 Hotel Workers International Vice President Tho Do, accompanied by union members, addressing March 20 anti-war rally Photo: Isis Hao |
UNITE HERE Local 2 held a
three-day strike at the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco April 7-10. Over 800
workers walked off the job. Hundreds of workers and supporters put up picket
lines on all four sides at the entrances and loading dock of the hotel. The
main entrance had an especially spirited and noisy picket line with constant
chanting, bullhorns, whistles and drumming on buckets.
The hotel workers at the Hilton
are among 9,000 union workers at 60 hotels around San Francisco who have been
working without a contract since August 2009.
A boycott continues at the Hilton
and six other large hotels in the city. These hotels also are frequently
picketed. In addition, hundreds of union members and community supporters have
participated in civil disobedience actions. Twenty-seven other hotels are at
risk of a boycott or strike if a settlement is not reached. For details, check
the union’s Web site.
In November 2009, the workers held
limited strikes at the Grand Hyatt, Palace Hotel and the Westin St. Francis.
Those hotels continue to be boycotted.
Showing advanced political
consciousness of the workers’ struggle, Local 2 actively participated in the
March 20 Coalition, which organized a march and rally of over 5,000 in San
Francisco to mark the seventh anniversary of the invasion and occupation of
Iraq. International Vice President Tho Do addressed the opening rally with an
electrifying speech, and the march passed by the Hilton. Marchers chanted in
support of the hotel workers as a large and vocal group of workers and
supporters picketed at the hotel entrance.
Health care benefits threatened
The hotels’ proposal threatens the
health care benefits and pension plans of the workers and their families by
requiring part of the cost be taken out of workers’ paychecks. But hotel
workers say hotels have always paid the cost of their health care in exchange
for giving low wages. Wages for hotel workers in the union average less than
$30,000 a year.
In reality, the cost of health
care benefits should be seen as part of workers’ total wage. So from the
standpoint of the workers, the proposal of the Hotel Council, representing the
hotel corporation bosses, amounts to a substantial pay cut.
The hotel owners also want more
“flexibility” in work hours and assignments. One hotel worker, Robyn Shaheen explained: “They want us to work longer
hours, they want to combine our jobs, working five other people’s jobs. They want us to give, give, give, yet
they’re not giving us anything in return.” (KTVU.com, April 7)
The Hotel Council says that
because the market is depressed and health care costs are “spiraling out
of control,” they need the workers to “share the cost.” Speaking
for the Hotel Council, Sam Singer said, “We’re trying to preserve jobs at
these hotels and we need the unions to
cooperate.”
In other words, “pay up or you’re fired.”
The union seeks a modest increase
to sustain their health care and retirement benefits for one year. The hotel
management shows no interest in settling a contract that would require an
increase of only 1.5 percent in labor costs during that year. The union’s
proposal would have cost the Hilton San Francisco only $500,000 this year.
A January 5 Local 2 press release
explains: “Meanwhile, despite the economic downturn, major hotel companies
have continued to prosper. The Blackstone Group—which owns Hilton
Hotels—announced recently that it has $12.6 billion in available capital, and
expects that ‘the next several years will provide an unusual opportunity to
invest in high-return assets.’ It paid its CEO, Stephen Schwarzman, $1.39
billion in 2008. Starwood Hotels reported $180 million in profits during the
first 3 quarters of 2009. Hyatt Hotels launched a public share offering in
November that netted its owners nearly $1 billion in proceeds.”
“We’re determined as ever to win a
good contract,” said Ingrid Carp, a 29-year cook at the Hilton, quoted in the
same press release. “It’s wrong for corporations to position themselves to make
billions with the coming economic recovery, and expect us to go backward.”
The Local 2 press release concludes: “As a result of the
companies’ refusal to settle a contract in 2009, San Francisco hotel workers
will be fighting alongside over 40,000 other hotel workers across North America
in 2010.”
