CHICAGO, Ill.—A strike by workers at 26 Chicago hotels is nearing its third week, with UNITE HERE
Local 1’s demand for year-round health insurance a key issue for service workers who are often laid off in the winter. In the slow season, “they just lay us off for three or four months at a time,” Local 1 strike captain Q Rivers, who has worked at the Palmer House Hilton for two years, told the Real News Network Sept. 19. “Being a diabetic, it’s very important to me that I have my health insurance year-round, and not just while I’m working.” The walkout began Sept. 7, a week after contracts covering 6,000 employees at 30 hotels expired. Local 1 says it’s the broadest coordinated hotel strike in the city’s history. “It’s going to be a long fight,” Ionela Petrea, who works as a server in the Hyatt Regency bar, told the Chicago Tribune Sept. 13 during a march by several thousand workers up Michigan Avenue. Three conferences, the Economic Policy Institute’s, the Democratic Attorneys General Association’s fall policy program, and the Midwest LGBTQ Health Symposium decided to move their venues to show solidarity with the strikers. Read more
