Hotel workers planning May Day march: ‘One job should be enough’

April 25, 2019 by

Ade Adigoun (L) and Jose Maquin

Last fall, nearly 8,000 Marriott workers in eight cities carried out the largest hotel strike in U.S. history. After two months on the picket lines, UNITE HERE members declared victory, ratifying new contracts that raised wages by as much as $4 an hour and established new protections against sexual harassment and assault on the job.

Marriott workers’ rallying cry – “One job should be enough!” – captured the struggle many families face to maintain healthy work-life balance. Wages aren’t keeping up with rising rents, health care costs and other expenses in many parts of the country, especially urban areas.

Now the slogan has been adopted by hotel workers in the Twin Cities, where 1,200 members of UNITE HERE Local 17 are bargaining contracts with eight hotels this spring. The union will mobilize hundreds of members and supporters for a march through the streets of downtown Minneapolis on International Workers’ Day, May 1, beginning at 4:30 p.m. in Peavey Plaza. (Click here for more information.)

In interviews, two hotel workers leading the contract campaign explained what’s at stake in this round of negotiations – and shared their experiences trying to survive on one job in our community. Jose Maquin of south Minneapolis has over 10 years’ experience working in hotels, most recently in room service at Hotel Ivy. Ade Adigoun of St. Louis Park has worked as a housekeeper at the Millennium Hotel for the last 15 years. Their remarks have been edited lightly for length and clarity.

UA: What issues are most important to you in this round of contract negotiations?

JM: Not so much my department, but housekeeping. Ninety percent of housekeepers are minorities or immigrants. They are the most vulnerable group of employees in a hotel. They work hard; I see that every day. And I see that they are shy, they are quiet and they don’t always feel comfortable speaking up when they are hurt or feel unsafe. And they often work paycheck to paycheck. I feel we need to stick together.

UA: What improvements are you seeking?

JM: Wages. The minimum wage is going up, and that is good. But I feel like housekeepers should earn higher than just the minimum. I make the minimum, and I’m OK with that because I get tips. Unfortunately, I don’t think people who stay at hotels think they should tip their housekeeper. Sometimes they do, but housekeepers should be compensated better.

UA: The slogan of the May 1 march is “One job should be enough.” How hard is it for you and your co-workers to survive on one hotel job alone?

AA: People are doing two jobs because the hotels are not paying enough money. I’ve been working at Millennium for 15 years, and I still only make $15 an hour. It’s not enough; I’ve looked for a second job. People need to make $20, $25 an hour or more.

JM: I have two jobs. I have a baby with my wife. She works, and she just got a second job. We had to. It’s hard to survive without a second job. So when I hear “one job should be enough” – I wish that would be the case. If I’m absent from home because I have to work to survive, then I don’t have as much quality time with my baby.

When you think about it, there are so many social issues that arise because we are not able to spend time with our children, because we have to work a second shift. Otherwise, we won’t be able to eat or pay the mortgage or rent.

UA: As a union, you’ve reached out to workers in other unions for support. Why is that important?

AA: We have a lot of other union groups who want to support us, people who fight for good employment, good wages. We tell everyone, don’t just bring yourself. Bring your friends, your wife, your boyfriend, your kids – everyone who can walk.

JM: An issue like fair wages, it doesn’t affect just us. It affects everybody. As workers, we need to support each other in order to accomplish anything we want to accomplish.

UA: This is the highest-profile contract campaign at Twin Cities hotels in at least a decade. Is there a sense of urgency?

AA: In a day, we might make $100. But every day one housekeeper makes $3,000 for the hotel. You give me $100 out of $3,000 or more? That’s cheating. We want to eat a little of their cake…

JM: The hotels are making record profits. They have a lot of money. If we don’t ask them to share it with us, to give us a little part of the pie, they won’t.

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , ,

Shakopee workers demand safety, solutions from Amazon

December 14, 2018 by

Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar leads protesters in song outside the Amazon warehouse in Shakopee.

Amazon workers in Minnesota escalated their campaign for better jobs today, rallying with U.S. Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar outside the company’s Shakopee distribution center at the height of the holiday shopping season.

Omar told Amazon workers she came to Shakopee to show support for their demands and to amplify their voices.

“I am excited that you recognize your power,” she said. “Amazon doesn’t work if you don’t work… And it’s about time we make Amazon understand that.”

Workers at the facility, mostly East African immigrants, are demanding safer conditions, and they want Amazon, the world’s largest internet retailer, to devote a portion of its local profits toward efforts to reduce economic disparities and lift up communities of color in the region.

“We are human beings,” Amazon worker Khadra Qassim told over 100 people gathered outside the distribution center. “You cannot treat us as robots.”

Qassim is among a large contingent of Amazon workers in Minnesota who have joined the Awood Center, a worker center based in the Twin Cities’ East African immigrant community. Members have met twice with Amazon management this fall — a first-of-its-kind accomplishment for warehouse workers in the U.S. — but say the company has so far failed to meet their most pressing demands.

In response, workers called today’s rally, which took place during a shift change inside the facility.

The action was spirited and mostly upbeat. A crowd assembled across the parking lot from the warehouse, and it put up a cheer as workers exited the building after finishing their shifts and walked toward the protest. Many raised fists in the air or clapped their hands eagerly as they made their way, and several embraced co-workers and friends waiting for them at the rally.

But the mood shifted quickly as, one by one, workers took the bullhorn to describe the conditions they face on the Amazon warehouse floor.

Khadra Hassan was pregnant when Amazon hired her to work at the distribution center. Despite the company’s assurances it would accommodate her condition, she injured herself carrying a large package and began bleeding on the shop floor. To make matters worse, Hassan said, she was still in the probationary stage of employment, so she had no health insurance benefits.

“Thank God my daughter survived and I had a baby girl,” Hassan said. But another injury, she added, has kept her out of work since September.

The workers’ ranks swelled with supporters from labor unions, faith groups and other community organizations. The company is a “highly impactful employer” in the global economy, said Monica Bielski Boris, director of the University of Minnesota’s Labor Education Service. That means even workers who aren’t employed by the company have a stake in the employment conditions Amazon sets — or, perhaps someday, the contracts its workers negotiate.

Unionizing won’t be easy, though. Amazon makes little effort to hide its hostility toward collective bargaining. That’s what makes the Shakopee workers — who are targeting the company directly, publicly and fearlessly — so impressive, Bielski Boris added.

“It’s very inspiring,” she said. “It makes me proud to be a Minnesotan. Hopefully, it inspires other Amazon workers around the world to demand greater accountability from Amazon too.”

After the program workers walked together to the front door of the warehouse and tried to deliver their demands to Amazon, but they were blocked by police from entering. As of now there are no further negotiation meetings set between the two sides.

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , ,

Union plumbers step up to keep St. Paul Schools’ water safe

November 21, 2016 by
Tom McCarthy (R), president of St. Paul Plumbers Local 34, received the thanks of St. Paul school board chair Jon Schumacher during the board’s Nov. 15 meeting.

Tom McCarthy (R), president of St. Paul Plumbers Local 34, received the thanks of St. Paul school board chair Jon Schumacher during the board’s Nov. 15 meeting.

Union plumbers are stepping up to make sure drinking water is safe for students and staff in the St. Paul Public Schools.

The district recently finished testing all water fixtures in its buildings for lead. While more than 95 percent of fixtures passed the initial test, maintenance staff identified 233 fixtures that needed replacing.

At the Board of Education’s Nov. 15 meeting, Plumbers Local 34 President Tom McCarthy informed school board members that union members had voted to donate $25,000 toward the lead-mitigation effort.

Facilities management staff members said they were inspired to conduct the lead tests ahead of schedule after reading the news about lead poisoning in Flint, Mich.

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , , , ,