Mainline - San Francisco Firefighters Local 798

Hotel Workers Rally
for a Fair Contract
by Adam Wood
Over 1,400 hotel workers and their supporters,
including members of Local 798, marched around Union
Square to the front steps of the Grand Hyatt Hotel on July
22. The workers are protesting Hyatt’s stalling tactics during
their current contract negotiations, and similar rallies
took place in 15 cities the same day across the United
States and Canada, attracting up to 10,000 people. At
the close of the rally, the hotel workers staged a planned,
peaceful civil disobedience, that led to 152 arrests.
Starting just before the current economic meltdown,
hotel workers experienced massive layoffs and intense
pressure to cut wages and benefits. More than 115,000
jobs have been lost in the industry since 2008 as hotel
occupancy rates declined and companies cut back.
But now that tourism is recovering and hotel profits are
up, the national chains are trying to lock hotel workers into
recessionary contracts with fewer jobs and reduced health
care. The result is more workload for less people, and the
first casualty of that approach has been safety. According to
an American Journal of Medicine study of 50 hotel chains,
Hyatt had the highest injury rate for housekeepers last year.
Photographs by: Bill Hackwell
Why does this fight matter to us? First of all, Local 2 of
the hotel workers union has been one of our strongest labor
supporters during the recent struggles with the Board
of Supervisors. Local 2 president, Mike Casey, came to our
defense at City Hall last spring, speaking forcefully against
the 52-hour work week. They’ve been there for us when
we needed them, and we should be there for them now.
From a broader perspective, the labor movement in
the private sector has been taking a beating for over thirty
years. The resulting decline in wages, pensions, and
job security across the board makes our contract stick
out like a sore thumb, and leaves us vulnerable to attacks
like the Adachi initiative. Any time workers in the
private sector fight to keep what they’ve got or get back
what they’ve lost, it helps to recreate a climate where decent
wages and a secure retirement aren’t thought of as
extravagant luxuries. Instead, they’re seen as the reasonable
and fair expectations of people who work for a living.
Local 2 will continue to organize actions throughout the
year. Please check the Local 798 web page for updates, and
show up if you can.
www.sffdlocal798.org Main Line 9