“It’s very bad”: DC hotel workers cope with COVID-19
“It’s very bad," John Boardman, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 25, told Union City yesterday. "We've got 97% of our members out of work. About half of our hotels are mothballing. They're closing entirely. The ones that are operating, are operating in the low single digits around, three to 5% occupancy.” UNITE HERE Local 25 represents more than 7,000 DC-area hotel workers; UC checked in with John yesterday to see how his union and its members are dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.
“We are fully operational even though our office is closed," Boardman said. "We are in the process of contacting all of our members directly, by phone. We have a very robust text communications backbone in place. Almost 90% of our members are capable of receiving text messages from us. We have our website up. We're in the process this week of launching an email newsletter. So we're keeping people posted. We are all isolated now, so anything that we can do to do what we as humans need, which is create a sense of community, all of those little things will be important. So, call a friend, call a member, Keep in touch. Email, text message somebody. We're trying to do that as much as we can with our membership, so that they know what's going on.”
Click here to hear John on this morning's Union City Radio and catch more of our conversation on this week’s edition of Your Rights At Work, Thursday at 1pm on WPFW 89.3FM.
The Danger We're Facing: A West Virginia Grocery Worker Speaks Out
The coronavirus crisis is spurring record-breaking sales for grocery store chains, straining supply chains and exhausting employees. To learn more about what life is like right now on one of the many frontlines of the global pandemic, Labor Notes writer Chris Brooks spoke with Travis Boothe, a pharmacy technician and Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 steward at a Kroger store in West Virginia: "In the pharmacy, where I work, our staff has been overwhelmed this whole week. We can’t keep up with the demand... We are exposed to floods of people at the cash registers. I think we are going to be hit hard by the virus. Before now, it was hard to get people involved in the union and talking about collective action. Now everyone is scared and everyone wants hazard pay, protective gear, they want to change safety protocols. We are starting to develop collective demands around health and safety. My union is handling the situation the best they can, but there is no precedent for what retail workers are facing right now...We have to organize that anger, fear, and frustration into collective action."
- Excerpted from Labor Notes
See also: Enhanced Policies in Effect at Giant, Kroger, Safeway & Shoppers
MWC UPDATES
Unemployment Insurance: click here for the latest helpful information for those seeking UI in DC due to layoffs and/or reduction of hours.
CSA: latest resource updates posted here, including updated Resources to Help Survive Economic Impact of Coronavirus.
Legislative updates: click here for the latest updates, including House Democrats Introduce “Take Responsibility For Workers And Families Act,” Senate Fails To Advance Coronavirus Stimulus Bill For Second Time In Two Days and Joint Statement From Bowser, Hogan, And Northam On Regional Coronavirus Response.
Union Voice/Readers Write: Handwashing solidarity
"I always appreciate Union City--now so more than ever," writes Lisa Rosenthal, Communications Director at Masters, Mates & Pilots (MM&P). "I see that if we credit you, we can tweet out/post on Facebook the labor handwashing image. I know our members will appreciate it, what with all the emphasis being placed on hand hygiene."
All UC content is free to repost/share; we didn't originate the Solidarity Forever handwashing graphic (it was forwarded to us separately by Jules Bernstein and Saul Schniderman), but we don't know who actually created it. Anyway it''s a heckuva a lot better than singing Happy Birthday all day! Also, help build Union City by passing it along; Thank You!
Today's Labor Quote: John O’Connor
Fire was the cry from the windows up high
I saw but I could not believe
Two girls on the ledge as they jumped from the edge
Into the arms of eternity
From his song “The Triangle Fire”; 146 workers were killed in a fire at New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on this date in 1911, a disaster that would launch a national movement for safer working conditions.
https://youtu.be/JvzMA-VhfsQ
Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: COVID-19: An injury to one is the concern of all
Al Neal’s “Silent streets: Life halts, but not for all workers,” and Joe McCartin on “Class and the Challenge of COVID-19.” Plus Saul Schniderman and John O’Connor remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
Last week’s show: The Great Postal Strike, Watergate and “Casey Jones, the Union Scab”
Note: we mistakenly included the March 25 labor history in yesterday's UC; here's the March 24 history:
Groundbreaking on the first section of the New York City subway system, from City Hall to the Bronx. According to the New York Times, this was a worker’s review of the digging style of the well-dressed Subway Commissioners: "I wouldn't give th' Commish'ners foive cents a day fer a digging job. They're too shtiff" - 1900
March 25
Toronto printers strike for the 9-hour day in what is believed to be Canada’s first major strike - 1872
First “Poor People’s March” on Washington, in which jobless workers demanded creation of a public works program. Led by populist Jacob Coxey, the 500 to 1,000 unemployed protesters became known as “Coxey’s Army” - 1894
An explosion at a coal mine in Centralia, Ill. kills 111 miners. Mineworkers President John L. Lewis calls a six day work stoppage by the nation’s 400,000 soft coal miners to demand safer working conditions - 1947
- David Prosten
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