California Hotel Walk-Off Strike Continues New Wave of Worker Militancy

from In These Times:




Calif. Hotel Walk-Off Strike Continues New Wave of Worker Militancy

Wednesday
August 25
12:14 pm

By Micah Uetricht



UNITE-HERE union members and allies protest against Hyatt hotel in the streets of Chicago, Ill., on July 22, 2010. (Photo by Jesse Kadj)


The Embassy Suites hotel in Irvine, Calif., bears a number of similarities to workplaces around the country.

Like other workers around the country, employees there say they're getting squeezed. They're expected to do more with less: fewer supplies, fewer breaks, and less money. Like the vast majority of American workers, they're not unionized. Company-wide profits, however, seem to be doing okay.

But in a move rarely seen since the Great Depression, Embassy Suites workers went on strike early this month over alleged lost wages. Although as nonunion workers they had few legal rights to protect their actions, they were united and angry. On August 9, workers walked off the job and formed a picket line at the hotel's entrance.

It was the latest in a series of bold actions by workers affiliated with UNITE HERE, the hotel workers union, this summer. In May, organizers at the Hyatt Regency Chicago were denied access to hotels to speak with workers; in response, the workers staged a brief wildcat walkout.

Last month, almost a thousand UNITE HERE workers and community supporters were arrested in civil disobedience actions around the country—many in cities where such actions had not occurred for decades—against the Hyatt corporation. And now the Embassy workers in Irvine walked off the job despite a lack of union recognition.

While the action isn't widespread, the Irvine workers have not been the only ones to strike without official collective bargaining representation. In July, non-union immigrant workers in Morganton, N.C., went on a wildcat strike over work conditions. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6365/calif._hotel_walk-off_strike_continues_new_wave_of_worker_militancy/