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)

Related posts:

1. Hotel Workers Rising March: Today!
2. Press conference Friday on illegal firing of four Sheraton Anchorage workers (press release)
3. Sheraton Anchorage illegally fires four workers

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

1. 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. 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).
3. 2/20/2010. “Fired Sheraton employees challenge action — BOYCOTT BACKLASH? 4 dispute being let go after protesting work conditions” (Anchorage Daily News).
4. 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).
5. 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

Related posts:

1. Press conference Friday on illegal firing of four Sheraton Anchorage workers (press release)
2. Sheraton Anchorage illegally fires four workers
3. Hotel Workers Picket during Fur Rondy (press release)

Note that the ADN headline as originally written was incorrect: UNITE HERE Local 878 wasn’t holding a protest, but a press conference.

Related posts:

1. Sheraton Anchorage update: Governor's Safety and Health Conference cancels agreement
2. Hotel Workers Picket during Fur Rondy (press release)
3. Press conference Friday on illegal firing of four Sheraton Anchorage workers (press release)

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).

Related posts:

1. Hotel Workers Picket during Fur Rondy (press release)
2. Sheraton Anchorage illegally fires four workers
3. Sheraton Anchorage update: Governor's Safety and Health Conference cancels agreement

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

1. 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. 11/18/2009. “Vacancy (please)” by Brendan Joel Kelley (Anchorage Press).
3. 2/3/2010. “In Brief” by Brendan Joel Kelley (Anchorage Press).
4. 1/22/2010. “Government by psychopathy” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
5. 10/1/2009. “In solidarity with Hilton workers” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
6. 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.)

Related posts:

1. Hotel Workers Picket during Fur Rondy (press release)
2. Press conference Friday on illegal firing of four Sheraton Anchorage workers (press release)
3. Hotel Workers Rising March: Today!

Related posts:

1. Sheraton Anchorage illegally fires four workers
2. Sheraton Anchorage update: Governor's Safety and Health Conference cancels agreement
3. Press conference Friday on illegal firing of four Sheraton Anchorage workers (press release)

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

1. 4/12/09. “Mayday Rally: Support the Sheraton Workers!” (Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse).
2. 11/13/08. “Boycott of Baltimore City Center Sheraton Hotel Launched by UNITE HERE!” by Flint Sparc (Baltimore IMC).
3. “Union Hotel Guide: Boycott These Properties” (Hotel Workers Rising).
4. 7/18/08. “Yung and the restless” by Ben Fidler (TheDeal Magazine).
5. 12/1/07. “Tropicana faces challenge to undo damage to reputation” by D.J. McAneny (NJ.com).
6. 6/17/09. “Housekeeping – The Hilton’s union employees institute a boycott” by Brendan Joel Kelley (Anchorage Press).
7. 9/28/09. “Hotel Workers Rising March: September 30″ by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
8. 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.)
9. 10/30/09. “Hotel workers hold downtown rally over wages, benefits” (Anchorage Daily News).
10. 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.

Related posts:

1. Hotel Workers Rising March: Today!
2. Sheraton Anchorage illegally fires four workers
3. Hotel Workers Picket during Fur Rondy (press release)

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!

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner 1 & 2: Video by Janson Jones
2. Hotel Workers Rising March: Today!
3. Hotel Workers Rising March: September 30

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).

Related posts:

1. Hotel Workers Rising March: September 30
2. Hotel Workers Picket during Fur Rondy (press release)
3. Press conference Friday on illegal firing of four Sheraton Anchorage workers (press release)

I met Janson as a result of becoming a fan of the fantastic photography (including of the ordinance battle) at his blog, Floridana Alaskiana v2.5.

Janson Jones of the blog Floridana Alaskiana v2.5 — one of the sponsors of the True Diversity Dinner — has completed part 1 of his video presentation of the event.

Part 1 gives background on the battle over the summer for the Anchorage equal rights ordinance, AO 2009-64, which was passed by the Anchorage Assembly by a vote of 7 to 4 on August 11, but was vetoed on August 17 by Mayor Dan Sullivan; then goes into the decision by several of us bloggers to hold a True Diversity Dinner on September 11 as an alternative for the Mayor’s Unity Dinner, with footage from KTVA Channel 11 and KTUU Channel 2 coverage of the event. Janson also discusses the labor problems at the Anchorage Hilton, where the Mayor’s event was held — the Hilton’s owner, Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex, is refusing to settle a fair contract with its workers, who picketed the hotel the night of the event — which Mayor’s Unity Event participants crossed picket lines to attend.

Janson tells me that Parts 2 & 3 of his presentation are nearly complete, with Part 2 due online within the hour. I’ll update this post with the other two parts when they’re complete.

Thanks, Janson, for your hard work on such a fine presentation.

Janson also has a fine collection of photos from the dinner: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4.

Update: Part 2 now up: a montage of photos from the event. Janson says Part 3 will probably go up tomorrow. Later update: There’s lots more than 3 parts — I’m adding them in separate posts as they get completed.

Here’s a photo of Lifetime Achievement Award winners Vic Fischer, one of the framers of the Alaska Constitution, & Jane Angvik, who helped frame Anchorage’s municipal charter, from the first night of testimony on the Anchorage equal rights ordinance on June 9.

Vic Fischer and Jane Angvik (right) with Arliss Sturgulewski (left) at the June 9, 2009 Anchorage Assembly hearing. All three testified that night in support of the ordinance (as did Chuck O'Connell, in the foreground).

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech
2. The Daily Tweets, 2009-09-29: True Diversity Dinner videos by Janson Jones
3. True Diversity Dinner video, part 5: Diane Benson