26,000 member healthcare union endorses Seattle Hyatt boycott
Jobs at UNITE HERE
Boycott Organizer
– Local 8, Seattle, WA
Be a part of a movement of low wage workers that is confronting corporate greed and mistreatment of workers, raising the standards of service sector jobs, and winning dignity and respect on the job through solidarity and action.
Across the United States and Canada, our members (a majority of whom are women and immigrants) in the hotel and casino industries are standing in solidarity to defend their standards against corporations that are attempting to roll back hard-won decent wages, benefits and respect on the job. Additionally, non-union hotel and casino workers are fighting for the right to organize free from management intimidation and retaliation. Boycotts are a critical piece of our comprehensive campaigns.
UNITE HERE Local 8 represents over 3,000 hospitality workers, including hotel workers in downtown Seattle, SeaTac, Tacoma, and Olympia. UNITE HERE’s membership is very diverse, comprised largely of immigrants and including high percentages of African-American, Latino, and Asian-American workers – with a majority overall being women. Through organizing and winning good contracts, UNITE HERE members in Seattle and throughout North America have made hundreds of thousands of traditionally low-wage jobs into good, family-sustaining, middle class jobs.
Boycott Coordinators develop strategy to move customers from boycotted properties, work with worker committees and lead teams of volunteer activists to plan and carry out creative actions to help enforce boycotts. The work is typically 40% – Coordinating and executing creative actions at strategic locations to help enforce boycotts and 60% – Research and campaign related work.
Desired Qualifications:
• Applicants must be willing and able to travel to work sites, and relocate as necessary for campaigns;
• Must have passion for low wage and other worker struggles;
• Must have previous activist experience — boycott experience a plus;
• Must be assertive and have excellent language, writing and computer skills. Spanish language skills desired.
Duties Include (but are not limited to):
• Researching hotel and casino clients;
• Developing and carrying out strategy to move clients from hotels and casinos that are driving down industry standards;
• Recruiting/developing/maintaining volunteer committees;
• Working with community and labor allies;
• Coordinating actions such as leafleting, delegations and marches, including frequent early morning actions.
How to apply: Send cover letter, resume, and 1-3 pp. writing sample to Meg Robertson, [email protected].
For more information, contact Levi Pine at 312-296-7649.
Federal Panel Upholds Ruling that Space Needle Violated Workers’ Rights
Space Needle Workers Hope For Final Answer to 2013 Labor Charges
SEATTLE – A three-member panel of the federal body that monitors U.S. labor law issued a decision and order in favor of Space Needle workers and their union at the end of the day Friday.
“I’ve been a line cook at the Space Needle for ten years,” said Andy Roos, “and the past three years have been excruciating. Work shouldn’t be this stressful. My coworkers and I are committed to our jobs and want to share in the success of the symbol of Seattle. Perhaps this decision will be a wake-up call to the Space Needle owners.”
Workers first brought charges of unfair labor practices against the Space Needle in 2013. They won an initial legal victory in 2014 when an administrative law judge found for their claims, but management had appealed the ruling.
In Friday’s ruling, National Labor Relations Board Chair Mark Gaston Pearce and members Kent Y. Hirozawa and Harry I. Johnson III found Space Needle management had violated federal labor law by undertaking a number of efforts aimed at discouraging workers from supporting or participating in their union since their contract expired in 2011.
The NLRB officers found that Space Needle management failed to recall two pro-union employees; distributed letters to employees encouraging them to resign from the union; polled employees about their attitudes toward the union; made coercive statements to workers; and reneged on a prior written agreement with the union to resume payroll-based deduction of its employees’ union dues.
In response to the Space Needle’s legal violations, the National Labor Relations Board ordered the company to desist from anti-union interference among its employees, return two employees to work with back pay, and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back dues that the company owes to the union representing Space Needle workers, UNITE HERE Local 8.
“What is most important is that the workers who lost their jobs two years ago get back to work and that the coercion and the unfair treatment of workers stops,” said Erik Van Rossum, president of UNITE HERE Local 8 and a former Space Needle server’s assistant. “Seattle is a place of deeply-held values and intense pride, and the symbol of our city shouldn’t be associated with this kind of illegal behavior.”
Space Needle workers recently sought support from Seattle City Council in their ongoing fight for a new contract and overdue raises. The company has offered workers just one raise in the last 4 and a half years—an increase of $0.35 an hour two years ago.
“Together, we have fought back against this trampling of workers’ rights, “said SkyCity restaurant server Julia Dube, one of two workers who will return to the Space Needle if the ruling stands. “Today is a tremendous day for Seattle workers, and especially those at the Space Needle.”
UNITE HERE Local 8, the hospitality union of the Pacific Northwest, represents nearly 5,000 workers in hospitality and foodservice throughout Washington and Oregon, including SkyCity restaurant employees, banquet servers, elevator operators, greeters, and other workers at the Space Needle.
The Space Needle is owned by the Wright Family, descendants of the founders of both the Howard S. Wright Construction Company and PACCAR Inc. Owner Howard S. Wright III recently served as the co-chair of Mayor Ed Murray’s Economic Inequality Advisory Committee.
Portland Airport Press Conference and Port Commission Meeting – Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at 8:30 am
Join UNITE HERE Local 8 union and non-union airport workers and their fight for job security! In the coming years a majority of the concessionaire leases expire at the Portland International Airport. 50 union workers were just displaced on December 31st at PDX Gustav’s restaurant due to an expired lease and no worker retention. That means, when a concessionaire lease expires and a new business comes in, they do not have to retain the workers. This is bad for workers, bad for travelers, and bad for Portland. Join us now to tell the Port Commission we need worker retention.
What: Press conference with workers and port commission meeting to follow. We will release the results of a PDX job conditions survey.
Where: Portland International Airport: The Multnomah room (in the conference center) upstairs from the clock tower.
When: Wednesday January 14th 2015
Time: Gathering at 8:30am with a port commission hearing to follow for those who can stay. Workers will be testifying.
