By Henni Espinosa, ABS-CBN North America Bureau
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San Francisco, CA – Over a hundred hotel workers and their union picketed the Hilton Hotel as part of their ongoing protest against 30 of San Francisco’s biggest hotels.
Protesters say hotel management plans to take away their full health care coverage.
Jun Bandayrel, a part-time Hitlon employee, used to work as a full-time kitchen staff at the Hilton.
Bandatrel struggles to raise his four children on a $30,000 a year salary. It will be worse without health care coverage.
“What we’re asking for is just a little bit of help from management, so that we also feel valued as workers,” Bandayrel said.
A Filipino non-profit organization, Ayala Foundation USA, was scheduled to hold an event at the Palace Hotel, one of the hotels taregtted by protesters, on September 25.
President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is an invited guest.
Hotel workers and their union convinced Ayala Foundation to cancel their event at the Palace, and change venue.
“We wanted to stand in solidarity with the hotel workers because after all, we’re a foundation that helps Filipinos,” said Rene Encarnacion, president of the Ayala Foundation. “We invited top officials from here and the Philippines and we didn’t want to put them in a position where they have to cross the picket line.”
Bandayrel is glad that more and more Filipinos are boycotting the hotels they’re up against. “The more people are behind us, the stronger we’ll be,” he said.
Ethnic media group, New America Media (NAM), was supposed to hold their 40th anniversary celebration at the St. Francis Drake Hotel on November 12.
The hotel workers and their union say they have been convincing NAM to cancel their contract with the hotel.
NAM has refused to make a statement about it at this time.
Sam Singer, spokesperson for the hotels said that asking the Filipino and ethnic community to boycott the hotels will impact the tourism industry in San Francisco.
“We are against any boycott from the Filipino community because we need their business,” Singer said. “We want to maintain the diversity of the people that use our hotels.”
The hotel workers and their union have been asking with hundreds of organizations and businesses, convincing them to stop doing business with the hotels engaged in this year-long labor dispute.
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@ MALCOLM..The last thing we need is unionized Govt employees. Look at all those states that are broke. Most if not all of them have unions. This is what union boses wants. They know they are severely underfunded for all their promises. Under Govt. They don’t have to worry about that because it will be part of the state budget. Can’t you see it? Now every citizen in their state will bail them out. If state is broke they will then want bail out from the rest of the country. California in mind?
This Hotel if I’m not mistaken is a private business. When Union is complaining like they always do. There must be a reason. Let’s find out the whole story. Like I said, this report is incomplete.
“Workers Call on Filipinos to Boycott SF Hotels?” KAYO NA LANG TUTAL KAYO ANG MAY PROBLEMA DYAN SA HOTEL EH DI SOLUSYONAN NYO!… AT HWAG NA KAYONG MAGDAMAY PA NG IBANG NANANAHIMIK! UMUWI NA LANG KAYO NG PINAS KUNG AYAW NYO NG PATAKARAN NG HOTEL!
Alex you make a good point about the full story but then you blame the president for companies presumed bad practices. Obama never said dont insure your workers. we dont have unions here in texas and we are all covered by the same federal laws that protect americans, and while this is a red state they have not used obama’s law to make the people suffer. I have an excellent insurance plan from my employer who incidentally is nationwide (incl. CA). So let us stay on point and ask the reporter to unfold the whole story before we respond. I suspect the union is screwing these people over since my company had the same problems there years ago…
pati ba naman dito sa America, yung sakit ng pilipino na rally ng rally, daming reklamo,,nakakahiya! masuwerte kayo may mga trabaho pa kayo….nag anak ka ng marami, tapos ipapa pasan mo sa iba,,,ano tawag dun? t*a*g*n pilipino…umuwi ka na lang sa pilipinas,,,dito ka pa nagkalat ng baho mo…..
I apologize for the mistake. It’s Henni Espinosa.
When it comes to unions I’m not exactly 100% on their side. This posting by Henry Espinosa is not enough. Why is the Hotel management wants to take their full healthcare coverage? How much do these union workers getting paid? What other benefits do they get? Get to the bottom of this instead of reporting one side of the story.
Can you blame the management now that healthcare law is passed? It’s cheaper for them now to just pay the penalty than pay for every employees healthcare. Ain’t that what Obama wants? Public option? Doesn’t Andrew Stern go to Whitehouse a lot? I’m sure he likes that idea.
To Henry Espinosa. Won’t you report about the Hotel’s side this time.
lovely app, thanks for the post. keep bringing em!