"Unite Here" Would Impress Cesar Chavez
T.A. Frank should become aware of the ongoing David vs. Goliath story of UNITE HERE, whose hotel and gaming workers includes many immigrants and has much demographic similarities to the UFW in its heyday. UNITE HERE has won card check neutrality agreements and unionization against powerful international hotel and gaming conglomerates, and has brought the wages of unionized hotel workers to nearly double that of non-union hotel workers in the same city.
UNITE HERE uses many of the same strategies and tactics that brought the UFW success, particularly the consumer boycott. In fact, UNITE HERE's Hotel Workers Rising campaign used videos of the UFW grape boycott to train staff and community supporters on running hotel boycotts; the success of the latter pressured hotels to both agree to card check neutrality and greatly increase wages and benefits for UNITE HERE members.
UNITE HERE is the union most impacted by UFW alums, and I think Cesar Chavez would be quite impressed by its accomplishments.
Erm, you are aware that UNITE HERE is in the middle of an internal civil war, right?
June 4, 2009 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
IIRC UNITE HERE's most important hotel contracts (NYC, LA, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu) all expired in 2006. Since the employers on the other side of the bargaining table generally owned hotels in all the affected cities, the union had an unusually strong hand. Kudos for luck or earlier perspicacity.
2006 was, also, the height of hoteliers' optimism and enthusiasm in respect to future demand. See, chart.
And when you're looking for a construction and development loan from your friendly Wall Street bank, it's wise not to have a labor problem hanging over your head. "RevPAR's going through the roof; money's free; let's get cracking; give 'em what they want."
UNITE HERE's 2006 successes may be a once in a generation accomplishment.
June 4, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
This chart shows hotel occupancy rates rising for three state years prior to the 2006 contract expirations -- a great time to be a union negotiator.
June 4, 2009 9:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not all Kudos to luck. Members and staff in Unite Here undertook a strategy that enabled them to negotiate contracts in all of the cities that you mention at the same time. The fact that Unite Here built density in an industry and then was able to coordinate contract campaigns across cities afforded them the bargaining strength to take advantage of the fortuitous times.
From a Unite Here document "A Merger that is Working" (http://oneunitehere.org/documents.asp): "Long before the merger [between Unite and Here], HERE hotel locals agreed to a strategy to line up contracts to increase bargaining strength. Through major sacrifice, including a hotel strike/lockout and locals working without contracts, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Toronto, Monterey, San Francisco, and Los Angeles locals were successful in aligning contract expirations in 2006."
June 26, 2009 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink