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Sic Semper Manageris: WeHo Hyatt Workers Strike Now
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2803 Reads
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 Just in time for the Gay Pride celebrations this weekend, too.
To hear Councilman Eric Garcetti tell it, management at the West Hollywood Hyatt's getting all Matewan on the a-s-s of the workers.
Citing poor wages, harrassment and bad-faith bargaining over health-care payments, the workers of Hotel Workers Union Local 11 quit haggling and apparently went out on strike early this morning. They're holding a massive rally at the hotel as you read this ...
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Here's part of this afternoon's email blast from Garcetti: This morning at 4:30am, workers at the Hyatt West Hollywood Hotel walked out on strike to protest alleged unfair labor practices of the hotel management. In addition to firing and harrassing workers for speaking out on the job, the hotels are accused of instituting co-payments for health insurance that left an estimated 500 families without health coverage.
The National Labor Relations Board will take this hotel and the other six members of the Hotel Employer's Council to trial, but litigation can take years. Meanwhile, the hotels won't give the money back.
Dishwashers, housekeepers, bellmen, front desk staff and cooks are standing up for their legal rights from the large corporations which own and run these hotels.
"When the hotels started charging me for my healthcare I was really upset. I am a single mother with three kids. I am already struggling as it is," explained Morena Hernandez, a housekeeper at the Hyatt West Hollywood for 8 years. "While I was paying for the health insurance, I had to cut back on groceries and bus tokens for my daughter to use to get to school. Ten dollars a week might be just a little for some people, but it's a lot for me. I want that money back."
On the first day of this strike, help send a strong message to the Hotel Employers Council that they cannot break federal law and ignore their employees' legal rights. The LABJ's David Greenberg has the blow-by-blow.
If you want to sign up for picket duty or make contributions to support the striking workers, check out SupportLAHotelWorkers.org, suggests Garcetti, who's proven to be quite the friend of labor.
FWIW, there's no sign of this yet on Garcetti's blog, which has lain dormant since 5/30.
Having sat on the sidewalk with a picket sign around my neck for seven weeks myself once (Newspaper Guild versus Philadelphia Newspapers, 1985, not an experience I want to do over) I'd invite any of the hotel workers to post a first-person account here at LAVoice as things progress ...
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| Posted by: Mack_Reed on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 05:05 PM
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