SF hotel workers unite for a fair contract
By and
SAN FRANCISCO--Some 1,200 hospitality industry workers and their supporters convened in the heart of San Francisco, as the workers' contracts expired August 14.
The union workers--members of UNITE HERE Local 2--their families and allies filled the rally with signs, banners, songs and cheers before marching past many of the most lucrative downtown hotels. In just the first half of 2009, the four largest corporations employing nearly one-half of San Francisco hotel workers posted $248 million in combined profits. Now they're trying to hide behind the economic crisis in attempting to squeeze more from their employees.
Contracts for some 9,000 workers--room cleaners, dishwashers, cooks and others--at dozens of San Francisco hotels expired on August 14. UNITE HERE is responding with a citywide contract campaign that demands hotel management maintains the good health care benefits the union members currently have, but also takes up issues of job security, workloads, wages and retirement benefits.
"The employers are using a lot of euphemisms like "cost containment" and "cost control," Local 2 President Mike Casey told the Bay Guardian. "The bottom line is that they're looking for fewer people to do more work, and for our members to pick up the burden of health care, which would ultimately result in either lower quality of care or fewer people with coverage, and neither one of those are acceptable options to us."
This isn't the first time that members of UNITE HERE have fought against employer attacks in the Bay Area. In 2004, Local 2 members struck against management's demands for contract concessions in San Francisco and San Mateo--and won. This year, Local 2 members organized support for workers who are demanding union representation at two non-union San Francisco hotels, the Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf and Le Meridien Hotel.
When asked why he was out in the street with his union, Luis, a worker at the San Francisco Continental, responded, "We can't give up so easily to the hotels. So we fight...We must be united and support each other. We will fight and support others for our rights and benefits."
This mood of solidarity permeated the rally, as did an eagerness to link the different issues workers face, as marchers carried signs and banners addressing health care, the right to organize, immigration and living wages.
