PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Hotel union wins good contract
By Michael Shaw
Providence, R.I.
After two weeks of picketing and pitched negotiations, about
300 workers at the Westin Providence Hotel have won an
unprecedented four-year contract with pay increases, a freeze
on employee-paid health-insurance premiums, and their first
company-paid pension program.
The last contract ended Oct. 31. Hotel bosses refused to
meet the workers' demands. So members and supporters of Hotel
and Restaurant Local 217 started picketing in front of the
hotel twice a day, every other day.
Margo Guernsey, a Local 217 organizer, told the Providence
Journal that the workers won because they were "united, and the
company knew they were united. ... Across the country the
industry is having trouble. Here business has probably dipped
slightly, but they are still doing well. We have members
working overtime consistently."
With the new contract, all non-tipped workers receive raises
of 5 to 6 percent over the next four years. Hourly pay for
housekeepers and dishwashers, who are the lowest-paid workers,
will increase from $10.07 to $12.57. Workers who receive tips
will also get pay raises of about 3 percent in each year of the
contract.
"This is a good contract for the lowest-paid jobs in the
hotel," said Carmen Castillo, a housekeeper and negotiating
committee member. "Housekeeping and stewarding received some of
the highest raises, and important improvements in seniority
rights. We also received improvements in our workload on busy
days."
Union leaders announced the victory Nov. 17 at a living wage
rally in Providence City Hall. Hundreds of people of many
nationalities, labor, religious and community leaders and city
workers, rallied loud and long outside the city council
chambers to say the people of Providence want and need a living
wage.
Accompanying their speeches with bells and drums, the
demonstrators pushed for passage of a Living Wage Ordinance
that is now under debate by the City Council Committee on
Ordinances.
If enacted, the ordinance would lift wages of all employees
of the city and city contractors to a minimum of $12.30 an
hour. It would also guarantee them health benefits. The
ordinance would apply to any employer who does business with
the city or receives city tax breaks.
The most vocal were those who would be helped most by
passage of the ordinance: teachers' assistants and school-bus
drivers and monitors.
Carmen Kunhardt, a Providence teachers' assistant and member
of the community organization Direct Action for Rights and
Equality (DARE), said, "This ordinance must pass, and the
campaign must continue."
The Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce has organized a tiny
group to keep wages in the state at poverty level. It's called
the Coalition to Keep Providence Working. The bosses have hired
union-busting firms to spread false reports that living-wage
ordinances ruin businesses.
At the rally, University of Rhode Island Economics Professor
Ric MacIntyre refuted this bald-faced lie. MacIntyre said none
of the 70 living-wage ordinances enacted nationally has
negatively affected its city, and that anti-labor groups like
this one have also crusaded against Social Security and the
minimum wage.
Reprinted from the Nov. 29, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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