Layoffs slow organizing efforts
By Gary Gentile
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Last year, hundreds of immigrant janitors marched through the streets with raised fists chanting "si se puede!" — yes, it can be done — after winning raises from employers.
Associated Press
Today, those workers and members of other unions are fighting to hang on to their recent gains, particularly in the low-paying tourism and hospitality sectors hit hard since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Marina Calles last week attended the Santa Monica City Council on behalf of laid-off hotel workers such as herself. Through an interpreter, she lobbied for a requirement that laid-off workers be rehired when tourism picks up.
Meanwhile, the unions themselves are struggling to sustain a nationwide organizing effort as they lose dues and potential members because of layoffs and other economic cutbacks.
"There's no doubt this has had a serious impact on our resources," said Maria Elena Durazo, president of Local 11 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International union, which has cut support staff, trimmed travel budgets and eliminated raises to keep organizing.
The terrorist attacks also have sent Hawai'i's economy into a tailspin, with nearly 38,000 unemployment claims filed since Sept. 11, many from tourism workers.
Officials with Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International union estimate that at least 1,500 of the local's 11,000 members don't have enough work to qualify for medical coverage. Others have had their hours severely reduced.
Despite strong regional gains made by unions in 2000, organized labor across the country had a net loss of about 200,000 members during that year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The mass layoffs in the airline and tourism industries after Sept. 11 mean the losses are likely to continue through 2001.
The membership of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International has been among the hardest hit. Since Sept. 11, the union has lost more than one-third of its 300,000 members in the United States and Canada to layoffs.
Things were much different just 18 months ago. Los Angeles unions were celebrating newfound national clout in the wake of the "Justice for Janitors" campaign that served as a model for similar campaigns throughout the country. The high-profile strike by the Service Employees International Union lasted three weeks.
Today, the picket lines have been replaced by lines of laid-off workers waiting for free groceries from unions and help applying for unemployment benefits and food stamps.
"The hotel workers' union has been aggressively organizing in Los Angeles," said Miguel Contreras, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. "Now they're having to turn inward and see how to help these members survive day to day."
Of the 12,000 members of two hotel and restaurant union locals in the Los Angeles area, about 3,000 are now out of work or logging reduced hours, union officials said. Many workers at hotels, theme parks and airports were let go, only to be hired back at lower wages.
This situation has prompted unions to start lobbying for extended unemployment benefits and other help.
The California Labor Federation, which represents more than 2 million unionized workers, recently endorsed Gov. Gray Davis for re-election. Before doing so, however, the group received several commitments from Davis, including a promise to speed up unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs as a result of Sept. 11.
The Santa Monica City Council recently passed an ordinance requiring luxury hotels and other tourism-related businesses to give workers who have been let go first crack at positions that are refilled.
Meanwhile, Durazo and the presidents of other union locals continue to push their national agenda. They will soon travel to Boston in support of a contract dispute involving 3,000 workers at nine hotels. Durazo noted that it is important that unions stay aggressive and not worry about their public image if workers strike.
Gary Chaison, a professor of Industrial Relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., noted, "When workers need unions the most, they have the most concerns about moving toward them." However, some suggest the Sept. 11 crisis may give unions more public support. Workers standing in unemployment lines as the economic victims of terrorism could be seen in a more sympathetic light than defiant workers on a picket line.
"The silver lining is this is a test for organized labor to become united, responding to a crisis in solidarity with each other," Contreras said. "Labor gave a voice to janitors last year. Labor is giving a voice this year to these workers who are affected by layoffs."
