Virtually all 400 workers of the Radisson walked out June 16. "¡Sí se puede!" (Yes we can!) was the chant of Spanish- and non-Spanish speakers alike.

Local 17 organizes housekeepers, bell staff workers, banquet services workers, bartenders, cooks, and waiters and waitresses, among others.

The Radisson is one of nine hotels in the Twin Cities area that has refused to give unionists the wage increases and benefits they are demanding.

"The owners don't want to give us a fair wage increase or adequate health care," said Melchor Salas, a Mexican-born convention services worker. "This is one of the most prestigious facilities for conventions and business meetings in the area," explained Salas as he waved at cars that honked in support of the strikers. "With the thousands of dollars they make on one well-attended convention of a few days during this busy season, they could cover all the wage increases and benefits we are asking for."

The following day, workers struck the Thunderbird Hotel, also in Bloomington. The Minneapolis Hilton and the Crowne Plaza Northstar were struck on Monday, June 19. Workers at the Marquette hit the bricks the following day.

The other hotels involved in the contract negotiations are the Minneapolis Regal, Best Western-Normandy, Holiday Inn II, and Sheraton Airport Hotel. Local 17 officials said employees from the remaining hotels will be pulled out and picket lines will be set up within a week of the first walkout. Some 1,500 workers are covered by the contract with these nine hotels, affecting 3,161 rooms or 10 percent of the metropolitan area's accommodations. The contract expired May 1.

Hotel occupancy is particularly busy right now, and with a 50,000-delegate international meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous starting June 29, rooms have been booked within a 30-mile radius.  
 
Multinational workforce
The picket lines reflect the composition of the working class in this city. Workers, ranging from teenagers to those near retirement, are mostly immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, as well as from Somalia, Bosnia, China, Laos, Vietnam, and other countries. There are also U.S.-born white, Black, Chicano, and Native American workers. "We need to organize translation into 17 languages," said Local 17 organizer Kate Shaughnessy.

Workers demand a 21 to 46 percent pay raise over the next five years, with the largest increase for the lowest-paid workers, the housekeepers and banquet servers. Some have 25 years seniority at the Radisson but have not seen a wage increase. Starting pay is $8.50 per hour. The company is offering a raise of 17.5 to 23 percent.

The company proposed an increase of 70 cents an hour in health-care benefits and retirement plans over five years, to $1.73. But it lowered its wage offer by an equal amount. Workers refuse to accept this trade-off. Local 17 is also demanding paid English classes for workers who want them.

Tim, a waiter at the Thunderbird on the Bloomington strip, said, "The company is offering nothing, and trying to make up the difference by taking money from existing funds." Víctor Salas, a banquet server at Thunderbird, stated, "With the cost of transportation and food, I need two jobs to survive, and to feed my family not just here but in Mexico."

David Muñiz, a waiter at the Radisson since November, said, "We had been waiting for this day for a while. Waiters like ourselves can make good money, but the housekeepers and convention service workers make very little, and we could not let that go on."

"We bent over backwards to try to come to a fair agreement," said Uriel Pérez, a young organizer of Local 17 who was picketing the Radisson South. "The deadline came and went, and the membership of the union was upset. They came to the union hall and expressed their eagerness to strike.

When the negotiations broke down, "I came to the Radisson right away," Pérez recounted. "They had guards securing all the entrances but one, the employee entrance!" Pérez said, laughing. "We scattered throughout the building shouting, 'Strike!' People at the restaurant were startled a little by our entrance, but the workers were ready and waiting. The cooks calmly wiped off their tools, wrapped them up, and put them away in a drawer and told us: 'Okay, lets do it,' and we all marched out."

Workers at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis struck June 19. Hilton bosses hired scabs and temporary workers from agencies, many of whom were kept in a banquet room until the morning the strike began.

Sabah, a housekeeper at the Hilton who is Somali, reported, "The company is telling the scabs not to change the sheets in the occupied rooms. Nobody is cooking and nobody is cleaning," she said.

John Rochester, a cocktail server, said, "Some guests might not see 850 unchanged sheets as a problem, but when it comes to 850 dirty toilets, that is when they will start coming out." Rochester makes $5.50 an hour plus tips.

Victoriano Sibran, a banquet worker at the Thunderbird who was picketing June 18, has made $8.75 an hour for three years and has not seen a wage increase. " I have my family to support," Sibran stated. "What we are doing is just and necessary."  
 
 
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