Thousands of union workers march on hotels-on eve of IMF meetings
WSQT Guerrilla Radio 87.9 FM | 12 Apr 2007 – dc.indymedia.org
Unite Here local 25 gathered thousands of hotel workers for a spirited march on the Woodley Park Mariott, a hotel in which some but not all workers have union representation. Even with the union, workers are being pushed to injury and exhaustion, but non-union worksrs have it even worse.
unite_here_march.mp3 (5,22KB • 5:42 min)
Audio: 5 min 42 seconds
One egregrious offender is State Park Plaza in Foggy Bottom, where the NLRB has found management guilty of firing workers for attempting to organize a union, trying to ban union literature, and even threatening to close the hotel if it goes union. DON'T EVER STAY THERE!
Even Mariott corporation has a lot of workers who are not offered union representation although others have it! UNITE HERE'S contract with all the union hotels expires in September. Last time around, the contract expired in 2004, and a new one was not signed by management until the union threatened to strike on Jan 14, just days before Bush's inauguration.
This time around, UNITE HERE marched on the Mariott on the eve of the Spring IMF meetings in a reminder of the disruption a strike would bring to the fall IMF meetings if a contract is not signed by that time.
IMF meetings are second only to an inauguration for hotel (especially luxury hotel) occupancy in DC, so it is at events like this that the unions can show real power. Otherwise, outrageous management behavior just gets worse. An example is the practice of forcing workers to clean the same number of rooms, in the same time,for the same pay while room amenities grow and grow, getting harder and harder to clean between guests.
apr 14-15 dc mobilization | imf/world bank | www.agp.org (archives) | www.all4all.org