Frequently Asked Questions

What is “majority sign up” or “ card check/neutrality agreement”?

Under a majority sign up, also known as a card-check/neutrality agreement, a company agrees to respect its employees’ right to make their own decision about whether or not to collectively organize. This means that, if a majority of workers sign cards in favor of a union, the company agrees to recognize their union. The company also commits to leaving the decision about a union up to workers instead of running an anti-union campaign of harassment and intimidation.

Why is majority sign up so important?

Although workers in America technically have the right to organize, this right is routinely denied by employers. Many employers use sophisticated anti-union tactics against their workers—in America today, employees are fired in one-quarter of private-sector union organizing campaigns, and 78 percent of private employers require supervisors to deliver anti-union messages to their workers. Companies can also refuse to recognize the workers’ decision to form a union, creating a lawyer-dominated process that can last for years.

More information on card-check/neutrality and the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would require employers to recognize a union when a majority of workers sign cards in favor of the union:

What is a private equity fund?

Instead of selling shares of the company that are publicly traded on the stock market, some companies (like HEI) privately raise funds from a limited number of investors. Investors are generally partners for a particular fund instead of investors in the company itself. In HEI’s case, the company uses a fund to buy a certain number hotels, and investors benefit from the returns made by those specific hotels. Unlike with publicly traded stocks, investors in private equity funds cannot participate in traditional forms of shareholder activism like voting on resolutions. Instead, investors in private equity funds must come up with innovative ways to use their influence.

What difference does having a union make for hotel workers?

A union job can bring a family out of poverty. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average hotel housekeeper makes $8.67 per hour. That’s an annual salary of $17,340 for 40 hours per week of work. In 2007, the poverty threshold for a family of four was $21,027. On the other hand union wages for housekeepers can range from $13.00 per hour- or $26,000 per year, to above $17.00 per hour-or $34,000 per year.

Unions can also make a real difference in the workload of hotel workers. The number of rooms housekeepers are required to clean varies widely across HEI’s hotels, from 13 per day in San Francisco (where the vast majority of the company’s competitors are union) to as many as 32 per day in Arlington, Virginia (where fewer competitors are union). When required to clean so many rooms each day, workers report being unable to even stop for breaks. These heavy workloads take a physical toll—working at an unsafe speed increases housekeepers’ risk of injury.

Present letter to Jenkins' office calling for divestment from HEI Hotels
Socially conscious students gathered on the steps of the Main Building Thursday afternoon to deliver a personal letter to University President Fr. John Jenkins demanding that the University divest its funds from HEI Hotels and Resorts...
News analysis | Union propels HEI protests
The sit-in held by Yale’s Undergraduate Organizing Committee last month was just one of a dozen nationwide efforts to protest university investments in a hotel company. But all of the campaigns, though led by students, originated from the same place: a union, UNITE HERE...
Non-union Hotel Pressed on Organizing Effort
The union representing most hotel workers in San Francisco is attempting to put economic pressure on two non-union hotels that have not agreed to accommodate an organizing effort.
Student Labor Activists Take on Hotel Chain for Practices
Elizabeth Martinez has worked at the Hilton in Long Beach, Calif., for 11 years. She said her job used to be "really a pleasure," but when HEI Hotels and Resorts bought the hotel four years ago, they laid off many workers and stretched the remaining staff thin. Now workers scramble to complete the work of multiple people, she said, sometimes working unpaid during their lunch breaks so they can finish on time. "I'm working by myself a lot of times," said Martinez, who waits tables at the hotel restaurant for minimum wage. "I'm basically running to get the job done."
Workers Call for Boycott of HEI-owned Embassy Suites in Irvine
Workers from the HEI-owned Embassy Suites hotel in Irvine announced August 31, 2010, they are calling for a boycott of their employer. 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.
Students Ask Penn to Flex Muscle in Unionization Debate
In economic and business classes across campus, students learn about labor as an abstraction, as a commodity, as something to be traded on the market. But for Peter Ho and three other hotel workers who spoke last week with a group of students, faculty and staff, labor is deeply personal.
HEI Hotels and Resorts Reinstates Fired Union Leader After Year-Long Worker and Student Campaign
HEI Hotels and Resorts agreed to return fired Union leader Ferdi Lazo to work at the Sheraton Crystal City hotel.
In an Uncertain Market, Hotels May Be Ripe Buys
A $200 million resort hotel does not exactly resemble a suburban home. But scratch the surface of the sales market for each property category, and they look remarkably similar today...

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Frequently Asked Questions