Press Advisory - Danny Glover Rallies for Niagara Hotel Workers and Workers United Local 2347
Demonstration demands Niagara 21st Group bargain first contract with recently organized hotel workers and insists rival union, UNITE HERE, stop interfering with workers' right to unionize.
June 2, 2009
TORONTO, June 2 /CNW/ - Members of the union Workers United, including
Niagara Local 2347, will march on the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Niagara Falls, demanding that the hotel bargain a first contract. At the explicit encouragement of UNITE HERE, which is involved in a vicious inter-union war with Workers United across North America, the Courtyard Marriott Niagara has refused to negotiate a collective agreement with recently organized workers. Joined by well known actor and activist Danny Glover, who has made multiple trips to Niagara Falls in support of hotel workers, demonstrators will demand the hotel, owned by the Menechella family's Niagara 21st Group, bargain first contracts immediately.
Who: Danny Glover, labour activist and actor
Bruce Raynor, International President, Workers United
Alex Dagg, Canadian Director, Workers United
Niagara Courtyard Marriott Workers, Workers United Members and
Labour Allies
Where: Outside the Courtyard Marriott
5950 Victoria Avenue, Niagara Falls, ON
Date: Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
Time: 11:00 am
Background
Workers United Ontario Council, including Niagara Local 2347, voted to end their affiliation with UNITE HERE in March, 2009. In that same month, the Ontario Council signed an agreement with UNITE HERE to split the union in Ontario. Despite this, UNITE HERE recently launched a vicious campaign of attack against Workers United, trying to claim the Ontario Council's assets and instructing employers, including the Courtyard Marriott Niagara, organized in December 2008, to not recognize the union. As a result, hotel workers in the Niagara region are being told their right to their union will not be recognized.
In the US, the failure of the 2004 UNITE HERE merger has resulted in an acrimonious, internal union "civil war" that threatens to consume the American labour movement.
Workers United Ontario Council represents almost 9,000 workers in the province in apparel and textile manufacturing, foodservice and hotels, distribution and general manufacturing and social services. Workers United Ontario Council is made up of all the former members of UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) in Ontario as well as 1000 former members of HERE (Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees), including all former members in the Niagara region, who voted unanimously to join Workers United when the UNITE HERE merger failed.
For further information: Wynne Hartviksen, (416) 473-2632 or
Ethan Clarke (905) 358-2347
Workers want change
Norma Milligan
Brooklyn, NY. Laundry, Drycleaning & Allied Workers Joint Board, member for 33 years
It is not about just us, it is not for this generation, it is for the future generation. We as laundry workers have been on the back burner for too long.
I know how important our union is and I am ready to do what it takes to make the Employee Free Choice Act law.
Dennis Brooks
Hilton Newark Penn Station
We have to resolve the issues within the union to move forward with our goals and organize the whole city of Newark. And we need to reach out to our brothers and sisters in the cities in New Jersey to show them the progress we've made. We can be an example to show them that unions are good. That's why we need to work with President Obama to get the Free Choice Act passed.