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   Vol.65/No.47            December 10, 2001 
 
 
Hotel workers in Boston vote to
strike against concession demands
 
BY TED LEONARD  
BOSTON--"They are using September 11 to push through a bad contract," said Westin Roach at a November 19 rally of hundreds of hotel workers here. "They are ignoring the profits they have made the last couple of years, profits that surpassed their expectations."

"The hotels just want to make more money," an airport driver for the Hilton Hotel explained as he marched around the Park Plaza Hotel. The march culminated in a rally held at the historic Arlington Street Church in downtown Boston.

Members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE) Local 26 voted 1,261 to 13 to authorize a strike. Their current five-year contract expires November 30.

The union represents 3,000 workers at eight Boston hotels. Since September 11, the hotels have laid off 1,000 union members and industry analysts say they expect a 10 percent drop in occupancy rates this year.

The hotel owners are demanding concessions from the union, such as elimination of the eight-hour shift and the right to schedule employees for either less or more than eight hours depending on the needs of the bosses. The companies also want the right to subcontract work in any department and pay benefits to the union's Health and Welfare Plan at a level that would put the plan into bankruptcy.

Local 26 president Janice Loux told the rally, "The hotels want to talk about September, October, and November, but what about the previous 60 months?"

With contracts coming up in Houston, Chicago, and Las Vegas, HERE International Union president John Wilhelm said the negotiations in Boston represent "the first big-city hotel contract since September 11. If the hotel owners jam a concession contract down your throat they will be encouraged to do the same across the country." He pledged the support of the 275,000 members of the union in the United States and Canada.

The featured speaker at the rally was Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and a past candidate for U.S. president in the Democratic Party primaries.

Voicing the high morale of the workers at the end of the rally and march, Joseph Charles, a housekeeper at the Sheraton Hotel, explained, "We are ready!"

Ted Leonard is a meatpacking worker in the Boston area. Laura Garza contributed to this article.  
 
 
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