Labor & Employment Law

L.A. Hotel Worker Rally Caps off Trumka?s California Jobs and Justice Tour

By Mike Hall

At a rally last night in front of the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a cheering crowd of about 1,000 members of UNITEHERE! Local 11 and supporters from the unions of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor:

It’s time to take on the Hyatt Hotel Corporation!

The rally, filled with hundreds of people and chanting drums so loud they echoed off high rise buildings, wrapped up his jobs and hotel worker justice swing through California.

The Hyatt is one of several national hotel chains that are using the recession as an excuse to demand cuts in health care benefits and other concessions in contract talks. In Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, some, 20,000 UNITEHERE! members since last year have been working without contracts, while contracts for hotel workers in a half dozen other cities are set to expire soon.

Trumka noted that Hyatt made $1.3 billion in profits between 2004 and 2008?”more than enough to pay better wages and benefits.” But even with those profits, he added, Hyatt is

Number 1 in workplace injuries among the top five U.S. hotel corporations?Hyatt has a horrible safety record. What Hyatt and the other big hotel chains don’t seem to want to understand is that jobs are about people’s lives.

The fight for good jobs is not some abstract fight for us. It’s a fight for the right to work hard and get some respect for that work, whatever it is, to work without fear of injury or insult…to take pride in your work and be able to take care of yourself and your family.

Tuesday night, Trumka kicked off his tour with a march and rally in San Francisco, where he and UNITEHERE! President John Wilhelm and about 140 others were arrested at a sit-in in front of the Hilton.

Mike Casey, president of UNITEHERE! Local 2 and of the San Francisco Labor Council, told Steve Stallone, president of the International Labor Communications Association and editor of “Ralph,” the California Media Workers Guild publication:

Having Trumka and Wilhelm getting arrested with Local 2 sends a great message to these corporations and trumpets the fact that this is going to be a national campaign in nine cities this summer. We will be stronger and capable of marshaling our resources to win contracts collectively.

For more on the UNITEHERE! national campaign, visit the union’s Hotel Workers Rising website here.

On Thursday, Trumka met with students at the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Training Institute in the City of Commerce near Los Angeles, where they are learning skills to prepare for family-supporting jobs?with an emphasis on green jobs.

It is the largest electrical training facility in the country that, along with green technology courses, includes apprentice and journeymen programs for outside electrical line work, home wiring and other skills. On his FaceBook page, Trumka wrote about the visit to the IBEW facility:

It’s a great GREEN building. Union workers installed its solar panels, and it provides 90 percent of its own electricity. Plus, the union is helping train jobless workers in the community for union jobs that will support them. Hats off to these IBEW members!

On Wednesday, Trumka met with union members, labor leaders and Orange County officials to discuss job-creation projects and prospects there, especially a massive construction project in Irvine dubbed the “Great Park.” Trumka said:

The Orange County Labor Federation pushed to create tens of thousands of union jobs at the Great Park construction. The community gets a great park with sustainable elements that benefit the environment.

Click here to read about Trumka’s earlier stop in San Diego.

On Monday, Jan. 11, Trumka will make a major address at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on the jobs crisis and the economic future of working families. You can watch the live webcast at www.press.org beginning at 1 p.m., EST. We will bring you more details later today.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 08, 2010 (boomark / email).