Pride At Work members Mike Andrew, John Hitzfelter, and Lincoln Rose were among the 19 people arrested in front of the Westin Hotel Tuesday, October 24. All were part of a demonstration of more than 300 people in support of UNITE HERE Local 8 workers who are bargaining a new contract with Westin management. UNITE HERE, which represents nearly a million hotel, restaurant, laundry and needle trades workers and retirees nation-wide, sees the Westin contract as an important part of its Hotel Workers Rising movement, which aims to transform the wages and working conditions of traditionally low-wage hotel workers.

Pride At Work is the AFL-CIOs LGBT constituency organization. Seattles Pride At Work chapter, which includes members of both AFL-CIO and Change To Win unions, unanimously endorsed the Hotel Workers Rising campaign in May of this year, as the national organization did at its convention in September.

It makes a lot of sense for us to build long-term relationships with unions like UNITE HERE that represent concentrations of LGBT workers, said Pride At Work member Mike Andrew. Local 8 has made Transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination language a key part of their contract demands. Obviously we want to see Westin workers win those protections, and wed want to see similar language adopted by all unions.

Many union contracts now protect sexual orientation, but relatively few include gender identity and gender expression in their anti-discrimination provisions. The Westin has balked at including gender expression in the new contract under negotiation.

Lincoln Rose added, It's super important to support UNITE HERE Local 8. They stand for every worker, including workers in our communities. They specifically asked me to be part of Tuesdays action because there are Transgender workers at the Westin, and they wanted them to see our community's support. Local 8 stands strong and takes responsibility for all of their employees, as you saw yesterday, when the head of the union was arrested with us.

Arrestees included Rick Sawyer, UNITE HERE International Vice President and principal officer of Local 8; Jeff Johnson, Organizing Director of the Washington State Labor Council; Rev Paul Benz; Bob Barnes, Seattle Chair of Jobs With Justice; Joshua Welter and Will Pittz of Washington Community Action Network (WCAN); Catherine Pottinger of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW); Elana Dix of SAGE; CWA member Lee Campbell; Teamsters Local 117 organizer Kathryn Akeah; Lucille Roffmeier of  ACORN; Houston Brown of PSARA; Seattle University student Sarah Dean; and Jeanne Cameron, Chuck Cruise, and Jessica Lawson, all of UNITE HERE.

The demonstration grew out of frustration with the slow progress of contract negotiations, which UNITE HERE and its community supporters attribute to deliberate stalling tactics on the part of Westin management. The Westin contract expired May 31 this year, and management has agreed to only eight face-to-face negotiating sessions since then. Three more sessions are scheduled for November 8, 9, and 10.

UNITE HERE plans to keep pressure on the Westin management. We could probably sign a contract tomorrow, said UNITE HEREs Sawyer Tuesday night after his release, and it might be a pretty good contract. But we dont want just a pretty good contract. We want to win a great contract for our members!

A Seattle Pride At Work AFL-CIO press release