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Delegates Rally for L.A. Hotel Workers
2004 Convention Bulletin #2, August 25, 2004 | PDF
In a sea of blue and a show of solidarity, 2,500 APWU delegates walked the walk in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday on behalf of local hotel workers mired in a contract dispute.
“We’re here to support our brothers and sisters in Local 11,” APWU President William Burrus said to the “APWU blue” T-shirt-clad crowd gathered in front of the Hyatt Regency. “We came here because we heard this was a city friendly to labor.”
“But we have options,” Burrus said. “Las Vegas wants APWU. Chicago wants APWU. Anaheim wants APWU.” Noting that the union was adding nearly $10 million to the L.A. economy at this convention, he added, “We will not spend our money where it’s being used to abuse working people.”
A contract covering 3,000 Los Angeles-area hotel workers expired on April 15. A management council representing nine of the 17 hotels involved terminated the agreement on June 1. On June 22, it declared an impasse and, on July 2, hotels began charging their workers $40 a month for health care coverage. The day before, more than 70 percent of the affected members of Local 11 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union (UNITE HERE) voted in a secret ballot on the employers’ “last, final offer,” with 92 percent rejecting the proposal.
“We know what’s right,” Burrus told the boisterous APWU crowd. “We know what these workers are going through. These are the lowest-paid hotel workers in the country ... That ain’t right!”
“We’re demanding that the management council come back to the table. You don’t negotiate with mediators... You negotiate eyeball to eyeball. So we say to management: ‘Come back to the bargaining table. Come back and let’s deal with it!’”
“And if hotel management does not come back, they can be sure that the APWU will ... not ... come ... back.”
Maria Elena Durazo, president of Local 11, addressed the convention Monday, and thanked the APWU for bringing its business to the city. Also speaking on behalf of HERE at the rally was the Rev. David L. Wheeler, an organizer for Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), an interfaith association of religious leaders. “We stand together with the hotel workers,” Wheeler said. “CLUE believes in the dignity and value of every human being, and especially of working people.”
Burrus said the APWU rally has “demonstrated the solidarity among workers in this country. We hope it becomes infectious, and that all workers band together. And APWU is willing to stand at the vanguard, showing the labor movement what the word solidarity is all about.”
Labor-Management Committee Wraps Up Work
Delegates to the APWU 17th Biennial National Convention approved dozens of resolutions Tuesday that will guide union negotiators during contract talks next year.
Members approved several resolutions designed to give the union and employees greater access to USPS electronic records. Noting that many postal manuals, handbooks, and instructions are available only in electronic form, the resolutions urged negotiators to seek union access to the Postal Service intranet and to provide employees with access to computers on the work floor.
Delegates also adopted a resolution aimed at requiring management to provide deaf and hard-of-hearing employees with data pagers.
Such pagers would help overcome the “communication barrier that still exists between supervisors and the deaf and hard-of-hearing employees,” the resolution noted, and would be useful in emergencies.
Union members voted to attempt to limit management’s right to require employees to be cleared by the USPS Medical Unit before returning to duty after an illness.
Several other resolutions focused on safety: One noted the dangers associated with Gaylord containers and urged the union to seek to regulate their use. Another resolution would require management to permit employees to wash their hands in accordance with guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Other resolutions would require the USPS to use American-made and union-made products in the uniform program, and would require management to give greater consideration to female anatomy when selecting uniform designs.
Clerk, Support Services Crafts Present Resolve
For Next Round of Bargaining
Delegates on Tuesday adopted the recommendations of this weekend’s Clerk Craft conference, approving resolutions to limit excessing and job reversions. Several of the proposals urged negotiators to seek contract language that would require the Postal Service to provide the APWU with “tangible evidence” documenting the need to abolish jobs, repost positions, or revert vacant duty assignments.
Union members also approved resolutions that would eliminate bidding restrictions between part-time and full-time positions.
Delegates also considered proposals affecting the Support Services Division, urging the APWU to take steps to absorb positions in Human Resources Departments that are being consolidated.
The convention will consider resolutions affecting the Maintenance and Motor Vehicle crafts later this week.
Organizer, Activist, NBA:
Poferl Calls It a Career
After 25 years representing APWU members, Greg Poferl is retiring this fall. Currently the Support Services Division National Business Agent, Poferl is well known for his passionate activism, both on and off the workroom floor.
In early July, Poferl finished a three-month prison sentence for his participation in a protest last November at a U.S. Army facility in Fort Benning, GA. Poferl and 29 others were arrested for an act of civil disobedience.
Giving an informal farewell address after presenting the Support Services Division report to the convention on Tuesday, Poferl reflected on “the lessons we have learned” and how no matter what the union leaders and activists had to contribute, “it was the workers themselves that always showed up.”
Poferl said the division had often been viewed as a stepchild at the APWU. But, he said, “We’re here to stay and we have a good home.”
Summing up his years with the APWU, Poferl had no regrets. “How grateful I am and how hopeful I am for this great union,” he concluded.
“Now, let’s go on and organize.”
