Claiming illegal labor practices, low wages and a hostile work environment, employees seeking to unionize at three hotels near major New York airports went on strike yesterday.þþPolice officers stood by as several dozen employees marched in front of the Crowne Plaza, where union officials had brought a large inflatable rat, a staple of union demonstrations in New York. Striking employees waved signs and urged prospective guests to choose another hotel. They also called on co-workers who remained on the job to join them. Workers also picketed outside the two hotels near Kennedy.þþOne picket, Zulema Solorzano, 57, of Woodside, Queens, said she had been cleaning rooms at the Crowne Plaza since 1989.þþÿWhen I started here, it was the best job I ever had,ÿ said Ms. Solorzano, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. ÿI was making $11 an hour. But over the last 15 years, I've only gotten a $4 raise, total, and they've cut down our holiday and sick time and stopped matching what we pay into our 401(k). I'm tired of it. I have a family to support.ÿ þþOfficials of the New York Hotel Trades Council, which has been pushing to organized airport hotel workers in recent years, said most of the workers at the three hotels voted earlier this year to unionize. Officials estimated that about half the hotels' 320 employees were on the picket lines yesterday.þþUnion officials accused owners of the hotels of firing 10 employees active in organizing the union drive. The officials said they had asked the National Labor Relations Board to order the workers rehired. þþUnion officials and employees say management has interrogated them, put them under surveillance, offered incentives to employees to oppose unionization, and even threatened physical violence.þþJohn Turchiano, a spokesman for the Hotel Trades Council, said management has taken advantage of many employees, many of whom are recent Hispanic immigrants, by not giving them their requested work hours and by speaking disrespectfully.þþSince many hotel guests are airline workers, the trades council has asked unions representing pilots and flight attendants to boycott the three hotels, Mr. Turchiano said. þþIn a telephone interview yesterday, Martin Fields, a co-owner of the three hotels, said the strike was the act of a greedy union ÿbent on getting into smaller properties because they can make money doing it.ÿ þþÿIt's always easy to get people to join a cult,ÿ he said. ÿThink of Jim Jones. You just get them to drink the Kool-Aid.ÿþþHe called the strike ÿa personal affront.ÿþþÿI have 450 employees at these hotels, and I feel like my children are rebelling,ÿ he said. ÿIt's always been a family organization. Many of the employees have been with me since Day 1. We have great retention in an industry known for its employee turnover.ÿ þþÿWe have great regard for our employees, but there are a great number who are anti-union, and we have to represent them, too,ÿ Mr. Fields said. ÿI think we are paying scale and benefits and a 401K that is equivalent to the union package. Many of them are making $17 and $18 an hour, which is more than union wage.ÿþþOne Crowne Plaza worker who refused to strike, Josefin Rodriguez, said yesterday that over recent months, union officials created great hostility among the hotel workers.þþÿWe don't need the union,ÿ said Ms. Rodriguez, who has worked in the hotel's guest services department for five years. ÿWe have a great management staff that works with us and is flexible. We have no complaints about pay and days off. Once the union comes in, there are going to be all kinds of restrictions, and you can't work as a team. It will hurt service and then business will drop and we'll be out of a job.ÿþþÿWe were all like a little family here, and now the union has caused such division,ÿ she said. ÿLife has been terrible. There have been threats made and tires slashed. You should see the looks I get in the cafeteria.ÿþþþþþEmployees from three hotels in Queens - the Holiday Inn and the Hampton Inn near Kennedy International Airport, and the Crowne Plaza near La Guardia Airport - formed picket lines, saying hotel management had fiercely opposed their recent attempts to join the New York Hotel Trades Council.þþ
Source: NY Times
