By Curtis Black of Community Media Workshop
June 15, 2009 – Gov. Pat Quinn will join a mass picket of the Congress Hotel on Monday, the sixth anniversary of a strike there by members of UNITE-HERE Local 1.
Monday will mark the sixth year since Local 1 members voted to strike after hotel management unilaterally froze wages and cut benefits.
In the past six months strikers have dramatically stepped up outreach, with over 500 meetings with political leaders, convention planners, and others, said Annemarie Stassel of Local 1. They have diverted $700,000 worth of business from the hotel, she said.
In addition, 42 aldermen have cosponsored an ordinance that would require hotels to notify customers when they are undergoing a prolonged strike.
The strike takes on added significance with the citywide contract covering the rest of Chicago’s unionized hotels expiring at the end of the summer. That contract covers 6,000 Local 1 members, Strassel said.
At this point, a housekeeper at the Congress earns $8.83 an hour, compared to $14.60 an hour at other unionized hotels, she said.
Drawing support from the broader labor movement and community organizations, the annual mass picket and rally – which then-Senator Barack Obama joined twice, most recently in 2007 – will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. on Monday, June 15.