Chicago hotel strike enters sixth day, as workers demand year-round health insurance

[turbinetree]

Workers from 26 hotels have joined the fight.

CASEY QUINLAN
SEP 12, 2018, 10:26 AM

Thousands of Chicago hotel workers continued their strike for the sixth day Wednesday, primarily to demand a year-round health insurance guarantee. The union said workers also want higher wages, more sick days, and more manageable workloads, the Associated Press reported. Their contracts, which covered 6,000 employees, expired on August 30.

The number of hotel workers involved in the strike has only increased since then. On Monday, workers at Cambria Chicago Magnificent Mile joined the strike, which brought the count of hotels affected by the strike to 26. Before the strike, more than 3,000 UNITE HERE Local 1’s members voted on the issue and 97 percent voted to authorize it.

The union told the Chicago Tribune that it is the most widespread and coordinated hotel worker strike ever held in Chicago. It’s the first strike in the city to include all hotel workers, whether they’re dishwashers or housekeepers, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

As the Tribune reported, there are only four hotels that have expired contracts where hotel workers are not on strike: Hotel Raffaelo, Tremont Chicago at Magnificent Mile, Park Hyatt Chicago, and Fairmont Chicago.

https://thinkprogress.org/chicago-hotel-strike-sixth-day-workers-demand-year-round-health-insurance-c4998ba711af/

[CrispyQ]

1. Many years ago a union job I had required part-time workers to work 24 hours to get benefits,

but the company only had to guarantee you 16. The union fought to change that & won. After Reagan, the union lost a lot of power & influence. People born after 1980 have only ever heard that unions are bad. I know unions have their problems too, but if they didn't benefit labor overall, TPTB would not have worked so hard to dismantle/discredit them.

[turbinetree]

2. I have been a union member my entire life, and when I first started working

bagging groceries at the Air Force commissary..............to buy my first car, the wages were $1.40 plus tips, since we worked part-time, pay day would roll around and we made thirty dollars or more. That $1.40 was life savoir for me to buy the car, because we worked 24 hours a week...........................and I got my 56 Belair B210, for $750.00.................