Workers and Retirees Stand Up to Hostile Takeover of Their Union's Buildings

NEW YORK-Properties owned by the unions of Workers United, purchased with the dues money of generations of garment industry workers, are threatened in court today as part of an attempted hostile seizure of assets by their former union. Buildings in cities including New York, Chicago and Knoxville, Tennessee, have been owned for decades by the unions which have recently left UNITE HERE and formed their own union, Workers United.  The workers who are rallying today at the Southern District of New York courthouse are outraged that UNITE HERE President, Hospitality Industry John Wilhelm has filed for a preliminary injunction against Workers United affiliates demanding that these workers turn over all of their assets to his union.

Now that the unions of Workers United have split from UNITE HERE, some of the remaining UNITE HERE leadership is trying to grab the assets from their former members.  Assets the Wilhelm faction of UNITE HERE are trying to seize from the Workers United unions include:

• Workers United unions' entire treasuries, built up through the contributions of low-wage garment workers over decades and in some cases over a hundred years;
• Workers United unions' buildings around the country; and
• stock in Amalgamated Bank - the nation's only union-owned bank, which was founded by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1923.

Retiree Jayce Holden said "We saved our pennies to buy these buildings and so did the workers in our predecessor unions like Amalgamated. We left John Wilhelm's union because he wasn't representing us and so now he wants to take our assets. He never cared about us, only our money and this just proves it."

"These buildings have belonged to us for decades. Wilhelm knows this property isn't his-that's why he's so desperate to get this injunction. He wants to burn through the assets we fought so hard to build just like he burned through the money that UNITE brought to our old union, UNITE HERE. With him it's all about the money but these buildings are our homes and our legacy" said retiree Liz Phillips.

In court on Tuesday the judge will be hearing arguments about whether the unions of Workers United should be forced to turn over their assets to their former union before a decision on the merits of their case is made, or whether the members of these unions can keep their assets to continue to represent their interests and fight for their rights in the workplace.

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Workers United is a union representing  more than 150,000 workers in the US and Canada who work in the laundry, food service, hospitality, gaming, apparel, textiles manufacturing and distribution industries. www.workersunitedunion.org

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