Providence Update

Westin Providence Workers Call for a Boycott of Hotel

March 23, 2010

Providence, RI--Westin Providence hotel workers protesting management's decision to unilaterally impose salary cuts and health-care increases called for a boycott of the downtown hotel Thursday, March 18, the first day of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

The union, whose contract expired in October, called on supporters to immediately stop patronizing the hotel and the Fleming's Steakhouse located there until the hotel resumes negotiations, which were abruptly halted last Thursday. The hotel has said it is willing to resume talks in a year.

"In my 12 years here, they have never appreciated us. We made this hotel. Even when they threatened our jobs, we gave ‘four-diamond' service," Maria Ferreira, a housekeeper from Pawtucket, said as she picketed with other union members late Thursday afternoon.

"They're taking food from my table. I had a balanced budget, now I'll have to struggle," said Albert Luyando, a Providence resident who works in the hotel fitness center.

Council 94, the state's largest public employee union; the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents construction workers; and the Providence Central Labor Council said their members would honor the union's boycott.

"Continue with this struggle," Paul McDonald, president of the Providence Central Labor Council, said to hotel workers. What the hotel management did "is not right. This hurts workers, but it also hurts the people of Rhode Island who put so much in this hotel."

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