Hotel workers strike on Juneteenth

Seattle

In what is also called a World Cup strike, hotel workers struck the Embassy Suites hotel in Seattle on Juneteenth, June 19. The workers set up a loud picket line in front of the hotel as tens of thousands of football/soccer fans flocked into the stadium to see the U.S. play Australia right behind the hotel. The Embassy Suites is part of the Hilton hotel empire, and it towers over the stadium.

The workers of UNITE HERE Local 8 are demanding the right to strike if federal immigration agents like ICE (Immigration Customs and Enforcement) threaten their safety. In Seattle, most of the 113 workers on strike are people of color and/or immigrants. They need the right to walk off the job if threatened by ICE. They are also striking against low wages and for better pay, year-round health benefits and for other advances.

In Los Angeles, 2,000 UNITE HERE Local 11 workers threatened the bosses at SoFi stadium with a 96% strike vote to strike if they didn’t get this protection for the World Cup and beyond. They won! The protection clause is in their new contract. UNITE HERE workers in other cities are considering strikes over these emergency contract issues.

Since the hotel workers struck on Juneteenth, African American Emancipation Day, the Juneteenth organizers from the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) Locals 19 and 52 came in support. After picketing with the hotel workers for an hour, the ILWU and UNITE HERE held a joint solidarity rally. 

Gabriel Prawl, ILWU Local 52 former president, declared solidarity with the strikers and talked about how the ILWU had won a day off on Juneteenth in their contract demands.

The Longshore workers then marched, gaining visibility through the huge soccer crowds, for two miles past the waterfront which they had shut down for the day. The march ended at the Longshore hall where they held a barbecue with an open microphone. Many Black workers from the ILWU and other unions spoke out and shared their experiences related to fighting the enforced austerity of the billionaire Trump government.