Communist
23rd February 2010, 04:08
.
Inside Organizing and Outside Representation (http://unionlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/02/inside-organizing-and-outside.html)
By Carl Finamore
Organizing workers into a union usually brings out the
best in labor. Organizers are truly motivated,
committed, work long hours and genuinely believe in
helping workers.
But not everything is always as good as it appears. We
know from watching pumped-up 30-second movie trailers
that the full 90-minute release might not actually
measure up to its hype. We are sometimes disappointed.
It's the same with us in the union movement.
We have to work on closing the gap between how we
project ourselves so favorably while organizing and how
we sometimes actually perform so routinely while
representing.
Connecting these dots of representing current members
and recruiting new workers played out on the downtown
streets of San Francisco on Friday, February 19.
UNITE-HERE, Local 2, was conducting one of their
trademark "All Day, All Night Sieges" of the boycotted
Grand Hyatt in conjunction with their ongoing six-month
contract dispute with 63 city hotels.
Bullhorns were blaring, drums beating and dozens of
loud, enthusiastic chanting pickets were making sure
hotel guests heard loud street sounds from every angle
and from each of its 35 floors - "A Contract or A
Boycott!" and "Don't Check In, Check Out!"
Judging from the confused and irritated looks, it
appeared that at least some of the guests exiting the
hotel wished they had taken that last bit of advice.
Meanwhile, ten blocks away, on this same February 19
evening, another Local 2 protest was taking place in
the main lobby of the non-union Le Meridien hotel. The
premier hotel is in the middle of the city's Financial
District, only steps away from picturesque Chinatown
and atmospheric Little Italy.
But there is another side, an underside if you will, of
this grand hotel.
In only eight years, its owners, HEI Hotels & Resorts,
have become one of the largest hotel management firms
in the country. The union writes that it specializes in
buying properties, lowering labor costs and selling
them off quickly for a profit.
Collective bargaining is clearly not a good "selling
point" for these quick-sale speculators.
For example, Le Meridien San Francisco management
rejected an employee petition in June 2008 that
suggested fairer ground rules for how employees could
select a union. Local 2 has won this same proposal for
a "Card Check or Majority Sign Up" agreement at many
locations in the city where around 90% of the big
hotels are now union.
However, the Le Meridien remains a big stumbling block.
In February 2009, employees responded by calling for a
boycott of their own hotel. Demonstrations have
occurred almost weekly ever since.
Hundreds of religious, community and political figures
have spoken out in favor of the boycott, including
David Chiu, President of the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors, who said "hotel workers and the hotel
industry are critical to our city's economy, and we ask
the hotel owners to respect the workers' choice to
organize freely as other San Francisco hotel companies
already do."
Act Like a Union to Get a Union
According to the union, harassment of Le Meridien
employees continues into 2010. On February 4, the
manager threatened to fire three union supporters. On
February 9, he told employees asking about a newspaper
report that the hotel might not be paying its mortgage
that their petition of inquiry would be thrown away.
This arrogance is what triggered two-dozen religious,
community, student and labor figures paying an
unannounced visit to the hotel on February 19. The
delegation stood quietly in the congested main lobby
holding up signs that read "Respect Yes, Intimidation
No."
Spokespersons Sister Bernie Galvin and Gordon Mar told
the Front Desk clerk that no one was leaving until
meeting with the manager. Two unnerved top
representatives from Human Relations hurriedly showed
up claiming the manager was not on the premises. Of
course, they still received an ear full from delegation
spokespersons who asked for an end to the reported
harassment of employees.
Ignoring dismissive suggestions from our erstwhile
management protagonists to "write us a letter," half a
dozen activists made their own additional comments in
full view of guests and workers who all seemed to
equally enjoy the obvious discomfort of the two hotel
representatives nervously fiddling in their own
sacrosanct main lobby.
Besides being lots of fun, this action and similar ones
that preceded it at the hotel accomplished two goals
for the union.
First, it obviously puts the hotel on notice to respect
employees seeking rights to organize. Rev. Israel
Alvaran, Local 2 community organizer and member of
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE)
told me that" the community is watching and this
disrespectful attitude towards workers will not be
tolerated under our watch."
Secondly, it provided outside support to hotel
employees inside who are attempting to organize the
union. As one union leader told me, "workers are
stronger when they are united holding their employers
accountable for their actions. And we as a community
then must stand by them, must continue to mobilize
support, provide legal assistance and, in fact, back up
their efforts on every level."
High Stakes, Long Fight
It is generally assumed that the contract dispute is
going to be a long fight. The union has an extremely
tough array of hotel adversaries that are determined to
impose higher health care costs, increase workloads and
lower wages despite bloated treasuries more than enough
to satisfy the union's primary objective of maintaining
current health benefits.
Local 2 won total victory in a two-year fight ending in
2006 against this same aggregate of greed by regularly
mobilizing its members and involving community allies.
This time around, their coalition will be strengthened
by inclusion of more hotel workers desperately seeking
collective bargaining rights and a voice on the job.
Solidarity between union members and their more
vulnerable unorganized fellow workers is a powerful
alliance that can possibly even the odds in this
showdown.
It is very fortunate that the union's program enjoys
the enthusiastic support of members as evidenced by the
hundreds of activists regularly participating in
actions. But this is not accidental.
A very good consequence of Local 2's militant "One
Union, One Contract" approach that all hotels, big and
small, should provide the same wages and benefits, is
that the membership remains united regardless of where
they work. They also more generally understand how
expanding this same solidarity throughout the industry
protects their contract.
This is a classic labor confrontation taking place in
San Francisco between two formidable foes, one has
money, and plenty of it; the other has people, with
more on the way.
---
As a delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, Carl
Finamore was a member of the delegation to the Le
Meridien and gave them a piece of his mind. He is also
former President (ret), Air Transport Employees, Local
Lodge 1781, IAMAW. He can be reached at
local1781(AT)yahoo.com ([email protected])
Inside Organizing and Outside Representation (http://unionlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/02/inside-organizing-and-outside.html)
By Carl Finamore
Organizing workers into a union usually brings out the
best in labor. Organizers are truly motivated,
committed, work long hours and genuinely believe in
helping workers.
But not everything is always as good as it appears. We
know from watching pumped-up 30-second movie trailers
that the full 90-minute release might not actually
measure up to its hype. We are sometimes disappointed.
It's the same with us in the union movement.
We have to work on closing the gap between how we
project ourselves so favorably while organizing and how
we sometimes actually perform so routinely while
representing.
Connecting these dots of representing current members
and recruiting new workers played out on the downtown
streets of San Francisco on Friday, February 19.
UNITE-HERE, Local 2, was conducting one of their
trademark "All Day, All Night Sieges" of the boycotted
Grand Hyatt in conjunction with their ongoing six-month
contract dispute with 63 city hotels.
Bullhorns were blaring, drums beating and dozens of
loud, enthusiastic chanting pickets were making sure
hotel guests heard loud street sounds from every angle
and from each of its 35 floors - "A Contract or A
Boycott!" and "Don't Check In, Check Out!"
Judging from the confused and irritated looks, it
appeared that at least some of the guests exiting the
hotel wished they had taken that last bit of advice.
Meanwhile, ten blocks away, on this same February 19
evening, another Local 2 protest was taking place in
the main lobby of the non-union Le Meridien hotel. The
premier hotel is in the middle of the city's Financial
District, only steps away from picturesque Chinatown
and atmospheric Little Italy.
But there is another side, an underside if you will, of
this grand hotel.
In only eight years, its owners, HEI Hotels & Resorts,
have become one of the largest hotel management firms
in the country. The union writes that it specializes in
buying properties, lowering labor costs and selling
them off quickly for a profit.
Collective bargaining is clearly not a good "selling
point" for these quick-sale speculators.
For example, Le Meridien San Francisco management
rejected an employee petition in June 2008 that
suggested fairer ground rules for how employees could
select a union. Local 2 has won this same proposal for
a "Card Check or Majority Sign Up" agreement at many
locations in the city where around 90% of the big
hotels are now union.
However, the Le Meridien remains a big stumbling block.
In February 2009, employees responded by calling for a
boycott of their own hotel. Demonstrations have
occurred almost weekly ever since.
Hundreds of religious, community and political figures
have spoken out in favor of the boycott, including
David Chiu, President of the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors, who said "hotel workers and the hotel
industry are critical to our city's economy, and we ask
the hotel owners to respect the workers' choice to
organize freely as other San Francisco hotel companies
already do."
Act Like a Union to Get a Union
According to the union, harassment of Le Meridien
employees continues into 2010. On February 4, the
manager threatened to fire three union supporters. On
February 9, he told employees asking about a newspaper
report that the hotel might not be paying its mortgage
that their petition of inquiry would be thrown away.
This arrogance is what triggered two-dozen religious,
community, student and labor figures paying an
unannounced visit to the hotel on February 19. The
delegation stood quietly in the congested main lobby
holding up signs that read "Respect Yes, Intimidation
No."
Spokespersons Sister Bernie Galvin and Gordon Mar told
the Front Desk clerk that no one was leaving until
meeting with the manager. Two unnerved top
representatives from Human Relations hurriedly showed
up claiming the manager was not on the premises. Of
course, they still received an ear full from delegation
spokespersons who asked for an end to the reported
harassment of employees.
Ignoring dismissive suggestions from our erstwhile
management protagonists to "write us a letter," half a
dozen activists made their own additional comments in
full view of guests and workers who all seemed to
equally enjoy the obvious discomfort of the two hotel
representatives nervously fiddling in their own
sacrosanct main lobby.
Besides being lots of fun, this action and similar ones
that preceded it at the hotel accomplished two goals
for the union.
First, it obviously puts the hotel on notice to respect
employees seeking rights to organize. Rev. Israel
Alvaran, Local 2 community organizer and member of
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE)
told me that" the community is watching and this
disrespectful attitude towards workers will not be
tolerated under our watch."
Secondly, it provided outside support to hotel
employees inside who are attempting to organize the
union. As one union leader told me, "workers are
stronger when they are united holding their employers
accountable for their actions. And we as a community
then must stand by them, must continue to mobilize
support, provide legal assistance and, in fact, back up
their efforts on every level."
High Stakes, Long Fight
It is generally assumed that the contract dispute is
going to be a long fight. The union has an extremely
tough array of hotel adversaries that are determined to
impose higher health care costs, increase workloads and
lower wages despite bloated treasuries more than enough
to satisfy the union's primary objective of maintaining
current health benefits.
Local 2 won total victory in a two-year fight ending in
2006 against this same aggregate of greed by regularly
mobilizing its members and involving community allies.
This time around, their coalition will be strengthened
by inclusion of more hotel workers desperately seeking
collective bargaining rights and a voice on the job.
Solidarity between union members and their more
vulnerable unorganized fellow workers is a powerful
alliance that can possibly even the odds in this
showdown.
It is very fortunate that the union's program enjoys
the enthusiastic support of members as evidenced by the
hundreds of activists regularly participating in
actions. But this is not accidental.
A very good consequence of Local 2's militant "One
Union, One Contract" approach that all hotels, big and
small, should provide the same wages and benefits, is
that the membership remains united regardless of where
they work. They also more generally understand how
expanding this same solidarity throughout the industry
protects their contract.
This is a classic labor confrontation taking place in
San Francisco between two formidable foes, one has
money, and plenty of it; the other has people, with
more on the way.
---
As a delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, Carl
Finamore was a member of the delegation to the Le
Meridien and gave them a piece of his mind. He is also
former President (ret), Air Transport Employees, Local
Lodge 1781, IAMAW. He can be reached at
local1781(AT)yahoo.com ([email protected])