Henkimaa » Social justice

Table 2 (poem)

Mel Green — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 22:05:55 +0000

Table 2, from the article "National Prison Population Growth: A BJS Report" in the Winter 1996 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum

Table 2

Between 1980 and 1994 the total number of people held in federal and state prisons and local jails almost tripled — increasing from 501,886 to 1,483,410.

— Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice

I am making a table. My hammer
is the keyboard of the computer —
tap tap — my nails are the commas
and decimal points that keep these legs
of numbers standing true.
The grain is the roundness of zeros and eights,
leaning spines of nines and percentage signs,
sharp angles of fours and sevens.
I will call this table (slightly
modifying its original name) Table 2:
Number of Adults in Custody
of State or Federal Prisons or in
Local Jails; and though it’s only
a copy, when I’m done it will be
a clearer, cleaner version of
the Bureau of Justice Statistics table
from which I copied it to include
in the Alaska Justice Forum.

But it’s not the ideal table.

Though I’m of that kind, a maker of poems
whom Plato had Socrates exclude
from his rational, perfect Republic —
an imitator of imitations, my work
one step from the carpenter’s table or bed,
but two steps from the idea of table
in the ether around God’s head —
for my day job I’m also of that kind
essential to the Republic. Sustained
by statisticians, I am a maker
of passionless tables that summarize
in numbers the reasoned philosophy
of this well-ordered State’s philosopher-kings.

But if this poem I make by night is a pale
faded imitation of the table I made by day,
the white spaces between my table’s columns
are paler copies yet of the concrete walls,
steel bars, control rooms, keys, and guns
of guards in towers. And its numbers in their
hundred thousands, the total in its millions
(seven digits divided by commas)
imitate in mere paper and ink the bodies,
the sweat and sheen and stink of bodies,
the rage and fear and anguish of minds,
the sorrow and grief and violent hatreds
of prisoners one mere step away:

embodying the closest approximation
of the ideal that waxes ineffable
in the ether around God’s head.

[April 15, 1997]

About this poem

Before 1990, most of what I knew about the American justice system came from fiction — books, movies, TV. Then I took a job as a publication specialist at the UAA Justice Center, which entailed amongst other thinks making lots of tables & charts on various aspect of the justice system. That’s the lens through which I became aware of the extraordinary growth of correctional populations in the U.S., especially due to the so-called “war on drugs” that began during the Reagan administration.

Sometime in about 2001, the U.S. surpassed the Russian Federation to become the nation with the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Here we are now (from an article in our most recent issue of the Alaska Justice Forum):

Figure 3. Rate of Incareration in Selected Nations (most current data available as of February 2011). From "Prisoner Reentry and the Uniform Collateral Consequences of Conviction Act" by Deborah Periman, Alaska Justice Forum 27(4), Winter 2011.

Makes you feel all proud & patriotic, eh?

As for Plato’s Republic: Plato didn’t much like poets, because the poetic imagination weakened the power & authority of the Plato’s idealized philosopher-king. As James P. Carse writes in The Religious Case Against Belief,

Plato’s Republic is a completely rational and comprehensive system. It is threatened more by the poets than by its military enemies — in fact, it needs those enemies.

Explains a lot, that does.

For my part, most “philosopher-kings,” idealized or not, go off the rails almost from the moment they achieve power & authority. Give me a poet any day.

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Book review

ptery — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:51:10 +0000

Note from Mel: Just as I hoped, Ptery agreed to post his review of this important book here. A version of this book review has been submitted to the weekly newspaper Real Change in Seattle. I’ve read this book too, & will be posting my own reactions to it within the next few days. I should mention that I’m the person who “dodged the magic bullets” who Ptery mentions a ways into it.

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker
(New York: Crown Publishers, 2010).
416 pages. ISBN 978-0-307-45241-2.

An epidemic of gargantuan proportions has been afoot for some time, according to Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic. I have felt it so myself, but who listens to previous customers of the great professional class of biological psychiatrists?

The epidemic

Whitaker originally came to this research in 1998 as a journalist reporting on clinical testing of new drugs, when he became aware of studies in which schizophrenia patients were withdrawn from their anti-psychotic medications. He was appalled, believing that anti-psychotic medications were as necessary for schizophrenia as insulin was for diabetics — which is what the psychiatric profession wanted us all to believe. But he came across the results of two World Health Organization studies, both of which showed better outcomes for sufferers of schizophrenia in Third World countries like India, Nigeria, and Colombia than in the Western world (U.S. and European). The kicker is that only 16% of those sufferers were maintained continuously on anti-psychotic medications, compared with 61% of the patients in developed countries. This began a long research for Whitaker, leading to his earlier book, Mad in America (2001), and Anatomy of an Epidemic (2010), both of which confirm what many opponents of forced treatment have been saying for years without the benefit of “a white coat” or the aura of respectability (they were “just patients,” or they were “just members of a mind control cult called Scientology” — biopsychiatry’s largest opposition). Whitaker has shown that there is no “chemical imbalance” that is rebalanced by anti-psychotic medications, but that the medications cause harm to the nerves of the brain, which do not always recover, creating more illness over time than there had ever been. The result has been an epidemic rise in the population of disabled mentally ill, from 355,000 adults in state and county mental hospitals in 1995 to over 4 million on SSI or SSDI for mental illness — 1 in 76 American adults.

Anatomy of an Epidemic goes far beyond how those suffering from schizophrenia are treated, but covers all major classes of mental illness. The epidemic is most evident in the history of depression and bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder especially used to be very rare, occurring in only 1 in 13,000 people in 1955, but now occurring in 1 in 40 people. Whitaker points to antidepressants as the culprit, giving those who suffer from depression debilitating outcomes, where as before many people recovered from depression on their own. In one study discussed by Whitaker of 87,290 patients from 1997 to 2001 who were diagnosed with depression or anxiety, those treated with antidepressants converted to bipolar illness at three times the rate of those who didn’t take antidepressants.

The epidemic has also spread to children all the way down to toddler ages. In children, ADHD has been the beginning diagnosis, leading to high outcomes of bipolar and poor outcomes further on as the children grow into adulthood if they are placed on stimulants that are supposed to address their issues. From 1987, when the practice of prescribing psychiatric medications to children gained traction, to 2007, the number of American children getting SSI or SSDI checks for disability because of mental illness increased by 35 times, from 16,200 in 1987 to 561,569 in 2007. This is in spite of medications that the psychiatric profession has assured us are supposed to help people — not disable them.

So, finally after 60 years of misinformation and withholding of truth from psychiatrists, a book of rational upstanding merit has hit the media. Anatomy of an Epidemic also documents how psychiatrists and their allies the pharmaceutical companies have managed such a scheme. It has been the most important book for me to read in over twenty years as I struggled to tell others about the possibility of real disability from taking psychiatric drugs. Those who did the research chose alternatives to drugs. I also have friends who are on the medications because they have been on them too long to stop. They are still in pain and it saddens me, but I understand.

Getting off psychiatric medications

I also understand that there are some people who have been helped by psychiatric drugs, and I would not want them to go off them because it is better for them to be taking them. No one knows why they work, or what causes mental illness in the first place. Whitaker himself does not advise anyone to stop taking their meds. One reason is that withdrawal from medications is a process that will uncover the nerve damage from the medications and any previous problems that were unsolved will be more present. I will not hesitate to suggest to people to do their research and read Peter Breggin’s book Your Drug May Be Your Problem. Breggin provides food for thought about medications and life itself for someone contemplating trying life without drugs. Breggin gives sound information on how to safely transition off psychiatric medications. It is dangerous, but many people have done it successfully. BUT DO THE RESEARCH and HAVE A PLAN and BACK UP people you trust to go through this with you, including a sympathetic doctor. I understand that this can be hard. So many people are locked into their drugs with housing, SSI, SSDI and family relationships that make it even more complicated.

The reality is that no one knows what causes mental illness. All this talk of a biochemical cause has been a nice looking charade for people to look like they are scientific and keep their jobs. [not to mention gaining professional prestige and making lots of money.] They’ve done an amazing marketing job on the American public; unfortunately they have misled us all in a way that is worse than criminal. Prozac was known to cause suicidal thoughts and impulses in the first trials of that drug. But did they [Eli Lilly, Prozac's manufacturer] tell anyone? Did they put it on the label? Did they hold it from production? No. They did none of these things. It was the reporting of incidents and several lawsuits that finally led to a label being put on the bottle. Many places in Europe the drug is banned. Whitaker’s book fills in a lot of the gaps in information that people so desperately need that the press has not delivered — having gone straight to the “experts” for their information.

A Finnish solution: Open Dialogue

Besides the research with many graphs showing the numbers and history of pharmopsychiatry, the most exciting thing to me about Anatomy of an Epidemic is Whitaker’s ponderings of what to do and who’s doing what. Particularly, the Finns in Western Lapland (which once had an incidence of schizophrenia twice and even three times higher than in the rest of Finland and Europe), use need-adapted treatment and Open Dialogue and have shown a sound record of success with psychosis and schizophrenia. In this method, the recovery rate for patients is astonishing. Only 20% of first-time psychotic patients are treated continuously with anti-psychotic medication, and only about one-third are exposed to anti-psychotic medications at all. Yet 80% — most not treated at all with medications — are back at school or in jobs within two to five years. The Open Dialogue method works by creating a team of three who work collaboratively as a team with the patient and his or her family and support system. Meetings, usually in the patient’s home, are conducted openly, with every person, including the patient, included as a full participant in the conversation, and all treatment decisions are made jointly between the patient and treatment providers. There is no forced treatment, most patients never receive medications, and only around 20% end up using medications continuously. Since 1993, not even one first-episode psychotic patient in Western Lapland has gone on to be chronically hospitalized — a very different outcome than had been common there before, or what is still common in the U.S.

The Finnish psychiatrists and psychologists in Western Lapland also have the idea that the illness is social rather than biological or even psychological. “Psychosis does not live in the head,” Whitaker quotes Tapio Salo, a psychologist at Keropudas Hospital in Tornia, Finland. “It lives in the in-between of family members, and in the in-between of people. It is in the relationship, and the one who is psychotic makes the bad condition visible. He or she ‘wears the symptoms’ and has the burden to carry them.”

This is novel language for me, who has felt that this kind of communication is essential to healing but didn’t have a name for it. Knowing who you are, what you need and having people to share your reality with is crucial to mental health. Having used a talking stick (a Native American communication tool) at home when things got out of hand with my nephew, I can attest to this firsthand. (See my story below). And it follows along with what systems theory says about how things work: that the relationships within any system are much more important to look than just its “parts.” An individual person is just one part of a system of social and physical relationships.

The Finnish doctors talk about repairing the social fabric the “sick” person is in. It makes so much sense to me that Open Dialogue therapy as used in Tornio works. Why don’t we get unafraid of being seen as “crazy” and speak up? Why don’t we get unafraid of “crazy” people and listen up as well? They’ve done it in Finland and since the 1980s have reduced the incidence of schizophrenia in Western Lapland down from 25 a year to 2 a year as measured from new cases. I could see collaborative methods like Open Dialogue working with all sorts of problems. Creating this space, we could face a lot more than we can alone and in this process we could do restorative justice, heal our children, change the school system, and change how we all look at what’s important.

I highly recommend Anatomy of an Epidemic to anyone associated with psychiatry as a patient, family member, friend, city planners and care providers because the truth must be made known and the large construct of lies that underlie bio-psychiatry and the the psychopharmaceutical marketplace needs to stop. If you want the short version before buying it, watch Whitaker’s on BookTV here: http://cs.pn/magicbullets. (Whitaker also has links to all the studies referred to in his book at his website: http://www.madinamerica.com/.)

A personal story

But before you go and hate all these doctors, think about what kind of culture we live in. I for one have had to struggle with my own illness and treatment that was supposed to help. In the late 1980s, I had several problems that I understand today, but didn’t at the time. It all culminated in me starting to drink — alcohol was my lead-in drug. It led to LSD really fast, and then to me getting lost in the streets of San Francisco, losing four days of sleep and food. Of course I was crackers. I needed sleep and food. I got it in the hospital, but I also got a cocktail of heavy drugs. I only survived not becoming a statistic through having become aware of what Haldol (an “antipsychotic”) was and what others have suffered before me by the hands of psychiatry. I had a short stay in the hospital because I started tonguing the meds (and secretly spitting them out) as soon as I was able to figure out where I was. I think it was day three, when I finally got enough sleep that I was able to look at the map of San Francisco that was on the wall, and it all came back to me. I was oriented again times three. (This is medical provider talk meaning that the patient can state who he/she is, where he/she is, when he/she is — day, year, etc.) So, very shortly I got my support team together and advocated myself right out of there.

It took years for me to overcome the stigma from what happened to me and finding words for who I am, what I need in order to form healthy relationships. Even though I knew the system was screwy, I had a rough time with what I did. I did take too many drugs, I got lost, and I felt a lot of shame about that. That was over 25 years ago and I’ve recovered and I understand what happened from a deep level. I can now talk about how it started for me: being a kid from an alcoholic family who also happened to be a transman. I started drinking when I hit adolescence, but before I could even face my rare “queer” identity, I was sexually molested by my therapist. Now if anyone understands how that can affect a kid, well, of course it felt weird, but also I was getting attention for being special and getting attention period. It also gave me the idea that I was really an adult. Other than giving me a few tools on how not to drink, he didn’t “cure” me, but instead gave me a sexual addiction to carry with me for a number of years. I went off to college to try and figure out my vocation and didn’t succeed.

When I returned from college, I was assaulted again, but after this time I went on to a woman’s festival in Michigan. During the four-day event, a woman was taken off the land to a psychiatric facility. There was uproar and I became politicized from it. It could have been me freaking out, but was lucky I had someone to talk to about what happened with me. So in short order, I learned about class, race, mental-ism, able-ism. Then I went on a journey to Big Mountain in Arizona, a portion of the Dine Nation’s reservation lands, and there learned about what community was. In all that journeying, I became closer to coming out as trans, but alas, what led up to hospitalization was getting back to the city where everyone is supposed to watch their own back, get a job, with no one to feed or house them if they fail. In this condition, so many things hit the fan at once. At the point of my forced hospitalization, I understood something at a gut level that took another 25 years to sort out and articulate.

I spent those years as an activist. I also found my partner who suffers periodically from depression who says she’s “dodged the magic bullets” of psychiatric medications, instead learning to take care of herself successfully in other ways. Together we raised my nephew who came to us at age 9, diagnosed “severely emotionally disturbed” and on the antidepressant Imipramine — at least the fourth drug that he’d been tried on (the others being Ritalin, Dexedrine, and Thorazine). We took him off it over the course of 6 months where he finally stabilized without it and started to work on his violent behavior. He’s been completely drug free since age 9-1/2, and is now a strapping good-hearted 22-year-old who’s just finishing up Job Corps.

Being trans was the last piece that put my life on track. I now have an inkling of who I am what I need and have found happiness in being able to communicate this to others. I have also taken off from this culture to research what needs to change before I can come back and work. I am without a house to live in, but I am not homeless. I look back in on a culture that is not facing up to facts and certainly not comfortable with facing the despair that many who are leaders of this new movement towards sustainability have felt.

Mental health & sustainability

Finally, to share what is most importance to me about this book: The kind of collaboration demonstrated in Open Dialogue offers a way to heal in a wider sense. Open Dialogue fits into the 4th step of The Natural Step, a sustainability framework put forth by a medical doctor in Sweden (Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt) who cut through all the confusing arguments around what needed to be done about the environment. He saw a direct correlation to the rising rates of cancer that was killing his patients.
Simply, the four steps of the Natural Step are:

Reduce the amount of materials that are brought up from under the earth in to the level the natural system can make it non-toxic again.
Reduce the amount of man made materials to levels the natural system can t transform back into none-toxic again.
Reduce the destruction to natural systems so they can do the work of detoxifying these substances.
Meet human needs worldwide.

The fourth step — meeting human needs worldwide — is the one most confusing to sustainability folks, and I’ve given it a great deal of thought over the years since I learned of this framework. I see Americans suffering form a spiritual poverty and great alienation from their environment, while third world countries suffer from hunger and a dearth of material needs. Given the World Health Organization reports of higher cure rates in Third World nations points to a possibly more intact society, whereas in developed nations like the U.S. there is more alienation, broken families and a rare occurrence of extended families with rich supports intact. The ideal of the independent person has been very destructive to the social fabric.

Open Dialogue and similar collaborative methods offer a means of healing. It’s important as we move through this economic/ecological crisis that we find a way to mend the social fabric. As the casualties of our mental health system pile up and people are unable to take care of themselves, we will not be able to sustain all the costs. This is one of the reasons that the downtown shelters run by officials that cost so much are having so many problems. They are bearing some of the cost of psychiatry’s methods.

Where I am in Tent City 4, we’re taking care of each other and keeping our heads on straight. We do so by coming together and working it out collectively. All the people here are learning that we can take care of each other, where the system failed us. We don’t ask for much, just a job and an apartment, but we’re keeping our heads together in the meantime and living in tents and organizing so that we stay safe. This is revolutionary for people. The amazing thing is, is that it works. To run 16 shelters in the area costs SHARE about $725,000 per year to run, while around 500 beds are provided. I have faith in humans to fix all the stuff going on by talking about it.

As the epidemic of mental illness rises to a crisis point, so does the pathway to a sustainable future narrow. As more people become aware of the ecological crisis, we’ll need some kind of safe communication space to work out our despair and grief. Again, this is prohibitive work on a public scale. Much change needs to happen soon if society wants to continue.

It’s all connected. It’s time for us to start talking to each other rather than relying on the experts. We all see how it is going — we need to gather together and think together. There is such a thing as collective intelligence, and I think the Finns are on to something big. There is such a thing as opening our hearts in safe space and working it out, rather than waiting for our “superiors” or “experts” to tell us what to do. We have eyes and something special between our ears. I believe we can do it. Let’s get it done.

Hotel Workers Picket during Fur Rondy (press release)

the blogosphere — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:15:52 +0000

The Hotel Workers Rising campaign is a national campaign for decent working conditions and wages for hotel workers.

Press Release

February 27, 2010

Contact: Amarjeet Chhabra, UNITE HERE Local 878

907-272-6036 (wk) or 416-856-9587 (cell)

Hotel Workers Picket during Fur Rondy!

Sheraton and Hilton workers tell crowds downtown to boycott their hotels

What: Informational Picketline

When: Saturday, February 27th at 4:30pm

Where: Outside the Hilton Anchorage hotel (3th & E St)

Who: Sheraton and Hilton workers; other members of UNITE HERE Local 878; the 4 recently terminated Sheraton workers; and members from the local Anchorage community and labor unions.

Why: Fur Rendezvous and good, hotel jobs have been celebrated Alaskan traditions for over 40 years. Just as the Alaskan fur trade was memorialized in 1935 by the first Fur Rondy festival because of its large economic impact to our region, the Hilton and Sheraton workers hope to shed light on a current industry that substantially impacts our local economy – the hospitality industry. These service sector jobs did not start out as good jobs. In fact, the Anchorage hotel industry only became the kind of family-sustaining jobs they are today because brave men and women fought to make them so. This coming Saturday, during the beginning of Fur Rondy, Sheraton and Hilton workers will call upon the greater community to help them keep another Alaskan tradition alive (good hotel jobs) by boycotting their two hotels.

Throughout the years, our region has benefited greatly from tourism. People now flock from around the world to tour our glaciers, mingle with our wildlife, and gaze at our expansive scenery. While they visit our community, they stay in our hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts. Of all the downtown Anchorage, full-service hotels, all are union except for one. This has meant that over the years, union, hotel workers have been able to bargain for similar wages, benefits, and working conditions. This has given way to today’s area-wide standards that have proven to be good for employees and for business.

The success of our region, however, has attracted other lower 48 visitors – hoteliers. These new to town hoteliers, like Dallas-based Ashford and Remington who respectively own and operate the Sheraton Anchorage, and Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex who owns and operates the Hilton Anchorage, seem to care little about the good jobs and business practices that have made our region so welcoming and our communities prosperous. In fact, these two companies are trying to degrade the local standards by proposing to take away their workers’ affordable healthcare plans, increase workloads to an arguably unsafe level, and take away certain job protections that have made it common place for these hotels to employ workers who’ve devoted 10 to 30 years of loyal service. Last Wednesday, the Sheraton even went so far as to fire four, rank and file leaders (with 44 years of service combined) after they engaged in what the union believes is protected union activity.

The Sheraton and Hilton workers, who are represented by UNITE HERE Local 878, are not going to let these out of state hoteliers threaten the fate of the Alaskan hotel industry. Instead, both memberships have overwhelmingly placed boycotts on their hotels in an effort to save our good jobs. So, for the time being, they are asking people to stay away from their hotels in order to urge their employers to listen to their reasonable demands. This Saturday, they, along with various community supporters, will spread their boycott message to thousands who will celebrate another beloved, Alaskan tradition – Fur Rondy!

Please contact Amarjeet if you have any questions: 907-272-6036 (wk) or 416-856-9587 (cell)

Sheraton Anchorage update: Governor's Safety and Health Conference cancels agreement

Mel Green — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:51:43 +0000

Last November, 84% of union workers at the Sheraton Anchorage voted to put the Sheraton under boycott due to the hotel’s continued unfair treatment of workers & refusal to bargain in good faith. [Ref #1, 2] Last Wednesday, February 17, the hotel illegally fired four workers for engaging in protected union activity outside the hotel entrances. [Ref #2] Friday, UNITE HERE Local 878 held a press conference [Ref #3] to discuss the union’s filing of a claim with the National Labor Relations Board because of the hotel’s illegal retaliation against the workers. (See the Anchorage Daily News & KTVA Channel 11 reports from the press conference. [Ref #4, 5])

But here’s more news from Friday: citing the continuing labor dispute, and the hotel’s failure to address concerns about it, the Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development wrote a letter dated February 19 to cancel its agreement with the Sheraton to hold the annual Governor’s Safety and Health Conference there.

I’ve obtained a PDF copy of the letter, which you can view here. [Ref #6] Here’s what it says:

February 19, 2010

In November 2009, the Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development (DOLWD) reserved meeting rooms, catering services and banquet space for the Governor’s Safety Conference in Anchorage, scheduled for March 23rd through the 25th, 2010. The purpose of this correspondence is to cancel the agreement between the Anchorage Sheraton and DOLWD.

The Alaska DOLWD has recently become aware of significant negative impacts on the Governor’s Safety Conference associated with the Anchorage Sheraton venue. In December, the Alaska Safety Advisory Council learned labor disputes at the Anchorage Sheraton could lead to a picket line during the conference and sent a letter to General Manager Denis Artiles to express concern about the potential negative impact on the Governor’s Safety Conference. To date, the Anchorage Sheraton has not provided any assurances to mitigate concerns and recent telephone messages to Mr. Artiles have not been returned. On February 11, 2010, the Commissioner of Labor received an e-mail from Ms. Amarjeet Chhabra of UNITE HERE LOcal 878, which explained that the Anchorage Sheraton hotel workers in their organization voted to boycott the hotel and that meant “vigorous picket lines that attendees will have to cross when entering and exiting the premises.”

The success of the Governor’s Safety Conference depends primarily on participant attendance, but is also affected by sponsorship contributions. Labor organizations, which have contributed significant sponsorship donations in the past have indicated they will not contribute to the conference this year. Attendee registrations are currently down by more than 40 percent in comparison to this time last year. If there is a picket line, several individuals including members of the Safety Advisory Council, have indicated they will not cross the picket line. Low attendance will negatively affect the vendors at the conference. The labor situation at the Anchorage Sheraton has resulted in an unacceptable risk to the success of the Governor’s Safety and Health Conference.

For all the reasons stated herein, DOLWD is canceling its reservations to host the Safety Conference at the Sheraton in Anchorage. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me at [phone #]. [Ref #6; emphases added]

The letter was signed by DOLWD’s procurement officer.

The letter doesn’t say outright, but seems to indicate that labor organizations declined to contribute sponsorship donations this year because of the boycott called for by the hotel’s own workers. One hopes that DOLWD has been able to find another venue for the Governor’s Safety Conference that labor organizations can feel good about supporting with sponsorship donations.

But what’s really incredible: not only has Sheraton management failed to address DOLWD’s concerns, but its General Manager, Denis Artiles, wouldn’t even return the State’s phone calls about the situation.

Wow, that’s pretty incredible! Who put this guy in charge?

But actually fits pretty well with other stuff I learned over the weekend about the bad decisionmaking & poor management that’s become standard at the Sheraton since Denis Artiles becames General Manager last July.

Sheraton Anchorage's Facebook page announced Denis Artiles' arrival as General Manager last July.

Artiles works at the behest of Dallas-based Remington Hotels, which manages a number of properties owned by another Dallas-based company, Ashford Hospitality. Ashford Hospitality and Remington Hotels share the same CEO, Monty Bennett, & the same chairman of the board, Archie Bennett (Monty’s father).

But one must wonder: Do those way-up-there boss-of-bosses share Denis Artiles’ disdain for fair labor practices & adherence to the law? And whether or not they do, do they approve of his incompetence in not returning phone calls from an important client, thus contributing to the hotel losing a major conference worth thousands of dollars?

Though one certainly understand why he might not want to return DOLWD’s calls. Unless he was a master B.S.er, I reckon he’d've had a pretty rough time reassuring the DOLWD that labor issues wouldn’t disrupt the conference. After all, he had just worsened the labor situation considerably by authorizing the illegal suspension (on February 3) and then the firing (on February 10, though the workers were not actually told they were fired until February 17) of four workers for exercising their legally protected rights under U.S. labor law.

More on Ashford Hospitality, Remington Hotels, the Sheraton Anchorage, & the fired UNITE HERE members in the next couple of days.

References

11/16/2009. “Sheraton, Hilton workers unite to promote boycotts — WORKLOAD: Union says hotels want more rooms cleaned per shift” by Elizabeth Bluemink (Anchorage Daily News).
2/18/2010. “Press conference Friday on illegal firing of four Sheraton Anchorage workers (press release)” by UNITED HERE Local 878 (posted on Henkimaa.com).
2/20/2010. “Fired Sheraton employees challenge action — BOYCOTT BACKLASH? 4 dispute being let go after protesting work conditions” (Anchorage Daily News).
2/19/2010. “Unions protest Sheraton workers firings: A major workers union has filed a National Labor Relations Board claim, saying four former Sheraton Anchorage union workers were fired for participating in union activity” by Matthew Simon (KTVA Channel 11).
2/19/2010. Letter “Re: Sheraton Agreement #710-LSS-1189 Governor’s Safety Conference” from Amy Deininger, Procurement Officer, Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development to Sheraton Anchorage

Press conference Friday on illegal firing of four Sheraton Anchorage workers (press release)

the blogosphere — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:25:28 +0000

The Hotel Workers Rising campaign is a national campaign for decent working conditions and wages for hotel workers.

Press Release
February 18, 2010
Contact: Amarjeet Chhabra, UNITE HERE Local 878
907-272-6036 (wk) or 416-856-9587 (cell)

Sheraton Workers Fired!

Four rank and file leaders were terminated Wednesday for participating in union activity

What: Fired workers press conference

When: Friday, February 19th at 12:15pm

Where: Outside the National Labor Relations Board office (4th & F St)

Who:

Speakers: Gina Tubman (Server), Lucy Dudek (Server), Troy Prichacharn (Bellmen), Vince Belltrami (Head of the Alaska AFL-CIO)

Attendees: Sheraton and Hilton workers; other members of UNITE HERE Local 878; and members from the local Anchorage community and labor unions.

Why: This past Wednesday, February 17th, four Sheraton Anchorage, rank and file union leaders were brought into the General Manager’s office and were fired. Management cited a union action the workers participated in two weeks prior as the reason for their terminations.

On February 2nd, these workers passed out flyers to customers that asked people not to enter the hotel because it is under boycott. This is because in mid-November, 84% of the membership at the Sheraton Anchorage voted to place their hotel under boycott in order to ramp up their campaign for a fair contract. The four leaders were only outside for a short while before management came out, told them to leave, took their pictures, surrounded them with managers, threatened to call the police, and told them that if they didn’t “go, go now!” that security would remove them. The workers held their ground for a little over 40 minutes, continuously stating that they had the right to be there and showed management two National Labor Relations Board cases that support their position (see below). The following day, the four were suspended until further notice.

The Union believes management is out of control and is knowingly breaking federal law in order to see if they can scare the rest of the Sheraton workers into accepting an inferior contract. Most likely the hotel weighed the cost and benefit of breaking the law. While the hotel may have to pay for their alleged illegal action, they will have, up until that point, shown the rest of the membership that even if someone engages in legal, union activity, management is still going to retaliate.

The majority of the Sheraton workers, however, are having the opposite reaction. Those that were fired are well loved, so those working inside the hotel are more galvanized than ever to fight for their co-workers and a fair contract. Today, an overwhelming majority of them proved this when they wore union buttons in support of their co-workers.

The Sheraton workers will not be swayed. Job security, affordable family healthcare, and safe workloads are on the line. These issues are too important not to fight to keep them. We are in a critical struggle to keep good standards for hotel workers in Anchorage and Alaska at large, and these fired workers efforts are a big part in making this happen. Tomorrow, the fired workers (who have over 40 years of service combined) will congregate with community and labor supporters outside the NLRB office where there is a current unfair labor practice charge pending on their terminations.
___________________________________________________

Employees have the right to be in non-work areas of their workplace to communicate with the employer’s customers about a labor dispute, using leaflets or picketing. Scott Hudgens, 230 NLRB 414 (1977).

Non-work areas include the doors leading into the employer’s business. Santa Fe Hotel & Casino, 331 NLRB 723 (2000).

Sheraton Anchorage illegally fires four workers

Mel Green — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:47:25 +0000

I got word this morning that the Sheraton Anchorage, which has been under boycott by its workers since last November, today fired four of its workers for engaging in protected union activity.

On February 2, the four workers had been leafleting hotel guests and coworkers about the boycott, activities which are protected per at least two prior National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions:

Employees have the right to be in nonwork areas of their workplace to communicate with the employer’s customers about a labor dispute, using leaflets or picketing. Scott Hudgens, 230 NLRB 414 (1977).
Nonwork areas include the doors leading into the employer’s business. Santa Fe Hotel & Casino, 331 NLRB 723 (2000).

Sheraton management continuously interrupted the (off duty) workers as they leafleted prospective guests asking them to honor the worker’s call for a boycott of the hotel. Management took pictures, threatened to have security remove them, and eventually called the police — even though the worker’s activity was legal and protected. The following morning, the hotel’s general manager and human resources director suspended the four and escorted off them the property. Now, two weeks later, the workers have been fired.

Sheraton workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 878, voted in November to place the hotel under boycott after management, without negotiation, raised their monthly premium for family health insurance to $800 per month, an amount many workers cannot afford. Management also imposed a bigger workload, increasing the number of rooms housekeeping staff were expected to clean from 15 to 17 rooms per day. The changes at the Sheraton, which is owned by the Dallas, Texas based company Remington Hotels, are much like that imposed previously on workers at the Hilton Anchorage, which is owned by a Kentucky-based company, Columbia Sussex and was placed under boycott by its workers last May. Both boycotts ask people not to eat, sleep or meet at the hotels until each boycott is ended . [Ref #1-2] Just one day after the four Sheraton workers were suspended, on February 4, a “town hall” meeting hosted by conservative talk radio host Dan Fagan was short at least one of its schedules participants: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ethan Berkowitz pulled out because to participate would require him to defy the boycott. [Ref #3]

It’s pretty clear to me that management at both the Hilton and the Sheraton — or at least the owners, Remington Hotels and Columbia Sussex — don’t give a damn about the health or welfare of their employees. Wow, here we go, corporations again. Wasn’t I saying something just the other day about corporate psychopathology? [Ref #4] Besides putting adequate family health care out of many workers reach, the demand that housekeepers clean 17 rather than 15 rooms per day is another risk to health. As I observed last fall [Ref #5], in a study based on OSHA records for 87 hotels from 1999 to 2007, UNITE HERE found,

On average, hotel workers experienced an injury rate of 6.4 per 100 workers, meaning that, in each year, more than six percent of the hotel workforce in these hotels suffered a documented workplace injury. Hotel housekeepers, however, faced a significantly greater injury rate of 10.4%, which is 86% greater than the injury rate experienced by non-housekeepers (5.6%). [Ref #6, p. 8]

And the faster they are required to work — in order to meet higher housekeeping quotas imposed by employers — the higher the risk of injury:

In recent years, the workload that hotel companies demand housekeepers perform has increased significantly. Chronic understaffing, coupled with the addition of time-consuming amenities—luxury items like heavy mattresses, fragile coffeepots and in-room exercise equipment—have placed housekeepers at greater risk of injury. In order to complete their room quotas, housekeepers are increasingly forced to skip meals and other breaks—rests necessary to prevent injury. Today, housekeepers’ bodies are at the breaking point. [Ref #6, p. 4]

But what the hell do the owners of either the Sheraton or the Hilton care, so long as they can rake in more profits for their own top management.

See references for more background on the Sheraton boycott. Stay tuned for more news of the four illegally fired workers. And, most importantly,

Don’t give the Sheraton, or the Hilton, any of your business
until they have negotiated & settled fair contracts with their workers.

References

11/16/2009. “Sheraton, Hilton workers unite to promote boycotts — WORKLOAD: Union says hotels want more rooms cleaned per shift” by Elizabeth Bluemink (Anchorage Daily News).
11/18/2009. “Vacancy (please)” by Brendan Joel Kelley (Anchorage Press).
2/3/2010. “In Brief” by Brendan Joel Kelley (Anchorage Press).
1/22/2010. “Government by psychopathy” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
10/1/2009. “In solidarity with Hilton workers” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
April 2006. Creating Luxury, Enduring Pain: How Hotel Work is Hurting Housekeepers (UNITE HERE). (Available through the Take Action page on the Hotel Workers Rising website.)

Anchorage & homelessness

marcia — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:26:28 +0000

A homeless camp near Valley of the Moon Park, May 2006

Crossposted at
Celtic Diva’s
Blue Oasis

A note from Mel: This is to introduce a guest post from my friend Marcia Barnes, who contacted me earlier tonight in reaction to a report in the Anchorage Daily News about the eviction of a homeless camp on Veteran’s Ridge in the Mountain View neighborhood of Anchorage. [Ref #1] She had actually written something about it, but didn’t know what to do with it. I’d already offered to publish on my blog a guest post from another friend — it didn’t take any thought at all for me to offer that to Marcia as well, especially because this is also an issue that I’m concerned about, but I haven’t the energy to write much about it now. So I’m very happy to have Marcia’s thoughts, & that she was willing to present them here.

I work, as I’ve mentioned before, at the Justice Center at University of Alaska Anchorage, where among other things I’m responsible for the layout of our quarterly research publication the Alaska Justice Forum. Our most recent issue, published just a couple of weeks ago, includes an detailed look at homelessness in Alaska and in Anchorage. [Ref #2] Who are the homeless? where are they found? how many are there? what are their circumstances? Take a look at that article to gain some context for what we’re really facing with homelessness in Anchorage, & ask yourself: are we handling it the best way possible? See also the website of the Anchorage Coalition on Homelessness. [Ref #3] – Mel

Anchorage & homelessness

by Marcia Barnes

I am trying to decide how to respond to the article in the Anchorage Daily News yesterday regarding the clearing out of the homeless camp in Mountain View. [Ref #1] I understand people’s concerns regarding the presence of the camp and possible problems. However, I wonder at the humanity of the way it has been handled. People with no place to go are routed and their possessions confiscated. If they are fortunate they have various family, friends or acquaintances with whom they may stay. However if not, they are still out on the streets and it is getting closer to winter, most of their winter gear is gone and they have to start scrounging all over again, perhaps stealing or more panhandling to get enough money for gear at the Salvation Army or Bishops Attic. Several people there were working but because of past problems, messing up ASHA or being disqualified because of a felony or simply not earning enough to be able to pay the amount of money it costs to get into an apartment, they are homeless. Though some are working, with no place to stay they might actually lose the jobs they do have.

It does not look like the city has offered many options for help to this group of really desperate people. Supposedly things are in the works so that when it happens again there will be social services available with recommendations of places to go for help. Perhaps the Mayor’s Homelessness Task Force is working on it, but that does not help those people currently routed from some kind of stability, it does not provide the Housing First option that is working in some other states and cities; it, in fact does nothing but cause the problem to move to another location, or back to the present one in a few weeks. Did the “clean up” of the camp accomplish making the area safer for the school and the neighborhood? I don’t know, perhaps it might have. Perhaps it did not. The reality is that Anchorage will continue to see deaths of homeless people that could have been avoided with better preparation and support. It is a difficult situation, but if we are to deal with it with hope for any positive resolution, a plan needs to be in place to work with people prior to shoving them out of the camps.

There may be money available through the Mental Health Trust Authority for start up to help those who need it and qualify as stakeholders. Money might also be available through Behavioral Health to help those dealing with mental illness or substance abuse. I believe funding should be sought from Native Corporations, as there are a large number of homeless Alaska Native people and culturally appropriate interventions could help tremendously. There might be funding available through Alaska Housing for specialized housing and there might be funds available through a consortium of private or church charities. I assume the Task Force will deal with some of these organizations and attempt to develop some kind of program for those the city is moving.

Expecting any real benefit from routing out a group of people from one area only to watch them move to another because the problem of housing is still not solved is futile. It allows the news to have something to do, the police have something to do, and those living at the homeless camps can become more and more desperate. A small band-aid over a severed artery is not much help. The city needs to develop a humane and effective program to assist homeless people into appropriate housing with supports that help them maintain that housing. Then, rousting a camp could make sense or not be needed.

References

10/19/09. “Mountain View homeless camp cleared out: Citations issued as squatters have 20 minutes to gather belongings” by Lisa Demer (Anchorage Daily News).
“A Look at Homelessness in Alaska” by Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage. Alaska Justice Forum 26(2): 2–5 (Summer 2009).
Anchorage Coalition on Homelessness (website).

No related posts.

In solidarity with Hilton workers

Mel Green — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:51:53 +0000

Crossposted at
Celtic Diva’s
Blue Oasis

UNITE HERE Local 878 represents workers at several Anchorage hotels including about 200 at the Anchorage Hilton. Hilton workers have been fighting for a fair contract since August 2008, when their last contract expired. But Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex, which took over the Anchorage Hilton in 2006, has been dragging its feet as much as it can, while simultaneously imposing — unilaterally — new demands on the workers, including increased workloads without additional pay.

Alaskans deserve better, and so Anchorage workers

It’s a national pattern with Columbia Sussex. For example, workers at the City Center Sheraton in Baltimore, which Columbia Sussex acquired in 2005, have been without a contract since April 2006. [Ref #1] Pressed by unilateral changes in work conditions, work speedups, management incompetence, and other problems brought on by Columbia Sussex’s policies, Baltimore workers — members of UNITE HERE Local 7 — put the hotel under boycott on November 15, 2007. [Ref #2] It’s still under boycott, [Ref #3] despite reportedly millions of dollars in revenue losses due to the boycott. [Ref #1] According to one piece about the Baltimore boycott,

The owner of Columbia Sussex, Bill Yung, has been slashing at wages, healthcare, and pensions while increasing workloads. He has been quoted as claiming his only interest is “making money,” and has made vows never to sign union contracts. The hospitality industry is the second fastest growing industry in Baltimore, so for the sake of this city it is vital that profiteers like Yung be driven out or forced to give workers good jobs, so that as this city grows, it grows in a positive direction. Yung’s model keeps workers struggling on the edge of poverty, and it is essential that we join together to stop this exploitative model. [Ref #1]

What workers demand: Safe workloads, job security, affordable medical

William J. Yung III, CEO of Columbia Sussex, has been operating much that way for a very long time. In an in-depth article about his disastrous entry into the casino business with Columbia Sussex subsidiary Tropicana Entertainment, Ben Fidler of TheDeal Magazine writes,

By the time Columbia Sussex purchased Aztar [owner of the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City, among other properties], the company owned 70 hotels, which Yung had assembled through acquisitions in the ’70s and ’80s. Yung carved out a management style that could be successful in a certain kind of hotel: extracting significant cost savings, typically through extreme job reductions, says one source, who notes, “He cuts the work force down to the bone.” Under Yung, staffers were typically required to work longer hours for less money. “That’s how he distinguished himself in the hotel business,” says the source. [Ref #4]

Good for Yung’s profits, bad for its workers. And bad for the Tropicana in Atlantic City, too. Yung saved roughly $40 million in labor costs by laying off about 1,300 employees at the Tropicana AC, but at the cost of “roaches, bedbugs, dirty floors and overflowing garbage pails” [Ref #4] — not to mention surly, unhappy workers. [Ref #5] Thanks to Yung’s policies, its gaming license under New Jersey law came under threat:

Over and over again, evidence was introduced at the hearings about dirty conditions and poor service at the Tropicana, which has New Jersey’s largest hotel at 2,129 rooms.

A Denver association of environmental health officials, for example, is refusing to pay the last $22,000 of its $97,000 bill, citing 15 pages of complaints ranging from cockroaches and bedbugs to filthy rooms to rude and hostile staff, and even one cleaning woman who ate a guest’s room service meal when he stepped out for a moment. [Ref #5]

The Tropicana AC lost its gaming license, and Yung was ousted from the management and board of Tropicana Entertainment LLC. [Ref #4]

Highest guest scores in the company & 2 more rooms is our reward?!

But he still has Columbia Sussex, and he still has his hotels. And his policies are what workers at the Hilton Anchorage are dealing with. For example, changes in working conditions. In June, shortly after Hilton workers called for a boycott of their employer, Brendan Joel Kelley of the Anchorage Press explained,

Meanwhile, according to Daniel Esparza from HERE, housekeeping employees are being asked to raise the number of rooms they clean in a shift from 15 to 17, and if employees don’t comply, they’re subject to disciplinary action: warnings, suspensions, and firing. “[Columbia Sussex] is going after the ones that are probably least able to defend themselves,” Beltrami says. “The hotel employee restaurant union, they represent a lot of the lower wage earners. So the housekeepers, a lot of them are minority women—most I would say—and they’re really trying to put it to them.” [Ref #6]

As I wrote a few days ago of the change from 15 to 17 rooms a day,

if you’ve ever cleaned a hotel or motel room, you know that’s imposing quite a bit more work for no additional compensation. [Ref #7]

Safe workloads

It’s also a major health concern. In a study based on OSHA records for 87 hotels from 1999 to 2007, UNITE HERE found,

On average, hotel workers experienced an injury rate of 6.4 per 100 workers, meaning that, in each year, more than six percent of the hotel workforce in these hotels suffered a documented workplace injury. Hotel housekeepers, however, faced a significantly greater injury rate of 10.4%, which is 86% greater than the injury rate experienced by non-housekeepers (5.6%). [Ref #8, p. 8]

And the faster they are required to work — in order to meet higher housekeeping quotas imposed by employers — the higher the risk of injury:

In recent years, the workload that hotel companies demand housekeepers perform has increased significantly. Chronic understaffing, coupled with the addition of time-consuming amenities—luxury items like heavy mattresses, fragile coffeepots and in-room exercise equipment—have placed housekeepers at greater risk of injury. In order to complete their room quotas, housekeepers are increasingly forced to skip meals and other breaks—rests necessary to prevent injury. Today, housekeepers’ bodies are at the breaking point. [Ref #8, p. 4]

This is what the Hilton Anchorage management, on orders from Bill Yung and Columbia Sussex, are imposing on Hilton workers.

They don’t care. Not if it’s their profits at stake.

Obviously at least a few Anchorage residents don’t care either, based on many of the reader comments made on the brief story in the Anchorage Daily News about yesterday’s Hotel Workers Rising March from the Sheraton to the Hilton. Here’s a sampler:

Local leaders Vickie and Margie

I’m sure that some people would be happy to even have a job. I’d be bringing in the scabs. Not too hard to train hotel workers anyway, and then you’d have grateful employees.

Problem solved. (Guy_Smiley)

The signs should be expressing gratitude for having a job. (resnared)

Fire ‘em all. Fire every single last one of them. No exceptions: everyone, terminated, there’s the door, you’re outa here.

Then, open up a job-hiring room in each hotel. Care to guess how long it would take to hire new workers, at the same wages as the ones who’ve been fired, with the provision that there’s no union mafia membership?

24 hours, if that. (DaphneFitzroy)

This would have been a magnificant [sic] opportunity for INS to make a sweep for ILLEGALS. (gman2)

Union advocates, you do yourselves and your “cause” no good by these actions. Claiming that “management” demands you put up with “unfair working conditions,” without offering even a shred of evidence just makes you appear silly.

Public sentiment is strongly against unions, and in our country’s current economic condition that sentiment is growing. As we’re all forced to tighten our belts, we don’t want to hear about your “demands.” If you want a better-paying job with more generous benefits, acquire the education and/or training necessary and take the initiative to find one. (CrosleyField)

The only question I have is……….. where was the INS they should have been checking green cards???? (bhessert)

If you don’t like your job…the management, the pay, the requirements, benefits, whatever, find another job. I cannot imagine making a career out of working for a hotel or motel anyway. Those are stepping-stone jobs while you gain a meaningful education on your way to a real job. (lnhbowlus)

In this economy, maybe people should be grateful they have a job at all….you can be replaced…. (FISH4GOODTIMES) [Ref #9, reader comments]

Hilton Under Boycott: what workers are fighting for. Click through to see at a readable size.

Many of the comments were products of what appeared to be universal hostility towards unions regardless of what kind of work its members did, how much they were paid, or whether their complaints had any merit. Many seemed to think that all workers had to do was to quit their jobs, get training, and go to new, better jobs — never mind that most workers had families they couldn’t afford to leave unprovided for as they went off to pursue educations that they couldn’t afford anyway without income. Many commenters made assumptions about the demands they were making without any effort to learn what Hilton workers were in fact demanding — and denying the facts even when other commenters (including me) provided them with documented information.

Working mothers on the march with their kids

And then there’s this comment:

This dispute is over Physical Labor $11 hour to clean 17-20 rooms in an 8 hour shift. (estimate 25 minutes per room to handle the 17 room quota; an experience housekeeper possible 20 minutes to receive more rooms)

Job description: quickly vacuum, change the bedding, clean the bathroom, change out the towels, check the toilet paper dispenser, and complimentary items around the room. Plus pay a union dues each month. (stress occurs to the physical body due to physical labor)

I could understand a higher salary for construction workers who use physical stress & mental stress.

Or women who receive a higher salary for mental stress in a productive business.

As a single parent, I can accomplish more housekeeping work in 30 minutes inside my home, and be paid nothing for my accomplishment.

I understand the “cost of living” is expensive in Alaska.

It would of been appropriate to ask an Employer for a raise to get through difficult times instead of using a Union to miss a day of work. (JulianaSmithAK) [Ref #9, reader comment]

[Update 10/2/09: Interestingly, when I checked this morning, JulianaSmithAK's note had been unnaccountably removed. So were other comments she'd made earlier in the comment stream on this story.]

Which just goes to show that JulianaSmithAK (1) apparently has not considered that even workers for an exploitative company like Columbia Sussex get time off — in fact, a lot of them seem to have more time off than before Yung’s company took over the company, because workers losing hours (and managers doing their work) is another of their complaints; and (2) has no concept of the physical demands actually placed on housekeeping staff in a luxury hotel like the Hilton:

“I have sharp pains when I bend,” says Leticia Ceballos, a hotel housekeeper at the Glendale Hilton near Los Angeles. “Putting the sheets on the beds and cleaning the toilets and bathtubs hurt the most. After the hotel put in the heavier beds and linens, the pain became more severe.”

The problem is getting worse as hotel companies implement room changes like heavier beds and duvets, triple sheets, extra pillows and in-room amenities like coffee makers and treadmills. The evidence strongly implicates increasingly excessive workloads in the rising rates of musculoskeletal disorders such as low back pain and tendonitis among hotel housekeepers. “This is among the highest-stress jobs (on the body) in the service and production industries,” occupational-medicine physician Peter Orris told USA Today. [Ref #10]

But hey, I guess it’s just easier to think about 30 minutes in one’s own house, and pretend that it duplicates the actual working conditions that housekeeping staff at the Hilton or other big hotels work under.

But I’d prefer to go by actual facts. And if those commenters at the Anchorage Daily News don’t give a damn about Hilton workers — I do.

I was proud to march with them yesterday. And I will continue to support their fight for a fair contract. I hope you will too.

References

4/12/09. “Mayday Rally: Support the Sheraton Workers!” (Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse).
11/13/08. “Boycott of Baltimore City Center Sheraton Hotel Launched by UNITE HERE!” by Flint Sparc (Baltimore IMC).
“Union Hotel Guide: Boycott These Properties” (Hotel Workers Rising).
7/18/08. “Yung and the restless” by Ben Fidler (TheDeal Magazine).
12/1/07. “Tropicana faces challenge to undo damage to reputation” by D.J. McAneny (NJ.com).
6/17/09. “Housekeeping – The Hilton’s union employees institute a boycott” by Brendan Joel Kelley (Anchorage Press).
9/28/09. “Hotel Workers Rising March: September 30″ by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
April 2006. Creating Luxury, Enduring Pain: How Hotel Work is Hurting Housekeepers (UNITE HERE). (Available through the Take Action page on the Hotel Workers Rising website.)
10/30/09. “Hotel workers hold downtown rally over wages, benefits” (Anchorage Daily News).
Take Action page (Hotel Workers Rising).

Further background on the Hilton boycott:

9/25/09. “Unity & union-busting” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
9/28/09. “Hotel Workers Rising; Why We Need to Get Involved” by John Aronno (Alaska Commons).

Slideshow of Hotel Workers Rising March, Anchorage, September 30, 2009

Here’s the slide show of all the photos (or the ones I uploaded, anyway) of the march. You can view the slideshow full-screen by tapping the full-screen icon. You can also see the entire set in my Flickr photostream.

True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech

Mel Green — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:16:37 +0000

Janson Jones of Floridana Alaskiana v2.5 has completed work on the third of his True Diversity Dinner videos. (You can view the first two parts here.)

Assembly Member Elvi Gray-Jackson at the True Diversity Dinner

This video includes footage from the protest of Hilton workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 878, outside the Mayor’s Unity Dinner, which was held at the Hilton Anchorage outside down the street from the True Diversity Dinner’s venue at the Snow Goose Restaurant. Janson highlights a couple of reader responses to a brief Anchorage Daily News item about yesterday’s Hotel Workers Rising March (I’ll be posting my photos of it later), in which readers made bigoted comments about hotel workers’ presumed immigration status: yet another sign of how far we have yet to go in truly accepting and appreciating diversity in our community.

What diversity looks like: Hotel workers protesting outside the Mayor's Unity Dinner at the Hilton Anchorage

The balance of the video is Assembly Member Elvi Gray-Jackson’s speech at the dinner. I’ve gotta say again, just as I told her that night: thank you for being the Assembly member from my district who actually represents me. If you missed the True Diversity Dinner, here’s your chance to hear what she had to say.

Janson says there may be as many as four or five additonal videos in store covering the performances and speeches made that night. Stay tuned!

Hotel Workers Rising March: Today!

Mel Green — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:02:54 +0000

The Hotel Workers Rising campaign is a national campaign for decent working conditions and wages for hotel workers.

Unite HERE Local 878 represents workers at several Anchorage hotels including about 200 at the Anchorage Hilton. Hilton workers have been fighting for a fair contract since August 2008, when their last contract expired. But Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex, which took over the Anchorage Hilton in 2006, has been dragging its feet as much as it can, while simultaneously imposing — unilaterally — new demands on the workers, including increased workloads without additional pay.

Hilton Anchorage, a familiar landmark in downtown Anchorage -- now making its mark as a union-buster that cares little about the welfare of the workers who actually provide the hospitality the hotel brags about.

Hotel workers and their supporters will be marching today beginning at 4:30 PM from the Sheraton Anchorage at 6th and Eagle to the Hilton Anchorage. If you can, please join me in turning out today to show your support for these Anchorage workers and their families.

Background on what’s going on at the Hilton can be found in these posts:

9/25/09. “Unity & union-busting” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
9/28/09. “Hotel Workers Rising March: September 30″ by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
9/28/09. “Hotel Workers Rising; Why We Need to Get Involved” by John Aronno (Alaska Commons).