HOTEL IN MIDDLE OF LABOR DISPUTE!
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 8/12/10
On March 25th, 2010, UNITE HERE (the hotel workers union) began a boycott of the Westin Washington D.C. City Center hotel (1400 M St. NW). This boycott has come in response to a failure by the hotel’s owner, Columbia Sussex Corporation, to agree to a fair process, free of intimidation and coercion, whereby workers may decide on forming a union. Instead of agreeing to such a process (as other D.C. area hotels have done), Columbia Sussex began an anti-union campaign that flies in the face of these principles. In light of the company’s failure and the ongoing boycott, we ask that you discontinue any future use of the hotel until a just resolution is reached – please do not eat, sleep or meet at the Westin Washington City Center.
Across the United States, cooks, housekeepers, banquet staff and other hotel workers at Columbia Sussex hotels take great pride in serving their guests and doing their jobs well. But Columbia Sussex has “rewarded” workers at four union hotels in Sacramento, Crystal City, VA, Baltimore and Anchorage for their hard work by imposing a variety of cuts, including layoffs, benefit reductions, pay freezes, higher costs for health insurance, and/or work speed-ups. These cuts have been the price of Columbia Sussex’s expansion, squeezing working conditions and compensation, to pay off $1.1 billion dollars in debt that the corporation acquired to finance the purchase of 14 hotels in 2006. .
Mary Lee Hinant, a Baltimore Sheraton laundry worker for 34 years, said: “Ever since banks lent all that money to Columbia Sussex to buy my hotel, my paycheck is smaller, I don’t qualify for health insurance anymore, and my co-workers are laid off.” At the Westin Washington DC City Center, it’s more of the same. “Since Columbia Sussex bought the hotel several years ago, staffing has been cut. Columbia Sussex reduced our wages by 3% across the board and stopped paying the match on our 401Ks,” said Laurence Green, who worked for 24-years as a cook at the Westin Washington DC City Center, “If your pay were cut 3%, your hours slashed and your workload increased, would you support your employer? Don't support mine. Sleep and eat somewhere else.”
As a potential customer of the Westin Washington DC City Center, you have an influential voice. By changing the location of your meetings and room bookings from this Columbia Sussex property, your organization can help bring about much needed fairness at the hotel; you can also avoid being placed in the midst of a labor dispute.