SEATTLE — Over 100 unionists joined the striking UNITE HERE Local 8 workers on their picket line in front of the Embassy Suites Hotel Aug. 20. “We are fighting for ourselves, but also because if we win this strike it can lead to changes for other hotel workers in the area,” striker Aspen Desmarais told the Militant. Signs and chants indicated rejection of the company offer of a mere 40 cents an hour wage increase.
Other area unions sent delegations, including United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000, Service Employees International Union, the Amalgamated Transit Union, Seattle Education Association, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. About 10 members of Local 8, who work in the food service kitchens at Microsoft, joined the action.
Claudia Margarita Diaz, who has worked in the kitchens for 16 years, told the Militant it took a yearlong organizing drive to win union recognition at Microsoft a few years ago. “We came to support this strike here because we don’t want them to suffer abuses.”
Four kitchen workers from Meta joined the picket line, one saying they are fighting for a union contract.