Public Events at DSA National Convention

The national convention of Democratic Socialists of America is being held Nov 13-15 in Evanston, Illinois.  We’ll have some reports during and after the convention. For our readers in the Chicago area there are two public events that may be of interest.
Friday night, Kim Bobo, Bill Fletcher, Jr., and Harold Meyerson will speak on the “The Politics of the Economic Crisis: Right Wing Populism or Left Wing Resurgence?” This is a free event. Saturday, labor scholar and DSA Vice-Chair Elaine Bernard and In These Times publisher Joel Bleifus will speak at a banquet, “A Celebration of Socialist and Progressive Activism.” Tickets for this event are $75 and must be ordered by November 11.

Details on both events after the fold.

UNITE HERE Launches Nationwide Vigils To Pressure Obama Finance Chair

by Randy Shaw

UNITE HERE is launching over 100 actions across North America to demand that Hyatt Hotels, run by former Obama campaign Finance Chair Penny Pritzker, re-hire 100 housekeepers whose jobs were replaced by low-wage workers from an outsourcing agency. The firing of the workers in three Boston hotels became a national issue after it was learned that they had been required to train their replacements, and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has called for a state boycott of the hotels.

Although none of the fired workers were UNITE HERE members, the union’s Boston-based Local 26 has been fighting hard for their reinstatement. Now, recalling how Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers turned a struggle in California’s Central Valley into a national boycott and campaign for worker justice – detailed in Beyond the Fields – the union is taking the reinstatement fight this week to San Francisco and other cities across North America, beginning with a march and rally in Toronto on November 10. 

Last week, the Hyatt Corporation had a public stock offering that brought the Pritzker family – including Penny Pritzker, National Finance Chair of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and co-chair of the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee – nearly one billion dollars. Rather unfortunate timing for the Hyatt Hotel owners, as their windfall comes as they try to convince the public that tough times entitle them to major concessions from workers.

Strike Two for SF Hotels

By Carl Finamore

In exactly one month, San Francisco’s proud, illustrious Palace Hotel will celebrate the centennial anniversary of its 1909 reconstruction after the city’s devastating earthquake three years earlier. At the time of its original construction in 1875, it was considered the largest and most glamorous hotel in the world, hosting for several decades a series of world prominent guests including U.S. presidents, Walls St. magnates and Hollywood’s biggest stars.

But there is little to celebrate for approximately 350 hotel employees who face the dim prospect of substantially increased healthcare premiums demanded by owners who brandish the typical impersonal Wall Street investment name tag of Cerberus Capital Management.

Getting to Work – Labor Issues in the 21st Century

Kim Bobo of Interfaith Worker Justice, Thomas Frank, author of  What’s the Matter with Kansas?, and labor lawyer Thomas Geoghegan headline an exciting panel on “Getting to Work: Labor Issues in the 21st Century” on Thursday, November 19, 2009 in New York City.

The discussion is sponsored by Book Forum and will be held from 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm at The New School – Tishman Auditorium, Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall 66 W. 12th St. in New York  NY.

Free admission to all teachers, union and AARP members with ID, as well as Artforum and Bookforum subscribers and contributors. Please contact rsvp@bookforum.com or call 212.475.4000 if you are a member of one of these special offer categories.

AFL-CIO Ad Urges YES Vote on Weiner Single-Payer Amendment

Image via Wikipedia

Unions for Single Payer

Calling for a “yes” vote on the Weiner Medicare for All (HR 676) Amendment, the national AFL-CIO and eight unions have placed a full page advertisement in Thursday’s “Roll Call,” a Capital Hill newspaper.

In addition to the AFL-CIO the unions signing the ad are the International Association of Machinists (IAM), United Mine Workers (UMWA), International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), Utility Workers Union (UWUA), International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE), California School Employees Association (CSEA), United Electrical Workers (UE), United American Nurses, and the California Nurses Association (CNA/NNOC).

Strike One for Hotels in San Francisco

By Carl Finamore

Every once in awhile we hear about big Lottery winners who lock their doors, close their shades and cut off their phones right after hitting the jackpot. Stories abound of distant relatives and long-lost acquaintances showing up unannounced on their doorsteps with their hands out.

In fact, there was a Cable TV program exclusively devoted to documenting the horrors faced by the newly crowned royalty who seem to run out of luck faster than a bride who passes a funeral on her way to the wedding.

We almost feel sorry for them. Take the poor Pritzker family, majority owners of the Hyatt Hotels, the third largest hotel chain in the U.S. They took home just under $1 billion on Thursday, November 5, after cashing in less than a quarter of their majority shares in the second biggest Wall St. initial public offering (IPO) this year.

It was a time of celebration. Pop open the Cristal Brut and serve the Beluga caviar, we’re on a roll now. But, sure enough, on the same day as the Pritzker’s were all smiles and slapping each other on the back, people showed up to rain on their parade.

San Francisco hotel workers announced a three-day strike of their premier downtown crown jewel, the Grand Hyatt. A Local 2, UNITE-HERE union bulletin states that “workers at the Grand Hyatt will return to work on Sunday, November 8, but have called for customers to honor an ongoing boycott at that property.”

New rule proposed for Railway Labor Act elections

by Eric Fink

The National Mediation Board has proposed a change in the rules governing union representation elections under the Railway Labor Act

Under the new rule, a union would be certified as bargaining representative if a majority of those voting express support for representation. The old rule requires an affirmative vote by a majority of all employees in the bargaining unit, effectively counting non-voters as “no” votes. As the NMB explains, “this change to [the] election procedure will provide a more reliable measure/indicator of employee sentiment in representation disputes and provide employees with clear choices in representation matters.”

Elaine Bernard to Keynote Atlanta Douglass-Debs Dinner

Dr. Elaine Bernard, Executive Director, Harvard University’s Labor and Worklife Program Awards Presentation and a Vice-Chair of Democratic Socialists of America will deliver the keynote address at the 3rd annual Douglas-Debs Dinner of the Metro Atlanta DSA on November 7.   This years there are two recipients of the  Douglass-Debs award.   William J. Brennan, Jr. of Atlanta’s Legal Aid Society will receive one award from Vincent Fort, State Senator 39th District   Presentation of the other  Douglass-Debs award to Rev. Timothy McDonald III will be done by  Charlie Flemming, President, Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council AFL-CIO.

Action Alert: Call for the Weiner Single Payer Amendment Today!

Unions for Single Payer

It appears that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is wavering on her promise to Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) to allow debate and a vote in the full House of Representatives on the Weiner Single Payer Amendment.

The Weiner Amendment would substitute the single payer language of HR 676 for the language of the proposed House Bill (H.R. 3962).  This would be the first and only time that the full House would have an opportunity to debate and vote on single payer.

Iran: Union leaders sentenced to prison – call for global campaign of solidarity

by Eric Lee/LabourStart

In a drive to destroy the independent union at the giant Haft Tapeh plantation/refining sugar complex in southern Iran, a court on October 12 sentenced six union leaders to prison on charges of “endangering national security.”

Their only crime was to lead a strike.

Haft Tapeh workers have repeatedly had to resort to strikes and other actions to claim huge wage arrears and protest deteriorating working conditions.

“The regime is clearly determined to crush the union by putting its entire leadership behind bars,” writes the IUF, the global union federation for food workers.

They’ve launched an online campaign of protest. Please take a moment and send off your messages:

To learn more about the case, read this:

There’s full coverage of Iranian labour news on LabourStart here.