Sen. John Edwards, Actor/Activist Danny Glover and More on Tour to Support

[Catchawave]

'Hotel Workers Rising'

2/13/2006 12:33:00 PM


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To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor

Contact: Amanda Cooper of UNITE HERE, 212-332-9376

News Advisory:

WHAT: A nationwide tour to launch a new campaign to empower thousands of hotel workers in cities across North America as they work to improve their jobs and secure better lives for themselves and their families.

WHO:

-- Sen. John Edwards

-- Actor/Director Danny Glover

-- Mayors and other elected officials

-- UNITE HERE Presidents Bruce Raynor and John Wilhelm

-- Thousands of hotel workers

-- Other community, union and entertainment figures

WHEN:

-- Feb. 15, San Francisco

-- Feb. 16, Los Angeles

-- Feb. 17, Chicago

-- Feb. 18, Boston

(Contact Amanda Cooper at [e-mail] for specific details.)

WHY: In recent decades, the hotel industry has witnessed the rapid consolidation and expansion of international hotel corporations. The hotel industry used to be dominated by local players and local markets. But today the industry is dominated by multimillion dollar global corporations. Hotel companies such as Starwood, Hilton and Marriott are present in every major city, and employ thousands of workers.

These workers -- largely minority and immigrant women -- work hard to create a welcoming home away from home for business travelers and tourists. But severe understaffing coupled with an increase in room amenities like heavier mattresses and linens are hurting these workers. Wages for the same jobs vary wildly from city to city, and workers find themselves fighting to make ends meet and keep important benefits like health care and retirement plans, as well as their right to organize a union.

But hotel workers are fighting back. They are uniting across North America to send a message to hotel companies: "We are determined to make our jobs safer, middle-class jobs on which we can support our families." A recent New York Daily News opinion piece said this campaign has "the potential to be a historic turning point for the labor movement in America. ... (The campaign is a) test of organized labor's ability to become a people's movement again. ... "

For more information visit http://www.hotelworkersrising.org or contact Amanda Cooper at [e-mail] or by calling 212-332-9376.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

-0-

/© 2006 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/

[Caoimhe]

1. Very COOL!

[ProSense]

2. Excellent! n/t

[Catchawave]

3. Tour diary at One America

from one of the bloggers traveling with Sen. Edwards.

http://blog.oneamericacommittee.com/story/2006/2/15/85110/9776

[Radical Activist]

4. Economic populism.

Gotta love it. At least not everyone in the party is cow-towing to the corporate agenda.

[Catchawave]

5. Article in New York Times:

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15 — The nation's largest hotel union opened a nationwide campaign on Wednesday to improve workers' wages with an unusual strategy — it had John Edwards, the former Democratic candidate for vice president, sit with hotel workers to hear their complaints.

...snip...

The workers and Mr. Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, have joined an effort by Unite Here, the union of hotel, restaurant and apparel workers, to pressure hotels around the nation to improve wages for not just 90,000 unionized hotel workers, but also for more than a million nonunion hotel workers.

Mr. Edwards's participation in the campaign is one of his most prominent forays into the spotlight as he considers whether to seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

"Can we still really call America the land of opportunity when hotel workers who work full time for profitable hotel companies cannot afford to make ends meet?" Mr. Edwards said. "This is not just unjust. It is immoral, and we need to do something about it."

...snip...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/national/16labor.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[ultraist]

6. K&R

POWER TO THE PEOPLE


Former Senator John Edwards, D-N.C., speaks at a rally for the Hotel Workers Rising tour in San Francisco, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2006. The campaign is to help thousands of hotel workers improve their jobs in cities across North America.

:kick:

[1932]

7. Glover lives in the Bay Area, I believe...in Berkeley.

I think I heard him say that on Tavis Smiley.

[Catchawave]

8. Hotels brace for possible labor unrest (USA Today)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Hotel companies are preparing for possible labor unrest in 2006 as contracts expire in major North American cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
An executive at the Reuters Hotels and Casinos Summit held in Los Angeles said the Unite Here union's bid to grow and increase its influence is likely to be the most contentious issue, eclipsing arguments over wages and benefits.

Unite Here, formed by the merger of two unions in 2004, says more than 200 hotels are affected in seven markets.

"Clearly there is a lot of activity about to get underway," Marriott International Inc. Chief Financial Officer Arne Sorenson told Reuters.


more: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/hotels/2006-02-16-hotel-strikes-loom_x.htm

[Catchawave]

9. Here comes the RW spin.....

Oh-oh, the GOP is worried:

From: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200602%5CNAT20060214a.html

CNSNews.com) - Instead of looking for better jobs or job training, the nation's hotel workers are seeking more money and better benefits from the jobs they already have with the world's big hotel chains.............

****

Those lazy, ungrateful hotel workers :sarcasm: