Vol. 73/No. 22      June 8, 2009

Some 500 workers there are members of Local 6 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International (HERE). They were protesting the bosses’ withholding pay in the form of tips to the banquet staff, reportedly amounting to nearly $2 million.

Union officials told the New York Times that the action had been called because of the company’s refusal to comply with an arbitrator’s 2007 ruling. It said that the formula used in New York City hotels to calculate banquet workers’ tips has been improperly calculated since 2003.

The method has resulted in lower tips for banquet servers, captains, and bartenders, whose wages are calculated by a percentage of the cost of each event.

“The banquet waiters were never used for private functions. Instead, they would use the restaurant workers,” Luis Capelo, 43, a doorman at Jumeirah, told the Militant. “It didn’t affect me, but I stopped work as well in support of my coworkers. It felt good to show that we had the power to stop working. I’ve been working here 19 years, and this was my first time doing something like this.”

Other workers in the hotel reported that the company was combining jobs to put a heavier workload on each worker. Ramón Leon, 50, an engineer and former union delegate, said, “They are cutting personnel and want us to do the work of two people. They’re talking about cutting wages as well. The company is making a profit and still trying to squeeze more out of us.” To prepare for the action, delegates from each department in the hotel had a meeting the day before, added Leon.

Both Leon and Capelo reported that a meeting is being scheduled between the union, the arbitrator, and the hotel, and that workers are planning to stop work again depending on the outcome of that meeting. “We did this 10 years ago when I was working at the old Ritz Carlton over tips and vacation pay, and we won,” Leon proudly stated.

Louie Jordan, 37, who works as a building engineer, said, “We need a united front against being taken advantage of. We just want fairness, and we need to provide for our families.”
 
 
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