tues., Jan. 5, Local 2 UNITE HERE hotel workers started the New Year with a strong march through downtown San Francisco. Since August 2009, Local 2 has been fighting in the streets for a fair contract with the Hilton Hotel chain. Hilton wants to cut pay for new hires by 25 percent and shift health care costs to the workers.
While the workers make an average of $30,000 per year, the CEO of the Blackstone Group, which owns Hilton, earned more than a billion dollars in 2008. Industry wide, hotels made more than $200 billion in profits in the last decade. This is the priority of the capitalist system— maximize profit and exploit the labor and wages of the working class.
The action drew more than 1,300 participants, who marched through the streets of downtown to the doorstep of the highly profitable Hilton Hotel. It united workers from throughout the labor movement, students and community activists. Both AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm spoke at the rally and expressed the need for solidarity with the hotel workers.
The union also organized an act of civil disobedience in which 130 people were arrested for blocking the entrance to the main lobby of the Hilton Hotel. ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War an End Racism) and Party for Socialism and Liberation activists were among those cited by the police.
Local 2 has promised to continue the fight until their demands are met and the PSL will continue participating and supporting their struggle.
“If we don’t protect the wages and benefits and health care for hotel workers, no job is safe, no worker is safe, no family is safe, and we won’t tolerate it,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
