https://socialistaction.org/2017/11/22/rank-and-file-take-on-company-intimidation-meetings-in-stamford-union-drive/
Rank and file take on company intimidation meetings in Stamford union drive
/ 2 days ago
Dec. 2017 Haiti hotel cropped
Hyatt hotel workers Dieuseul Degraff and Donald Jean Marie, originally
from Haiti, are volunteering to help the Hilton workers in their union
drive.
By ERNIE GOTTA
— STAMFORD, Conn. — It’s 9 p.m. on a Monday night, and Marvin
Castaneda, a union banquet server at the Hyatt hotel, is making phone
calls to Hilton hotel workers. Initially, he leaves messages. Any
unrecognizable number the Hilton workers won’t pick up. They think it
might be the company or one of their many hired anti-union lawyers
calling them into a one-on-one intimidation meeting.
Marvin reassures the Hilton workers and tells them to keep fighting.
After all, he went through the same scenario just three years earlier
when his coworkers decided to form a union and join Unite Here Local 217.
Even with 95% initial worker support, the Hyatt’s first attempt to
unionize was a failure. The workers were essentially on their own, but
with little preparation they learned valuable lessons in that defeat.
Hotels like the Stamford Hilton spend millions to break union drives.
The experience of Marvin and his coworkers at the Hyatt has taught
Hilton workers how to take on the company. The workers know how to spot
a company ruse. They know that solidarity will win as the company tries
to intimidate the workers away from the union.
This union campaign has been largely organized worker to worker. A lot
of sacrifices have been made. Workers like Donald Jean Marie, a union
bellman at the Hyatt, spends time with his wife and daughter only in
short breaks in between meetings with workers and making phone calls.
Deliverance, a 20-year union cafeteria worker, brings shopping bags of
bread, peanut butter and jelly, and popcorn. Instead of stopping for
lunch, workers are calling other workers. They grab handfuls of popcorn
and slap a quick sandwich together, pouring steaming mugs of coffee from
a beat-up old white coffee maker.
Diana Bailey-St. Marks, a University of Hartford union cafeteria worker,
makes the long trek from the state capital. Her connections with the
workers seem to happen effortlessly. Her enthusiasm comes from the deep
understanding that change is possible and that workers standing together
can make gains from the company.
Between meetings I chatted with Hyatt banquet worker Francisco Tobias
about fishing for stripped bass. When the discussion turned to
organizing, he laughed and said, “I’m not making any money doing this.
I’m here to help them [Hilton workers]. I want the union to be stronger.”
Hilton workers bring soda, bottled water, plates, and snacks to the
office. There is a deeper and growing understanding that the union is
their own. Hilton management cannot bring a group of workers into a
meeting without it getting immediately shut down. The workers have heard
enough of the company’s lies.Dec. 2017 Hotel meme
After five or six years, most housekeepers are still earning under $11
an hour. The company hires out temporary banquet workers for large
events, leaving regular staff at home without hours. The company even
steals back 25% of the workers’ hard-earned PTO (paid time off) if they
cash out instead of using it. Workers have also reported laboring off
the clock without pay. If hard work and dedication got one ahead in
life, these workers, mostly women, would be millionaires.
The workers are trading punch-for-punch with the company. Company
threats are countered with big worker delegations, and the first union
victories are coming in. On Monday, Nov. 20, Hilton workers marched to
management with a frozen turkey, asking why Hyatt workers got a turkey
on Thanksgiving and they didn’t. On Tuesday, management handed out Turkeys.
Following a delegation of housekeepers angered by the number of rooms
they must clean, management lowered the daily room quota. The workers
know these changes are not permanent. If they stopped now without
forming the union, these gains would be temporary. The only way for them
to fundamentally improve conditions at work is to win the upcoming union
election.
Bulletin: The hotel workers need your calls! Please call the hotel! Tell
them you support the workers and want to speak to General Manager Robert
Langevin to tell him to stop the intimidation meetings. Tell him that
bringing women employees by themselves into closed-door meetings with
management and union-breaking consultants is inappropriate and
unacceptable. 203-967-2222, 203-351-1816
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November 22, 2017 in Connecticut, Labor.
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