At DNC, local labor organizers eye hospitality industry, eds & meds

Labor organizers reaffirmed they have their sights set on unionizing workers in eds and meds, and the hospitality industry, a strategy that should cause worries for, at the very least, Philadelphia hotels.

“Service sector jobs are the future of our economy here in Philadelphia and throughout the country, said Rosslyn Wuchinich, president of UNITE HERE Local 274, part of UNITE HERE Philly. “It is only when those jobs become good jobs that we will see real transformation in Philadelphia.”

Philly is anticipating the addition of hundreds of hotel rooms over the next few years, sure to up the number of leisure and hospitality jobs in the city from the 65,000 workers last reported by the Buerea of Labor Statistics in 2015.

Some of the new hotels entering the market include the Four Seasons at the top of Comcast’s Innovation and Technology Center, an Aloft hotel on North Broad Street and the Cambria Hotel and Suites on South Broad.

Drexel University and Temple University have also been taking steps to expand their campuses.

With that growth in mind, Wuchinich and other labor leaders want to ensure the city’s future service sector workers are unionized. Right now UNITE HERE Philly represents about 2,500 employees in local hotels, stadiums and Philadelphia International Airport.

But their ambitious objective is an uphill fight, especially in the education and medical industries, according to Dan O’Meara, chair of labor and employment department at Philadelphia-based law firm Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.

“The pressure points in city government don’t apply as easily in eds and meds,” O’Meara said.

Unions have been putting the pressure on those fields in Philadelphia since the 1990s. “I haven’t seen them have a lot of success,” he said.

Hotels, food and other service workers, on the other hand, are an easier get for labor and a smart target for union organizers, O’Meara said.

“It is something that makes sense for them and it is something the tourist industry needs to worry about,” he said.

Typically in consumer-facing industries, any increase in wages will get passed on to the customer – which then could cause fewer hotel bookings as visitors face steeper prices.

Despite the challenges, labor is committed to its focus, explaining this is how to transform Philadelphia and pull those living in poverty into the middle class.

“We need to change the rules so that everyone makes a living wage and that collective bargaining is available to all workers,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.

For Local 274’s Wuchinich, it’s a matter of transforming Philadelphia.

“Until those jobs are good jobs with good pay and benefits,” Wuchinich said. “We will still have people living in our city with deep poverty.”

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal