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.

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.

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.

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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.


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