Hotel & Restaurant Workers UNITE HERE Local 2 Boycott

UNITE HERE Local 2 is the hospitality workers’ union in San Francisco, San Mateo County, and the East and North Bay, whose members include housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bussers, bartenders, concessions cashiers, spa workers, bellmen, and doormen. Local 2 workers are employed at hotels, restaurants, tech cafeterias, stadiums, San Francisco International Airport, Oakland International Airport, and more.

In 2009, UNITE HERE Local 2 held a special "100 Years of Struggle" demonstration in front of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco to commemorate a century of struggle by working people to raise standards in the hotel industry.  Palace Hotel workers held a three-day walkout, and continued to call on customers to boycott both the Palace Hotel and the Grand Hyatt, which was subject to a similar three-day strike the week before.

The Palace Hotel has historically been the site of numerous labor actions:

  • It was the first hotel in San Francisco where workers won the right to be union, in 1918, which was also a landmark in the battle to win the nine-hour day and the six-day week. 
  • In 1963-64, the Palace was the site of massive civil rights demonstrations that finally forced the hotel industry to offer employment to African American workers. 
  • In 2004, the hotel was one of 14 properties to lock its workers out of their jobs – a confrontation that lasted 53 days, and led to a costly two-year labor dispute.  

This flyer highlights that the Palace Hotel’s ownership is controlled by one of the world’s largest hedge funds – Cerberus Capital Management. In addition to hotel real estate, Cerberus also owned  banks, retail chains, grocery stores, and gun manufacturers at the time of the strike and boycott.

Questions

  • What  impact does the union hope to have on the guests at the hotel by distributing these flyers? 
  • How might this contribute to their success in bargaining a new contract with the corporate owners of the hotel?

Flyer stating Local 2 critiques of the Palace Hotel and their demands in English, including and image of marching union members

UNITE HERE flyer English (PDF) Download UNITE HERE flyer English (PDF)

 

Flyer stating Local 2 critiques of the Palace Hotel and their demands in Spanish, including and image of marching union members

UNITE HERE flyer Spanish (PDF) Download UNITE HERE flyer Spanish (PDF)

 

Flyer stating Local 2 critiques of the Palace Hotel and their demands in Chinese, including and image of marching union members

UNITE HERE flyer Chinese Download UNITE HERE flyer Chinese (PDF)

Flyers, EPH UNITE HERE Local 2.  Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.