Organizing for Better Working Conditions and Wages: The Unite Here! Hotel Workers Rising Campaign

Abstract

This article examines some of the strategies and success of the UNITE HERE! union in its ongoing Hotel Workers Rising: Lifting One Another Above the Poverty Line campaign in the United States and Canada. This unique campaign has generated national attention in both the United States and Canada about issues facing hotel workers, including how changes in corporate policies aimed at pleasing the consumer - such as the shift to 'heavenly' beds - has had deleterious consequences for Room Attendants in terms of back injuries from lifting heavier mattresses. How successful has the UNITE HERE! been so far in terms of securing new contracts? What about in terms of organizing urban, suburban, and rural hotel employees? What barriers do unions face when organizing hotel workers? What does comparing union density rates in the hotel sector across cities reveal? After beginning to address some of these questions, this article concludes by providing some policy recommendations.