Abstract

Union Makes Its Bed

The author comments on the American labor movement. On September 29 in San Francisco, 4,000 hotel employees--all members of the newly merged union UNITE HERE--walked out on strike or were locked out of their workplaces after their contracts expired. Critical of the labor movement's fragmentation and weakness in the face of increasing corporate concentration, HERE's John Wilhelm and UNITE's Bruce Raynor, the two leaders who orchestrated the merger of their unions in July, are seeking to provide a model of what a stronger, more militant union can accomplish. This strike is the first major test of their strategy. In San Francisco, UNITE HERE is resisting the hotels' demands to remove health coverage for more than 1,000 workers. It is also battling to keep fully funded pensions and to reduce heavy workloads. But the ongoing conflict is also about changing the balance of power between the union and employers. The union locals in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. want their contracts to expire on the same timetable as those of locals in New York, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu and Toronto, which are set to bargain again in 2006. The locals will be in a stronger position if they can negotiate their contracts with the national chains simultaneously. The hotel chains, of course, want to keep the union at a strategic disadvantage with staggered contracts. The current three-city strategy is part of a bold plan by a new generation of labor leaders to mobilize their members through political action, community coalition-building and street protests. UNITE HERE's membership is composed largely of immigrants who are not afraid to struggle for a broad view of "citizenship" that includes workplace rights.