Chicago Hotel Workers Prepare For Strike

CHICAGO— Under a black-and-white banner that read “Hotel Workers Strike Warehouse,” the hotel workers union here began piling cases of donated canned foods into a small West Side garage on July 24 to prepare for contract talks that begin Aug. 5 on behalf of 7,000 workers. Plans are set for a strike starting Aug. 31 when its current contract expires. The ceremonious delivery of food to the “strike warehouse” was meant to deliver two messages, reported the Chicago Tribune. One was directed at the 30 Chicago-area hotels that employ the union workers, said Henry Tamarin, president of Local 1 of the hotel workers union. That message was that the local plans to markedly improve on its current contract, which ranks “Chicago in last place by virtually any criteria” when compared with union hotel workers in major U.S. cities. As its model, the union picked New York, where, according to the local, union room attendants earn $18.15 an hour, compared with $8.83 an hour in Chicago. In addition, family health insurance for those workers is free in New York; union members pay $85 a month in Chicago. Because so many hotel workers in Chicago cannot afford it, only about 20% of them take out the health coverage, said the union rep. It also intends to bargain for sick–something, he explained, they do not have now. The unions other message was for its members, who, Tamarin said, should be prepared to go on strike. Such a step would be a precedent for the 110-year-old local. “There doesnt seem to be any record of a strike locally,” he said. But Steven Adelman, an attorney for the Hotel Employer Labor Relations Association, disputed the unions claims and said any agreement would have to take into consideration “the serious issue regarding occupancy and room rates” for the hotels. The average occupancy in Chicago hotels as of June was 79.3%, down slightly from a year earlier, the Tribune reported. SOURCE: Chicago Tribune