| « Made-Up Death Panels versus Actual Death Markets | An Open Letter to Barack Obama: For the good of Chicago, don't go to Copenhagen. » |
Labor & Worker Rights Fri Sep 25 2009
Scenes From Thursday's Unite Here Storm
Just as most 9-to-5ers were getting ready to call it a day on Thursday, members of the labor union Unite Here, Local 1, stormed North Rush Street and East Chicago Avenue, right outside of the Park Hyatt. Mechanics snapped these photos before 200 protestors were arrested as they sat across Chicago Avenue.
Union workers and supporters were protesting the Hyatt Corp.'s proposed cuts to workers' wages and health-insurance coverage. Workers have been without a contract since August 31, and the Hyatt Corp. is trying to make employees work 120 hours a month in order to qualify for health-insurance coverage, according to Unite Here, as reported by the Sun-Times' Sandra Guy.
Union reps passed out yellow flyers to pedestrians with this message:
We work in hotels, airports, casinos, schools, restaurants and cafeterias. We are union members and allies. We will continue to fight to improve our lives and will not let global corporations use the economy as an excuse to push us backward. Today, we follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr. and others before us who have fought for a better future for themselves and their families. We are here to send a clear message to Hyatt and other corporations. WE ARE NOT AFRAID.
You can read more coverage of the sit-in from Adam Doster over at Progress Illinois.
Ramsin / September 25, 2009 12:17 PM
I got some video I'll post...eventually.