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Delegates Rally for L.A. Hotel Workers
APWU Web News Article #8-04, Aug. 25, 2004
In a sea of blue and a show of solidarity, 2500 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."
