Hotel workers continue fight for decent contract
By Brenda Sandburg
San Francisco
Locked-out hotel workers in San Francisco face another
crisis: Their health-care coverage is set to end Dec. 1.
On Nov. 8, the hotel bosses decided not to distribute funds
from a joint hotel-union trust fund to extend health coverage
by two months to the more than 4,000 people who have been
locked out of their jobs for almost two months.
The hotel owners show no concern for the fate of their
employees.
During negotiations in early November, the employers made a
meager change to their contract proposal. Under their original
proposal, some workers would have paid as much as $273 per
month for health care by the last two years of a five-year
contract. The new proposal called for a single worker to pay
$40 per month and employees with dependents to pay $79 to $119
in the last two years of the contract.
All workers now pay $10 per month for health coverage.
The owners continued to demand that employees work a minimum
of 80 hours per month to qualify for health care--rather than
the current minimum of 18 hours per month. The union says the
change would leave more than 1,000 workers without
coverage.
While employers are demanding that workers pay more for
their health care, they are offering only a few pennies'
increase in wages. They propose a 20-cent per-hour raise each
year for employees who don't receive tips, and a 5-cent
per-hour increase for those who receive tips.
The union wants a 55-cent per-hour increase for workers who
don't get tips, and 45 cents for tipped workers, for each year
of a two-year contract.
UNITE HERE Local 2 launched a two-week strike against four
hotels on Sept. 29, to push for a decent contract. Two weeks
later hotel operators locked out workers at 10 other
hotels.
The union is fighting to protect health and pension
benefits, reduce work loads, and raise wages. It is also
pushing for a two-year contract that would expire at the same
time as union contracts in Boston, New York and other major
cities--which would give the workers more bargaining power. The
hotel bosses want a five-year contract.
On Nov. 15 UNITE HERE Local 2 worked out an agreement with
Kaiser Permanente so that 3,500 hotel workers it covers will
continue to receive health care benefits through the end of
January. The two healthcare systems that cover the remaining
800 locked-out workers had not responded to Local 2's request
to extend their coverage as of that night.
The hotel workers continue to receive strong support from
other unions and community groups. In response to a call from
Local 2, many unions have adopted a hotel's workers, sending
their members to join the picket lines.
School bus drivers from United Transportation Union Local
1741 have walked in solidarity with hotel workers three
times.
"Profit-making corporations are asking their employees who
make very little money to shoulder the high cost of health
care," said UTU member Shane Hoff. "In many instances, the
workers won't be able to afford health care.
"It was an issue with the grocery workers who went on strike
in Southern California, it's an issue here. And we expect it
will be an issue in our upcoming contract negotiations," Hoff
said.
Reprinted from the Nov. 25, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page