UNITE HERE Local 11 Backs Christy Holstege For State Assembly

UNITE HERE LOCAL 11 BACKS CHRISTY HOLSTEGE FOR STATE ASSEMBLY

Palm Springs Outgoing Mayor Endorsed by UNITE HERE Local 11 in Assembly District 42 Contest

PALM SPRINGS, CA – In a powerful indication of her support from working families in the race for Assembly District 42, today outgoing Palm Springs Outgoing Mayor Christy Holstege secured the endorsement of UNITE HERE Local 11.

UNITE HERE Local 11 represents over 32,000 hospitality workers employed in hotels, casinos, restaurants, airports, sports arenas, and convention centers throughout Southern California.

The hospitality workers’ union has a long history of organizing in the Coachella Valley, and is the hospitality local for Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.  In 2004, UNITE HERE leader Ada Briceño, who is today Co-President of Local 11, was arrested alongside United Farm Workers hero Dolores Huerta in an act of civil disobedience at a protest in downtown Palm Springs highlighting the working conditions of casino workers.

“At this crucial moment for labor, it’s critical that we have more leaders in Sacramento who have a record of delivering for working people,” said Briceño.  “That’s why UNITE HERE Local 11 is thrilled to support Christy Holstege for Assembly District 42. With her impressive record of uplifting workers’ rights as a civil rights attorney and on the Palm Springs City Council, we are confident that Christy will deliver good middle-class jobs and a fair economy for all in the State Legislature.”

​​Holstege also released the following statement reflecting on the influential endorsement:

“I’m deeply honored to have the support of the working families that make up UNITE HERE Local 11. They give a voice to the many voiceless working people in our communities fighting for better treatment and higher wages. As a civil rights attorney and local elected official who has fought to defend worker rights throughout my career, I am profoundly grateful for their support of my campaign for Assembly and look forward to working with UNITE HERE Local 11 to uplift working families in Sacramento.”

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UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing over 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona who work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers, and airports.

HMS HOST PHOENIX NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE

You’ve heard a lot about negotiations while workers are out on strike. Now that we are back to bargaining, we, the union committee, want to update you on where we agree and disagree with the company. The status of negotiations is always changing, so confirm the latest details with your committee person or organizer!

Equality

  • In talking to other workers and gathering data, the union committee has uncovered allegations of unacceptable disparities in pay along racial lines. Workers and the union have filed complaints with the EEOC and the City of Phoenix concerning these pay disparities, as well as complaints concerning alleged discrimination on the basis of age and sex, and customer harassment related race and sexual orientation.
  • To solve these problems, the union committee proposed that our new contract add stronger protections against discrimination and initiate a task force on increasing diversity.
  • The union committee also proposed a fair process for promotion that includes clearly posting and sharing open positions for 5 days to prevent “tap-on-the-shoulder” promotions.
  • The company has REJECTED all of these proposals.

Fair use of technology

  • The company has already implemented new technology that has cut into tip income of servers.
  • The company has NOT AGREED to auto-gratuity.

Retiring with dignity

  • The union committee proposed the company pay 20 cents per hour you work into the same pension fund as Local 11 HMS Host workers at LAX have.
  • The company has REJECTED this proposal

Free legal support

  • The union committee proposed the company pay 10 cents per hour you work into a legal fund that gives you free access to highly-skilled lawyers who can help resolve family custody issues, adoptions, wills, bankruptcies, and immigration cases. Learn more by visiting https://www.unitehere11.org/members/legal-fund/
  • The company has NOT AGREED to this proposal

Livable wages and fair raises

  • The company and the union committee have not agreed on wages and raises.
  • The union committee will not agree to the company’s raise proposals without also agreeing on more affordable health insurance costs.

Affordable family health insurance

  • Under the union committee’s proposal, workers would pay half of what the company proposes for health insurance in 2023.
  • This chart shows how much money the union committee’s proposal would save you by the end of 2023.

Union savings in 2022 and 2023: Gold healthcare plans including dental and vision

Single Single + spouse Single + kids Family
$574.20 $2,467.32 $1,385.88 $4,075.56

Union savings in 2022 and 2023: Silver healthcare plans including dental and vision

Single Single + spouse Single + kids Family
$495.36 $1,410.36 $1,254.12 $3,513.96

You deserve more

HMS Host’s parent company, Autogrill, is owned by Italian billionaires through a holding company called Edizione, which had a net asset value of $12.5 billion in 2020.

Have you gotten rent relief?
During the pandemic, HMS Host has received rent relief and other valuable forms of aid while it has been negotiating with the workers.

  • Here in Phoenix, HMS Host saved $4.4 million in rent to the City of Phoenix between April 2020 and July 2021
  • HMS Host’s parent company, Autogrill, stated in its 2020 financial report that it managed to reduce its rent by almost $240 million throughout the company that year.

Are you working harder than you were when the pandemic started?

  • Staffing levels right now are 37.5% lower than before the pandemic
  • As of this August, sales for HMS Host at Sky Harbor were back up to 95% of what they were in August 2019. Sales for Terminal 3 actually went up 38%.

BREAKING: HMS Host workers at Sky Harbor Announce Their Return to Work After 10-day Strike

Airport food workers will return to their jobs—and the negotiating table

PHOENIX, AZ –  On day ten of an indefinite strike, HMS Host workers at Sky Harbor airport announced their intention to return to work tomorrow, December 2, and to return to the negotiating table. 

Workers initiated their strike to highlight their demand for a new, comprehensive contract with fair raises, affordable health insurance, a company-paid retirement contribution, protections for workers’ tips, and strong contract language for equal opportunity and protection from discrimination. Workers with UNITE HERE Local 11 have been in negotiations with HMS Host since 2017. 

“Our intention with our strike was to bring more attention to the company’s stinginess after four years of negotiations, and to do it at a time when the company would be forced to recognize the value of our labor most—Thanksgiving,” said Victoria Stahl, barista in Terminal 4. “We did that and now we are ready to go back to the negotiating table.”

“It’s disgusting that I have to go to Mexico for medical care because the health insurance through the company doesn’t cover my treatment,” said Lucia Salinas, cook at Cowboy Ciao. “HMS Host saved more than $4 million on their rent during the pandemic thanks to rent relief from the City of Phoenix, but my family doesn’t get anything like that. Because we went on strike, now everyone can see what kind of company HMS Host is.” 

Over the course of the strike, the union filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against their employer for allegedly violating the workers’ rights to organize and strike. The charges, filed with the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), allege that the company has interfered with workers’ federal labor rights by, among other conduct, questioning workers concerning whether they would be supporting the union and going on strike,  limiting speech in the workplace, and surveilling workers’ protected activity. 

“We want to thank the community for all of the support they showed us while we’ve been on strike,” said Beatriz Topete, organizing director with UNITE HERE Local 11 “The tweets from travelers, the thumbs up from other airport workers, the daily deliveries of food and drinks all kept us going. The generosity of our labor partners, especially the UFCW Local 99 and the Arizona AFL-CIO, made this Thanksgiving one we will remember for the rest of our lives. Solidarity means everything.”

HMS Host workers make up the largest group of food concessions workers at the Phoenix airport. HMS Host is the single largest concessionaire at Sky Harbor Airport, employing hundreds of workers in all Starbucks coffee shops at the airport and popular restaurants such as Barrio Cafe, Chelsea’s Kitchen, and SanTan Brewery. 

Along with issues like affordable healthcare and retiring with dignity, strikers plan to return to negotiations with a focus on ensuring equality at work on the basis of race, gender, age, and sexual orientation. On November 18, the union formally asked the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate the company’s pay and promotion practices. In a complaint filed with the EEOC, the union alleged that during 2019 Black/African American workers were paid on average only 67% of the total earnings of white workers, taking home on average $9,539.49 less per year than white workers. Several individual HMS Host workers at Sky Harbor have also filed pending sex and age discrimination complaints with the EEOC. 

Click here to learn more about the strike and hear worker testimonials. 

 

Victoria Stahl

“Our intention with our strike was to bring more attention to the company’s stinginess after four years of negotiations, and to do it at a time when the company would be forced to recognize the value of our labor most – Thanksgiving,” said Victoria Stahl, barista in Terminal 4. “We did that and now we are ready to go back to the negotiating table.”

Lucia Salinas

“It’s disgusting that I have to go to Mexico for medical care because the health insurance through the company doesn’t cover my treatment,” said Lucia Salinas, cook at Cowboy Ciao. “HMS Host saved more than $4 million on their rent during the pandemic thanks to rent relief from the City of Phoenix, but my family doesn’t get anything like that. Because we went on strike, now everyone can see what kind of company HMS Host is.”

Vivien Eubanks

IS YOUR BOSS TRIPPING? KNOW YOUR RIGHTS DURING A STRIKE

Special information for HMS Host strikers from UNITE HERE Local 11 staff attorney Alyssa Peterson

Every worker is protected when they act with other workers to fight for better working conditions. Even when you are on strike, you have legal rights as an employee. Make sure to document what you are seeing and hearing through photos, screenshots of text messages, selfies or selfie videos and send the evidence to your organizer.

If you see or hear management doing any of the following, contact Laura Perez at (951) 255-6669, Mari Yepez at (480) 652-0650, or your committee person. These actions are unlawful, and we want to protect your rights and the rights of other workers.

Threats

  • Any threat to workers because of protected activity
    • “Protected activity” means actions you take together with your coworkers to fight for better working conditions, like a strike.
  • Threats may be implied
    • Example: “Remember Joe—he supported the union and he was fired.”
  • May be a threat of unspecified reprisal
    • Example: “You’ll get in trouble if you keep this up.”

Retaliation

  • Taking harmful action against a worker or group of workers because they engaged in protected activity
    • Examples of “protected activity”: a strike or other collective action for better working conditions
  • Retaliation can be formal, like demotion or transfer
  • Retaliation can also be more informal actions
    • Example: intentionally making work so intolerable that a reasonable person would quit
    • Example: enforcing rules that were not enforced before, like a crackdown on absenteeism after an organizing drive starts

Interrogation

  • Trying to find out information when a worker is involved in organizing
    • Examples: “Do you support the strike?” “Are you coming in to work today or supporting the strikers?” “How do you feel about the union?”

Promises

  • Granting benefits in an attempt to discourage support for the union
    • Example: the boss announces $2 dollar increases in hourly salary in the middle of a strike
  • Soliciting grievances from workers
    • Example: the manager pulls a worker aside and asks, “How has work been going? Do you have any concerns about how things are run around here?”

Surveillance

  • Spying on striking workers or listening in on conversations between workers
  • It is also unlawful to create the impression of surveillance
    • Example: “I know who went to the union meeting last night.”

Unilateral Changes

  • Before changing terms & conditions of employment, management must give notice and opportunity to bargain to the union before they implement the policy.
  • Employers can’t implement policy changes that would affect a group of workers without talking to the union, for example:
    • Changes to pay rate (including overtime and tips)
    • Hours of employment
    • New technology
    • Job duties
    • Benefits (healthcare, retirement, vacation)
    • Work rules (meal benefits, break times, uniforms)
    • Bonuses or incentives

Not sure if management’s actions are wrong?
Tell an organizer!

As Indefinite Strike Rages On, UNITE HERE Local 11 Workers at Sky Harbor’s HMS Host File Federal Unfair Labor Practice Charges

Workers allege the company has engaged in coercive conduct in violation of labor laws
and asked the National Labor Relations Board to investigate

PHOENIX – On day five of an indefinite strike, HMS Host workers at Sky Harbor airport announced their union has filed unfair labor practice charges against their employer for allegedly violating the workers’ rights to organize and strike. The charges, filed with the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), allege that the company has interfered with workers’ federal labor rights by, among other conduct, questioning workers concerning whether they would be supporting the union and going on strike, limiting speech in the workplace, and surveilling workers’ protected activity.

HMS Host workers make up the largest group of food concessions workers at the Phoenix airport. HMS Host is the single largest concessionaire at Sky Harbor Airport, employing hundreds of workers in all Starbucks coffee shops at the airport and popular restaurants such as Barrio Cafe, Chelsea’s Kitchen, and SanTan Brewery.

The pending charges filed this week and prior to the strike include allegations that:

  • The company has instructed certain workers that they are not allowed to speak about union-related issues at work.
  • The company has surveilled, or created the appearance of surveilling, workers’ federally protected union activity.
  • The company has threatened workers that participating in a strike without prior notice could result in discipline.
  • During the ongoing strike, management has instructed workers to retrieve their paychecks in person at a new location and then questioned the workers whether they would be going on strike.
  • The company instituted a new mobile ordering system at Starbucks that has increased the workload of baristas without providing the union with notice or an opportunity to bargain.

Workers are demanding a new, comprehensive contract with fair raises, affordable health insurance, a company-paid retirement contribution, protections for workers’ tips, and strong contract language for equal opportunity and protection from discrimination. Workers with UNITE HERE Local 11 have been in negotiations with HMS Host since 2017. Delays in settling a contract mean delays in wage increases and official COVID safety protocols during a global pandemic. On November 18th, after almost four years of negotiations and no contract, workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize the strike.

This June, UNITE HERE Local 11 filed an unfair labor practice charge alleging that Host management directed two Starbucks baristas to remove their “Black Lives Matter” masks, which workers had decided to wear as part of an effort to advance racial equity at the company. After a regional office of the NLRB investigated, Host agreed to settle the charge by pledging to employees that it will not prohibit workers from wearing Black Lives Matter masks.

Concerns about racial justice have featured prominently at HMS Host. On November 18, the union formally asked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate the company’s pay and promotion practices. In a complaint filed with the EEOC, the union alleged that during 2019 Black/African American workers were paid on average only 67% of the total earnings of white workers, taking home on average $9,539.49 less than white workers. In 2020, UNITE HERE issued a report alleging a $1.85 median hourly wage gap between Black and white baristas at Starbucks facilities operated by Host at airports across the country. Several individual HMS Host workers at Sky Harbor have also filed pending sex and age discrimination complaints with the EEOC.

Angie Sanchez