Category: hotel

A Public Service Announcement –

“9,000 members of Unite Here Local 2 have been working without a contract since August 2009. We are the room cleaners, cooks, dishwashers, bussers, bell persons, servers, bartenders, and other hotel workers, who have always been happy to serve you during your stays in San Francisco.

We have called for an ongoing customer boycott of the W Hotel. The Starwood Corporation, the company that manages this hotel, made $188 million last year (from continuing operations). By the end of 2009, Starwood opened 60 new hotels and renovated nearly half of their U.S. portfolio. The CEO of Starwood bragged (in an email to works in February) of ‘significantly improved top line results.’ Hospitality industry experts (PKF Consulting) predict revenues will be up an average of 4% for the remainder of 2010. They predict hotel revenues to go up 12% in 2011 and 14% in 2012.

And yet, Starwood is trying to use the economy as an excuse to force us to accept serious concessions in our next contract. Starwood has made proposals that would force workers to increase their monthly contributions to health care costs by hundreds of dollars a month, over the term of the contract. We simply cannot afford that. If Starwood can position itself to benefit from the economic future, so can the 140 workers at the W Hotel.“

For more information, please visit: http://www.unitehere2.org/

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  Chicago Sun-Times (5/27/10)
• Don’t Get Caught in a Bad Hotel! Queer community stages actions at boycotted hotels.
  YouTube (5/11/10)
• SF Hotel workers try new tactics and noisy protests.
  KTVU (5/11/10)
• 850 SF Hilton workers walk off the job.
  KTVU (4/7/10)
• Angry workers picket Westin St. Francis
  KTVU (3/31/10)
• San Francisco hotels, union workers at odds.
  SF Chronicle (3/31/10)
• Hotel dispute unlikely to be resolved soon.
  SF Examiner (3/19/10)
• Boycott W Hotel.