Workers ask participants to boycott hotel until they are returned to work

For decades these workers, from housekeepers to banquet servers, had made the Sheraton Columbia the premier venue for weddings, meetings and conferences in Maryland’s Howard County – that is, until a new owner purchased the hotel and decided to throw them out like yesterday’s rubbish. Now the workers are fighting for their jobs, and asking the public not to patronize the renamed “Merriweather Lakehouse Hotel” until they get their jobs back.

Earlier this month, the Catholic Labor Network joined with community organization PATH (People Acting Together in Howard) to host a “listening session” where local clergy and faith activists could hear the story from the workers themselves.

During the meeting, clergy and parish social ministry leaders listened intently to the testimony of three workers who were seeking to return to their jobs. Angela Carrillo (pictured, in blue), a parishioner from nearby St John the Evangelist who had worked at the hotel for more than 20 years before the pandemic interrupted her career, was at a loss to understand why the new owner was refusing to rehire experienced employees. But she found some comfort learning that Marge Trenkle from the St John the Evangelist Social Ministry Team was listening closely to her testimony and bringing her story back to the parish.

This could not have happened in Baltimore, for instance, because the union and an alliance of community organizations – including the Catholic Labor Network – successfully pressed for a “right to recall” ordinance. Under the ordinance, city hotels that reopened after the pandemic were required to offer jobs to their laid-off employees before hiring replacements. But Howard County has no such law.

Fr. Ty Hullinger of Baltimore’s St Anthony of Padua Church observed,

I was deeply affected by something that one of the workers, Mr. Ty Hughes, shared at our table. As he talked about how the workers were finding their voices and building power through the boycott, he also described some of the suffering and loss that the workers have gone through, including ‘the loyalty that was stolen from the employees.’ When he shared this, it reminded me of when Pope Francis uses that same exact language of ‘robbery’ to describe the effects of unjust economies on persons and communities in The Joy of the Gospel. Here workers are being robbed of their loyalty. To know that this company has used the pandemic as a ruse to lockout workers with 5, 10, 15 years and more of experience that the hotel is unjust, immoral and it causes tremendous pain and suffering. It is also like stealing their loyalty and so much more. But the power, voice and solidarity that workers are building is what gives this boycott and movement hope. Hope that they will be given their jobs back, and that this same hope will help build power and support for workers in other places who have also lost their jobs when unjust employers use the pandemic to do the unthinkable.

Readers of this blog will be familiar with our questions about what happens when for-profit corporations purchase Catholic hospitals. No man can serve two masters, our Lord reminded us (Mt 6:24). These tie-ups inevitably bring a tug-of-war between the mission of a Catholic hospital and the mission of delivering profits to shareholders.

The St Vincent’s Hospital strike in Worcester MA is a key example. Like the CWA members now on strike at Buffalo’s Mercy Hospital, the nurses at St Vincent’s walked off the job to protest inadequate staffing levels. The strike has dragged on more than six months. Tenet Corp., which owns the hospital, has hired replacement workers whom they say will permanently replace the striking nurses – a practice that the Church has condemned, supporting efforts during the 1990s to outlaw it.

Meanwhile, a Catholic Worker community nearby has been organizing solidarity for the strikers, circulating a petition on their behalf among area Catholics and appearing at events with banners supporting the nurses. It’s great to see a Catholic Worker community bearing witness in one of today’s critical labor struggles.

Did you know that Hilton is using COVID-19 as an opportunity to end daily housekeeping and eliminate housekeepers’ jobs?

It’s a dirty trick. The hotel chain is telling CUSTOMERS that routine daily room cleaning has been eliminated due to the pandemic, while telling INVESTORS that this is the new normal that will enable the hotels to boost profits by permanently eliminating jobs.

YOU can help. To find out how, join us Sept. 29 for a short 1-hour webinar.

Presenters

• Carrie Sallgren from UNITE HERE
• Susan Gallicho, Housekeeper at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (and St Joseph’s RC Parishioner)
• Clayton Sinyai, Executive Director of the Catholic Labor Network

CLICK TO REGISTER

Fr. Ike Udoh, SJ of Blessed Sacrament Church has been standing with and comforting the workers of the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. He offers these thoughts on Labor Day.

On This Labor Day…

Insecurity, fear of the unknown, and anxiety have been heightened for many during this pandemic.  Unfortunately, the debilitating impact of COVID-19 has especially weighed upon those at the frontline of making us feel welcome, at home, feeding us, and finding a place of rest- Hospitality workers.

The courageous efforts of hospitality workers across the state, led to the passing of the right to recall and retention by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.  Actions like this give me hope. Caravans of workers spent days at the State Capitol, taking their righteous cause to the streets, and eventually securing an opportunity to return to jobs they have dedicated decades of their life to, amidst opposition by some employers and members of the business community.  Policy must now be put into concrete action by continuing to empower workers to be able to unionize, advocate for job safety and security, and hold employers who fail to implement the right to recall accountable.

On this Labor Day, we must recognize the dignity and labor of our frontline workers in the hospitality industry.  We must walk alongside our courageous workers to exercise and build their power through advocacy and participation in unions.

On this Labor Day, we must hold employers accountable to the law.

On this Labor Day, we must celebrate and elevate these often unsung heroes whose life of service allows us to feel welcome, at home, and find rest in airports, hotels, restaurants, businesses and industry all across California and these United States of America.

Did you know that more than 1 million American workers are employed by Catholic institutions? It’s true – our Church, in conducting worship, educating the faithful and engaging in corporal works of mercy has built a veritable empire of Churches, hospitals, nursing homes, colleges, schools and social service agencies. These institutions offer us the opportunity to exemplify Catholic Social Teaching in the management of our own organizations.

Workers at many Catholic organizations, especially Churches and K-12 schools, lack the protections of American labor law when they try to form unions. As religious institutions they are exempt from the interference of the government, including the National Labor Relations Board. But that doesn’t mean that Catholic Social Teaching doesn’t apply to these workers. On the contrary, the Bishops in their 1986 Pastoral Economic Justice for All observed that:

On the parish and diocesan level, through its agencies and institutions, the Church employs many people; it has investments; it has extensive properties for worship and mission. All the moral principles that govern the just operation of any economic endeavor apply to the Church and its agencies and institutions; indeed the Church should be exemplary… We bishops commit ourselves to the principle that those who serve the Church—laity, clergy, and religious—should receive a sufficient livelihood and the social benefits provided by responsible employers in our nation…. All church institutions must also fully recognize the rights of employees to organize and bargain collectively with the institution through whatever association or organization they freely choose. (347, 351, 353)

We are pleased to report that we have identified more than 600 Catholic institutions that bargain with unions representing their employees. That’s a sign of joy and hope. Unions and management don’t always agree at these institutions, but the workers’ right to organize and bargain collectively is recognized, and they serve as an example for Catholic business leaders in the private sector who have to decide whether to heed or resist when their own workers seek union representation.

Unfortunately the story is not entirely joy and hope. While teachers at approximately 300 Catholic K-12 schools have union representation, there are about 5,500 Catholic schools where teachers lack unions. When Catholic schoolteachers seek to form a union, too many Catholic administrators take their cue from the secular law instead of consulting Catholic Social Teaching, and dismiss their desire out of hand – or even threaten them with discipline. And in recent years several Catholic colleges and universities have taken similar action when their adjunct faculty sought to organize.

Gaudium et Spes (68) reminded us that the right of workers to organize is a natural right that comes from God, not a gift from the labor board. ALL Catholic institutions should be prepared to honor that right.

CLICK HERE for the 2021 Gaudium et Spes Labor Report