Workers Call for Boycott of HEI-owned Embassy Suites in Irvine
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September 1, 2010
IRVINE - Workers from the HEI-owned Embassy Suites hotel in Irvine announced Tuesday afternoon they are calling for a boycott of their employer. The boycott is the second worker-called embargo of a HEI-owned hotel in Southern California, and the fourth in the country. Other boycotted HEI properties include the Hilton Long Beach, Sheraton Crystal City and Le Meridien in San Francisco. Under boycott, workers request that potential customers not eat, sleep or meet at the HEI-owned hotels. HEI strategically buys hotels, operates them under the Marriott, Hilton and Embassy Suites brand names, employs a range of techniques to bring costs down, and sells the properties over a period of 8 to 12 years. It raises the capital to do so through university endowments from some of America's most prestigious institutions including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, University of Pennsylvania, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and University of Chicago. But workers say the cost slashing comes at their expense. Workers have reported they endure cuts in staffing levels so employees are forced to do the job of two or three people, a lack of basic work materials like cleaning supplies and linens, and the inability to take breaks because of such heavy workloads and pressure.
Workers filed complaints with the state of California earlier in this month demanding about $120,000 in back pay for missing breaks to which they are entitled under state law. Workers at the Embassy Suites Irvine also cite low wages and the lack of affordable employer-provided health benefits as methods for maximizing HEI profits.
Argelia Rico, an Embassy Suites housekeeper, says she earns about $8.80 an hour.
Maintenance worker Adrian Murillo, who has worked at the hotel for 23 years, will soon have to go without health insurance because he can no longer afford it.
Already, area leaders have committed to respecting the boycott. For more information or to schedule interviews, please contact Leigh Shelton 213-481-8530 ext. 253 or lshelton@unitehere11.org. |
July 14, 2010
Workers at the HEI Sheraton Crystal City delegated the hotel's management today, again presenting their demands for fair working conditions and a process for deciding whether to form a union free from management intimidation. Wearing UNITE HERE! buttons, worker leaders from across the hotel's departments converged at noon and demanded to publicly speak with the Sheraton's General Manager. For the first time in months, GM Pradeep Bobba met with workers in the lobby of the hotel where they presented their key demands. These included a card-check agreement and fair treatment for workers who have been unjustly retaliated against by management for their pro-union activity.
Herman Romero, who participated in the delegation, had been a cook from the Sheraton Crystal City when he first began fighting for the union. He was laid off and then rehired two and a half months later as a housekeeper, meaning that his pay was lower and his work was harder. Romero then injured his back on the job while making a bed. Even though HEI is legally obligated to pay him workers' compensation for his on-the-job injury, the company's insurer has failed to pay him for the past four months.
The delegation demanded that Romero be paid his fair compensation and re-instated in his rightful job as a cook, along with Santana Alvarez, who also had worked in the hotel's kitchen before being punitively laid off and then rehired in the housekeeping department.
The delegation also protested harsh and unacceptable working conditions for housekeepers, who are provided with insufficient time to complete their jobs. The hotel management's refusal to adequately supply linens on the floors where housekeepers work has only exacerbated this problem, and has led to housekeepers needing to work off the clock just to finish their jobs.
On the day of the delegation, workers throughout the hotel wore red UNITE HERE! buttons to show their public support for the union and for a neutrality/ card check agreement. Employees of the Sheraton Crystal City declared a consumer boycott of their hotel in February 2010 in response to HEI's disrespect toward its employees.
New Report: HEI Hotels a Bad Investment for University Endowments
A new report released by United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) and endowment activists from campuses across the country sheds new light on how university endowments have gotten into so much trouble in recent months. The report—a case study on HEI Hotels and Resorts, a company largely funded by university endowments—sheds light on how risky private equity firms have a hold on millions of dollars of endowment funds at a time when universities are cutting academic budgets, student services and financial aid because they lack accessible cash. (Inside Higher Ed reporter Jack Stirling reported: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/26/sweatshop)
Between 2004 and 2008, HEI raised over one billion dollars from approximately two dozen schools, including some of the nation’s largest university endowments like Yale, Harvard and Princeton. While HEI promised universities that they had created “an efficient, risk-adverse business model designed to grow at an unprecedented, disciplined rate,” this report shows two HEI funds made most of their hotel purchases at or near the peak of the market. For example, HEI purchased the Le Meridièn hotel in San Francisco near the peak of the real estate bubble in May 2006, paying $129 million for the hotel and saddling the property with $99 million in debt. By September 2009, HEI reported that the assessed value of the property was a mere $43 million.
The report goes on to show how HEI has “locked in” endowment investment, as property values fluctuate, leaving universities to absorb the risk and bear the brunt of the current recession. Millions of dollars that HEI collected from their most recent call for funds from university investors sit unused, even as universities make drastic cuts to financial aid and campus services because they do not have enough cash on hand. Now, university endowment managers are under fire for tying up endowment capital in long-term, illiquid private equity holdings.
The report also shows how HEI employees have been affected by the company’s business model, which has led to drastic cuts in staffing at some hotels. Working conditions have prompted HEI hotel workers to organize in California and northern Virginia. The Office of the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued complaints against HEI alleging, among other things, that a union leader at the Sheraton Crystal City hotel was fired because of his role in the union. HEI denies these allegations and will face an NLRB hearing in early June.
Press Coverage of the Notre Dame Hunger Strike!
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Notre Dame Students Launch Hunger Strike in Solidarity with HEI Hotel Workers!  |
April 19, 2010. Notre Dame students will began a five-day hunger strike today calling on the university to take concrete action against HEI Hotels and Resorts, a company in which the university is invested. Since fall of 2008, students have raised concerns about the unethical labor practices of HEI by leafleting, protesting, meeting with administrators and organizing teach-ins on campus with HEI hotel workers who are leading the struggle for justice at their workplace. The hunger strike is a call for the university to uphold its professed Catholic mission in its investment practices. "I am doing the hunger strike as an act of solidarity with the workers of these hotels that are overworked and disrespected, so the university can realize that being shown dignity and respect is vital to our existence, and when that isn't happening, it is a serious problem. To call Father Jenkins and the administration to transform the knowledge and teachings of the church into service for justice, "says Roman Sanchez. During the hunger strike, students will have constant presence outside of Main Building, where the presidents’ office is housed, from Monday, April 19 to Friday, April 23, raising awareness and gathering signatures on a petition to present to Notre Dame’s President, Father John Jenkins. Many of the strikers will be wearing orange jumpsuits throughout the week to call attention to the issue. press contact: Annemarie Strassel |
HEI Sheraton Crystal City Workers Declare Boycott!
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In the midst of the current economic downturn, HEI Hotels and Resorts, owner of the Sheraton Crystal City, is one of the fastest growing hotel management companies in the U.S. When HEI purchased the hotel in 2007, employees were subjected to reduced hours, layoffs, increased workloads, eliminations of entire job functions, even shortages in cleaning supplies, all while the company continued to grow. “I only make $10.24 an hour to clean rooms. It is hard work and they don’t even show any gratitude or respect for us. They are renting the rooms for such high prices compared to what we are paid – they can pay my whole day of work with just the price of one room!” says Delmy Morales, Sheraton Crystal City Housekeeper of 13 years. When workers marched into the lobby last February to demand a fair and democratic process to decide whether to form a union, they hoped they might share in that prosperity. Instead, HEI Sheraton Crystal City Employees faced intimidation and retaliation. After an entire year of struggle, HEI Sheraton Crystal City Employees have had enough. They are asking the community to stand in solidarity with workers like Ferdi Lazo who was interrogated because of union activity and fired five days later, allegedly for being late to work. If by Saturday February 27th, the company has not accepted the demand for a fair process, Sheraton Crystal City workers will take the dramatic step of calling for a boycott of their own hotel. Sheraton Crystal City workers will join co-workers at the HEI Long Beach Hilton and the San Francisco Le Meridian who have already declared boycotts of their own. “I work at the HEI Sheraton Crystal City. We are struggling for justice and a voice on the job and we are asking for your support, as clients of the hotel. I was a cook in the hotel, but after we began organizing and picketing our hotel, they laid me off. I was out of work for almost three months and when they called me back, they assigned me to clean rooms as a housekeeper, which cut my pay from more than $11 to $9.59 an hour. We need your support by respecting our boycott because if you keep spending money here, the company will only keep mistreating us”, says Union leader, Hermen Romero. |
HEI Le Meridien Hotel Bosses Lose Court Battle Against Local 2
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November 2, 2009 – For over four months, HEI Le Meridien hotel management in San Francisco have been trying to restrict the rights of workers and their supporters from freely demonstrating outside of the hotel. Demonstrations have occurred almost weekly since workers launched a boycott of their own hotel in February of 2009. On November 2, the judge ruled against hotel management and refused to sign an order that would have restricted the rights of workers and their supporters to demonstrate outside the property. |
Office of the General Counsel of National Labor Relations Board Issues Complaint Against HEI!
On October 30, 2009, the Office of the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board issued an unfair labor practice complaint against the HEI-owned and operated Sheraton Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, Virginia.
Since February, workers at the Sheraton have been campaigning for justice and demanding a fair and democratic process to decide on unionization without management intimidation. They have spoken out through petitions, delegations, demonstrations and speaking tours to denounce heavy workloads, low wages, expensive health insurance plans, disrespect and anti-union tactics.
The complaint contends that HEI engaged in violations of federal labor law, including:
- Allegedly interrogating employees about their union activity
- Allegedly creating the impression of surveillance by interrogating employees about their union activities
- Allegedly threatening employees with reprisals because of their union activity and allegedly threatening employees with losing their employment if they continued to participate in union activity
- Allegedly coercing employees by confiscating union materials
- Allegedly coercing employees by implying that they were disloyal to their employer because they engaged in union activity
- Allegedly suspending and discharging union leader Ferdi Lazo because he formed, joined and/or assisted the union and engaged in concerted activities, and to discourage employees from engaging in these activities
Long Beach Hilton Workers Call For Boycott!
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Long Beach — After more than a year of appeals and little progress, hotel workers at the Long Beach Hilton have asked hotel clients and community members to boycott their hotel. 80% of workers at the Long Beach hotel signed a petition calling for the boycott. Last week, the workers held a press conference calling on the community and clients to boycott the hotel until management agrees to honor the workers’ rights to decide whether to form a union in a manner free of intimidation and harassment. The workers say that harsh workloads, lack of affordable healthcare, and job security make conditions intolerable. |
Sheraton Crystal City Workers Fight for Justice in Arlington, VA!
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Workers at the Sheraton Crystal City in Arlington, VA delegated HEI management today – going public with a demand that the company respect their desire for a majority sign-up agreement. Student activists from Brown, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and U Penn joined the workers, along with local community leaders. Workers presented the general manager, Pradeep Bobba, with a demand for a fair and democratic process for deciding whether to form a union, without management interference. |
