“One Job Should Be Enough” has become UNITE HERE’s rallying cry in contract campaigns.
Workers at two hotels in downtown St. Paul, the InterContinental and the DoubleTree, have voted to authorize a strike over wages that lag their peers’ in Minneapolis, according to UNITE HERE Local 17, the Twin Cities hospitality union.
“St. Paul shouldn’t be paid less than Minneapolis,” Local 17 President Christa Sarrack said in a press release announcing the strike vote. “By authorizing a strike, workers have shown they will stand together until they get what they all need.
“InterContinental and DoubleTree have more than enough money to do the right thing and settle a fair contract, but workers are prepared if they don’t.”
To show they are ready to strike if necessary, workers plan to hold informational picketing outside the InterContinental tomorrow, Sept. 19, at 4:30 p.m.
In ongoing negotiations with the two hotels, union members are demanding wage increases that keep up with the rising cost of living in the Twin Cities. UNITE HERE members have rallied around the slogan “One Job Should Be Enough,” calling out an economy that requires some to have more than one job to survive.
Local 17 represents housekeepers, attendants, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders, bell persons and other workers who have been in bargaining with the hotels since February, working under an expired contract since the end of that month.
At a previous informational picketing session Sept. 12, St. Paul City Council President Rebecca Noecker joined workers and led a delegation to deliver a message to hotel management that she supports the union’s demands.
Union Advocate 