Boston hotel strikers tackle two-tier terror
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By ART LECLAIR and ROGER SHEPPARD BOSTON-As most of us are savoring our Thanksgiving turkey and preparing for the upcoming holiday season, 3400 mem -bers of Local 26 of the Hotel and Res -taurant Workers Union are getting ready to strike on Dec. 1.
By a vote of 97 percent, conducted Nov. 20-21, the hotel workers authorized their negotiating committee to call the strike. Voting began at a rally attended by over 1500 workers at Arlington Street Church in Boston.
"We will never sign a Judas contract. This union's soul is not for sale," said Dominic Bozotto, president of Local 26 and of the 70-member negotiations committee.
The major hotel owners (Aetna, John Hancock, and Prudential life insurance companies) are riding the crest of the concessions wave, demanding outrageous givebacks from these already grossly underpaid workers. The insurance com -panies are demanding a two-tier wage structure where new hires would receive 75 percent of the regular salary. In total, the package would amount to a loss of $4000 per worker over the life of the contract.
On Oct. 30, a full five weeks before the strike deadline, 500 members of Local 26 and their supporters rallied in front of the John Hancock Tower to demonstrate their resolve in the face of the bosses' attack.
In 1982 Local 26 organized a successful struggle to defeat a similar concessions package. This year the local's leadership is employing a strategy of involving the entire membership in the contract process. The union is actively reaching out to labor, church, and community groups to help solidify a broad base of support.
The process is a difficult one given that there are six to eight language groups represented in the local. Nonetheless, the Bozotto team has once again turned this union into a solid fighting machine. In rejecting the notion of concessions, Bozotto has stated the importance and necessity of fighting for "substantial wage increases across the board."
Bozotto and Local 26 came to the forefront of the labor movement in Boston two years ago when they played an exemplary role in the Amalgamated Transport Workers Union (ATWU) strike against Greyhound. Local 26 opened its Socialist Actlon/Dave Walsh tiations, Bozotto has threatened, if nec -essary, to hold a sit-in inside the Hancock lower.
After experiencing the vitality and spirit exhibited by the brothers and sisters of Local 26 at their rally, one cannot help but come away with a renewed sense of purpose and optimism. As one worker told us, "My contract is my insurance policy. " Truer words have never been spoken.
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