[Linganth] Fwd: Statement from UNITE HERE

Fri Oct 29 03:57:48 UTC 2004

Ok, after reading the statement from Neal Kwatra I want to give you my two cents on this.
It seems to me that the stress of Neal's message is on a "long term program" of solidarity on our part.

Personally, I don't think that the important choice is between San Jose or Atlanta. Instead, what is important is to make sure that what happened this time will not repeat itself. Personally I believe, and I have said this last year at the AAA meeting as well, that we should stop having our meetings in corporate hotels. I don't know if the AAA has ever even explored alternatives: universities, conference centers, etc. , but I think it would be worth trying. (Maybe we could ask the unions to help us find a place for next year).

In peace,

Valentina Pagliai
Oberlin College

----- Original Message -----
From: "P. Kerim Friedman" <kerim.list at oxus.net>
Date: Thursday, October 28, 2004 11:00 pm
Subject: [Linganth] Fwd: Statement from UNITE HERE

> Below is a statement from Neal Kwatra, a coordinator in the
> Strategic
> Affairs Department with UNITE HERE, the Union that represents the
> locked out workers in San Francisco.
>
> - kerim
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: "Neal Kwatra" <nkwatra at hereunion.org>
> Subject: Statement
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 19:40:30 -0400
>
>
> I am Neal Kwatra, a coordinator in the Strategic Affairs Department
> with UNITE HERE, the Union that represents the locked out workers
> in
> San Francisco.
>
> Leaders and members of the AAA have asked me to address some of the
> issues your organization has been debating over the last week.
>
> We sincerely appreciate the AAA for not crossing the picket line
> and
> moving the convention out of San Francisco, however, we would have
> preferred a different outcome than the contract swap with Hilton in
> Atlanta. Thank you for all your hard work on this issue, our
> members in
> San Francisco and throughout the country truly appreciate your
> support
> and solidarity. The best way to support our locked out members in
> this
> struggle and long-term, is to work with us and other organizations
> on a
> long-term program to level the playing field between multinational
> hotel corporations and their workers.
>
> The link below will give you an opportunity to better understand
> the
> issues our members are so courageously fighting for in San Francisco.
>
> http://www.unitehere2.org/issues.html
>
> I think it is important to provide you with some of the history of
> our
> efforts to arrive at a solution that would work for the AAA, its
> members and for the thousands of locked out hotel workers on the
> streets in San Francisco, who are without livelihood for the
> duration
> of the lockout.
>
> Our Union initially reached out to the AAA on August 30. We offered
> to
> work with your organization on alternative locations that would be
> of
> minimal disruption (San Jose). Because we have experience working
> with
> other groups, in the context of labor disputes, we offered to work
> with
> your staff on the liability issues as well. We offered to work in
> partnership to come up with a mutually beneficial situation for the
> AAA
> and our members in San Francisco. Unfortunately, we were never able
> to
> advance the conversation with your staff.
>
> The first time anyone in the leadership or staff of the AAA reached
> out
> to our Union to discuss this situation was early last week when I
> received a call from President-elect Alan Goodman. He was very
> clear
> that his goal was to work with UNITE HERE in a constructive fashion
> to
> support our locked out members in SF, while simultaneously finding
> a
> viable solution for the AAA.
>
> Despite good-faith efforts on his part to explore mutually
> beneficial
> options like San Jose, another school of thought prevailed. Alan
> Goodman has been a helpful partner in our collective efforts to
> support
> the locked out workers in SF and I look forward to working with him
> and
> others within the AAA as the struggle for hotel worker justice
> continues.
>
> The AAA has an enormous amount of power in its relationships with
> corporations like Hilton. For the Hiltons and Marriotts of the
> world,
> what matters most is maintaining the AAA as a long-term client;
> they
> want your business year-after-year. They are too smart and savvy to
> risk severing a relationship with a key customer like the AAA over
> a
> situation like the one in San Francisco. In the big picture, $1.2
> million is not what is important to them; a very long and very
> profitable relationship with the AAA and other academic
> organizations
> is more important to them in the long run than $1.2 million in the
> short term. Additionally, in a competitive marketplace they cannot
> afford a reputation as a company that sues its customers.
>
> For an organization whose scholarship and research often focuses on
> power relationships, your organization made a decision, in my
> opinion,
> that did not take into account the power-you have as an
> organization-in
> your relationship with Hilton. Having said that, we are especially
> grateful to the AAA members, leaders and activists who galvanized
> support among the membership and who lead the effort to convince
> the
> AAA's leadership that crossing a picket line in SF was completely
> antithetical to everything your organization stands for. Many
> people
> have asked what the AAA can do moving forward to support the hotel
> workers struggle in SF and around the country. Given your unique
> relationship with the Hilton Corporation, concrete steps the AAA
> can
> take that would have a dramatic impact on the struggle of hotel
> workers
> in this country include:
>
> · ensuring that your staff has strong "force majeure" language in
> your
> hotel contracts, to address labor disputes. You should never have
> to
> decide between the risk of litigation and crossing boycott or
> picket
> lines. We can work with the AAA on suggested ?force majeure?
> contract
> language.
>
> · a wholesale reexamination of your relationship with Hilton
> Hotels. In
> order for there to be some lasting impact of your move out of San
> Francisco, Hilton needs to understand that a swap to Atlanta is not
> where the issue ends. It is my understanding that you are scheduled
> to
> be back at the San Francisco Hilton in 2006 and 2008, but you are
> not
> contractually obligated beyond that. We have very concrete ideas
> about
> what you can do with Hilton to have a broader impact on the current
> and
> long term struggle for justice for workers in the hotel industry
> and we
> would welcome the opportunity to work with all of you on those ideas.
>
> We are working with many other academic organizations
> (Sociologists,
> Geographers, American Studies and others) and progressive groups
> (women's, civil rights, immigrant rights, religious) on a
> coordinated
> program to deal with the hotel industry. Your organization and
> others
> like it represent hundreds of millions of dollars in economic
> activity
> for these hotel corporations. We need to work together as a
> cohesive,
> progressive movement to affect real change in the relationship
> between
> these corporations and workers in the hotel industry.
>
> Si Se Puede!
>
> FYI- for those attending the meeting in Atlanta, the Hyatt Regency is
> currently our only union-hotel in Atlanta.
>
> Hyatt Regency Atlanta
> 265 Peachtree Street North East
> Atlanta, GA 30303
> Phone: (404) 577-1234
>
> For those of you who want to make a contribution to our locked out
> members
> in San Francisco, here is the information:
>
> Local 2 Solidarity Fund
> UNITE HERE! Local 2
> 209 Golden Gate Avenue
> San Francisco, CA 94102
>
> In Solidarity,
> Neal Kwatra
> Strategic Affairs Department
> UNITE HERE
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------
> kathryn.clancy at yale.edu
> Ph.D. Candidate
> Department of Anthropology
>
> "Girl, you've got some nerve
> Taking everything that you deserve."
>          -the Nields, "Georgia O"
>
> www.geso.org
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------
> ~-->
> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
> Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
> http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/x3XolB/TM
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> ~->
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
> <*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
>     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aaaunite/
>
> <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>     aaaunite-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
>
> <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
>     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
>
>
>
>