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NEWS & LETTERS, October 2002
Chicago hotel victory
Chicago--Hotel workers here made a great collective stride
forward recently with success in winning a new contract from management. The
workers--over 7,000 strong represented by Hotel Employees and Restaurant
Employees Local 1--gained an offer from hotel managers on Sept. 3 after a
campaign of organizing and community outreach to lay the groundwork for a
strike. Chicago's predominantly minority and immigrant hotel
workers emerged only recently from a dormancy maintained by a corrupt and
bureaucratic leadership. The local was placed under the trusteeship of the
international union in the mid-1990s to avoid government intervention into its
affairs. The new spirit of the rank and file was plainly visible at
a huge rush hour march and rally down Michigan Avenue on Aug. 23. On-duty
workers at hotels along the route waved in support to the thousands of union
members and supporters who paraded down the busy street to rally at a park
across from the luxurious Drake Hotel. One got the feeling that the
determination of the rank and file was so strong that neither the hotel managers
nor the union leadership could control it. The four-year contract the workers voted to approve didn't
contain the parity with New York hotel industry wages that the organizing
campaign had aimed for, but it did feature a substantial boost, along with a
significant decrease in health insurance costs. --Kevin Michaels |
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