UNITE HERE News

NEW BEDFORD — Less than three months after awarding Eagle Industries a citation for employing local workers and operating a successful business, the City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to take immediate action to keep the military apparel company from leaving the city and eliminating 330 jobs.

When the ax isn't enough, out comes the scalpel.

WASHINGTON, DC—One segment of the electorate that was especially fired up about the presidential election was the working people.

The election of Barack Obama serves as a turning point for organized labor - the likes not seen since Franklin D Roosevelt became president in 1933 during America's worst economic crisis.

The Peter B. Collins Radio Show interviewed UNITE HERE General President Bruce Raynor about the Obama victory and the Employee Free Choice Act. Listen to the podcast here. Bruce Raynor's interview starts 20:30 minutes into the show. For more information, please visit  www.peterbcollins.com

Volunteers including Donald Sutherland call voters in battleground states.

Barack Obama’s historic victory Tuesday night means Democrats will be in control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue for the first time since 1995 – a one-party sweep that is lifting public expectations for what government can do to improve the lives of Americans.

New York - Barack Obama’s victory is a victory for working people across this country. Regardless of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, immigration status, sexual orientation – all working people have taken a giant step forward today. Barack has renewed our faith in what is possible for those who are trying to stay in the middle class and for those who are seeking to become a part of the middle class. With great vision, he talked with us about what he wants to accomplish for the American people. And with great candor, he called for every person to become engaged in the effort. As the first labor union to endorse Barack, UNITE HERE took that call seriously. From the strength of our nearly one million members and retirees, we mobilized thousands to get out the vote in more than a dozen states. We knocked on more than 350,000 doors; and during this past weekend alone, we had more than 3,000 volunteers talking with voters in battleground states. Barack’s insight and leadership drive a policy agenda that supports those working people who have formed a union, as well as those who have not yet formed a union. He is committed to ensuring that working families have wages that enable them to put food on the table, cutting taxes for 95 percent of workers and their families, securing healthcare for all Americans, promoting fair trade and not “free trade” that sends good jobs overseas, defending the right of workers to freely join unions by passing the Employee Free Choice Act, establishing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, fighting the growth of income inequality, and guaranteeing retirement security for all workers so that growing old does not mean growing poor. With Barack’s victory, as well as Democratic gains in both the House and the Senate, we can make real reforms to improve the lives of every union member in this country and every worker who wants a union. To be sure, the current economic crisis will present great challenges. But we are inspired by the change that is possible. And we believe in Barack Obama - a man who understands the experiences of working people. A man who, more than twenty years ago, took a job as a community organizer in Chicago to fight for families devastated by steel plant closings – to fight for working people.

  In the most important election of our lives UNITE HERE members are making sure that voters know their rights on Election Day. In her two months as a volunteer political organizer in Virginia, Ida Randle of Memphis has experienced first-hand the type of misinformation inundating first-time voters. “We have met so many people who thought they could not vote! There have been many men who have had their voting rights taken away, they are very grateful when we share with them how they can restore their voting rights. With each person we help educate, we get one step closer to an Obama victory.” We need to make sure that everyone in our communities knows they can vote. After you vote, volunteer! Please contact your shop steward.  

The National Labor Relations Board has dismissed charges filed by Eagle Industries Inc against the labor union that is trying to organize the former Michael Bianco Inc.

New York - Barack Obama’s victory is a victory for working people across this country.

Neisia Giles, a UNITE HERE Local 1 shop steward at US Cellular Field, has been volunteering for the Obama campaign in Virginia for two months. The mother of five decided to volunteer in order to be a role-model for younger generations. "I wanted to show my children and grandchildren about voting and the role that a union and one person can play in history." Being away from home has been hard, but it has been worth the effort. "Political activism is a great way to hold representatives accountable. It also really strengthens the union." Neisia believes Obama is "the right person to lead our country in the right direction," and her volunteering has helped Obama take the lead in polls in Virginia. "The people we are registering-many are unaware that they can vote! We are helping them realize a dream while helping the country win a president we can be proud of."

Regino Romero is a cook at the Columbia Sussex-owned Hilton Hotel in Crystal City, Virginia, and his life as a single father was recently featured in a Washington Post story entitled “Life’s Basics More of a Stretch.” “Although he has worked full time for nearly 14 years as a cook at the Hilton Crystal City hotel, he feeds his own family with help from a local food pantry,” says the Washington Post. [click here for a link to the article and photos]

Richard Hoar is a shop steward at the Claremont Hotel and Resort in Oakland, CA who is volunteering with UNITE HERE's Obama mobilization in Wisconsin. "My friend and I would talk about politics, but it was frustrating to talk about it without going out to do something about it. When I took a leave from work to volunteer I told my coworkers, "I'm doing this for you." Obama's support of the Employee Free Choice Act and other pro-worker policies will help the whole country. Richard points out that his union local, Local 2850, gets an additional benefit from his volunteering. "Through the training we are getting on this I'll be able to motivate my coworkers even better. On our next contract negotiation I want to have that room packed!"

TULSA, Oklahoma  — In March 2007, Eleazar Torres-Gomez fell into a 300-degree industrial dryer at a Cintas Corp.

An administrative judge says management wrongfully suspended 77 workers and pushed and threatened others for engaging in protected activities.

LOS ANGELES-A judge for the National Labor Relations Board has found that the Hilton Los Angeles Airport illegally retaliated against workers organizing a union in 2006, the latest development in a long-running labor dispute at one of the city's biggest hotels.

Cintas executives going to the company's annual shareholder meeting on October 14th heard the message loud and clear: It's time to make Cintas safe. Over 300 members, students, and community leaders rallied with Cintas workers for safe jobs. "We are here to support all Cintas workers," said Ana Calles, who works in the company's Charlotte laundry. "We will keep fighting until Cintas knows that we have rights!" Cintas is facing nearly $3 million in OSHA fines for hazards that led to a worker's death in 2007 and subsequent citations in other facilities. Watch the GRIT TV with Laura Flanders interview about Cintas with UNITE HERE Safety Director Eric Frumin and UNITE HERE Communications Coordinator Matt Painter.     For more information, visit www.uniformjustice.org or www.MakeCintasSafe.info.

As the region shifts into overdrive moving toward Election Day, local prominent leaders held a press conference this Wednesday to urge Latinos to pour into the polls.

If money were not so tight, Regino Romero would use the basement of his Lorton town home some other way.