NoVA Hotel Workers Launch Boycott
Thursday, July 3, 2008(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Over 150 workers from five hotels across Northern Virginia rallied with
supporters outside the Hilton Crystal City Wednesday afternoon to launch a worker-approved boycott against unionbusting hotel
management company Columbia Sussex. Protesters roared “Don’t check in, check
out” until their voices went hoarse and pounded make-shift bucket drums with
signs saying “Boycott Hilton Crystal City” while rush-hour traffic crawled
past. Columbia Sussex purchased the Hilton Crystal City – Northern
Virginia’s first union hotel – last year and immediately demanded increases
in workloads, elimination of pensions and other benefits, and cuts in health
insurance coverage. Workers – members of UNITE HERE Mid-Atlantic Regional
Joint Board – have been without a contract since last October but have refused
to give into management’s demands and voted in April to approve the boycott.
“We have to keep fighting for everything we have already won, and this boycott
is the best way to do it,” says Regino Romero, who has worked 14 years as a
cook at the hotel. “We need to pressure them to win a good contract, with good
raises and health insurance,” says housekeeper Ernestina Lopez. Wednesday’s
rally precedes a rally for Sheraton Baltimore City Center
workers next Thursday at 4:30P. Workers at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center
hotel – also owned by Columbia Sussex – called for a similar boycott –
still active – of their hotel last October after working without a contract
for over a year.
- report/photos by Andy
Richards