Organize Here. Win Here. UNITE HERE!

UNITE HERE represents workers throughout the U.S. and Canada who work in:

The UNITE HERE Student-Labor Partnership

Students are joining with workers to win important changes in their communities. From participating in civil disobedience actions with hotel and food service workers in Chicago, to rallying around university dining workers in New York and Southern California, students have joined with us to demand fair wages, affordable health care, immigration reform, and rights for the LGBTQ community. UNITE HERE is working with students and student organizations around the country to form student-labor committees, fostering dialogue and cooperation on local and national issues. Regional committee contact info is posted below. If you’re interested in setting up a committee near you, send us an email.

We’ll have regular updates on student actions here. Check out www.StiritUpCampaign.org for news about student actions around campus food service, from supporting workers’ rights and sustainability initiatives to demanding dignity and fair pay for agricultural workers. Go to HEI Workers Rising for updates on student involvement in the national HEI hotel campaign.

Student Allies Out in Force for Food Service and Hotel Workers

Around the country, UNITE HERE student allies have been stepping up the effort to win dignity and respect with hospitality and food service workers both on and off campus.

"Living Wage Palooza" at DePaul University

DePaul On April 23, students, faculty and campus dining workers at DePaul University in Chicago came together for an incredible celebration of solidarity. Over 200 students and 60 campus dining workers attended the "Living Wage Palooza," which featured speeches from workers and professors as well as performances from 12 different student-led musical and spoken word acts. "I thought it was inspiring, remarkable and touching," campus dining worker and speaker Chanteen Hardaway reflected after the event. "It was shocking to know that that many students care about the workers. It was Friday and they could have been getting ready to go out and party, but instead they came and were kickin' it with the old folks." The event came less than two weeks after DePaul students delivered over 1500 petition signatures in support of living wages on campus to the University President.

Baltimore Forum

Baltimore In Baltimore, a forum event provided a unique opportunity for students and dining workers from four Baltimore campuses to join together for a common purpose--to help the workers to win back, officially, the union of their choice, UNITE HERE Local 7. Nicholas Brady, Vice President of the Black Student Union at Johns Hopkins University, said, "We came here today to learn the perspectives of the workers that have really made our experiences--at Johns Hopkins University, at Coppin State University, at Morgan State University and at Towson University--such great experiences." After the event, students responded by rallying alongside workers as they demanded the right to vote for the union of their choice. Students also signed hundreds of petitions, and at Hopkins, gathered together with the workers and presented them to Aramark management and the senior administration of Johns Hopkins University.

Hunger Strike at Notre Dame for HEI workers

Hunger Strike at Notre Dame Meanwhile, the same day the DePaul campus dining workers celebrated with students, just a couple of hours away a group of 13 Notre Dame students celebrated mass with student and faculty supporters to end their 5-day hunger strike protesting Notre Dame’s investment in HEI Hotels and Resorts. HEI workers across the country are leading a campaign to demand a fair and neutral process for deciding on unionization. The students, a coalition of MECHA and Campus Labor Action Project activists, set up camp outside of the administration building beside a banner that read "University $$ for HEI? NOT in Our Name!" Throughout the week, they gathered petition signatures and led daily actions to the president's office. Quoted in the Notre Dame Observer, one of the hunger strikers, junior Liz Furman, explained: ""It is important to me because Notre Dame says to the world that it’s an upstanding Catholic institution that upholds Catholic values and Catholic social teaching on campus, as well as an ethical investment policy, I’m a Christian and I really believe in respecting all people and all people have the right to dignity and respect. I think HEI isn’t doing that and our University isn’t doing that." (http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/news/students-protest-hei-go-on-hunger-strike-1.1372660)

Students and HEI Workers from California Press Ivy League Administrators to Divest from HEI

Also in April, Jose Landino (from the HEI Hilton Long Beach) and Peter Ho (from the HEI San Francisco Le Meridien) traveled from California to East Coast, Ivy League Universities to take action with students. They came to speak with students and tell administrators at Yale, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania about working conditions at their hotels, and the intimidation and retaliation they and their co-workers have experienced for publicly calling for a card-check neutrality agreement from HEI. At Yale, students and workers met with key administrators prompting conversations about possible divestment from HEI. At the University of Pennsylvania and at Brown, students and workers formed delegations to visit administrators, demanding that their universities take a stance against HEI’s anti-worker actions. At all three universities and others across the country, students are continuing to organize in solidarity with HEI workers until their universities listen to students and workers and stop investing in HEI.

As we move into the summer and next school year, UNITE HERE is excited to continue to strengthen its student partnerships across the country and work together with students to create a movement that changes workplaces and whole campuses for the better.