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For Immediate Release
August 31, 2006
Leonard O'Neill, 831-375-2246

600-Plus March for Hotel Workers
INTERNATIONAL UNION PRESIDENT WILHELM LEADS MARCH

Monterey. More than 600 chanting, picket-sign-carrying marchers—all in red "Hotel Workers Rising" shirts—made the trek from the Monterey Bay Travelodge to the Hilton Garden Inn and back to the Hyatt Regency for a celebration of Labor Day and a demonstration of support for fair labor contracts at area hotels.

UNITEHERE! International President, John Wilhelm, led the Hotel Workers Rising Labor Day March, accompanied by hundreds of hotel workers, and hundreds more supporters from dozens of community and labor groups. It may have been the biggest labor demonstration in the City of Monterey history, eclipsing the 450-person Hotel Workers' Justice March of July 17, 2003.

"We are fighting for our families," shouted Lilia Vasquez, a Park Hyatt Carmel Highlands lobby attendant. "We need fair pay, healthcare, and safe workloads—we need to build a path back to the middle class!" Ms. Vasquez is a member of UNITEHERE! Local 483, the Monterey Bay hotel workers union that sponsored the march.

UNITEHERE! President Wilhelm explained that union workers were pushing for a better life with hotel companies across North America, and that a similar rally was taking place simultaneously in San Francisco, while contract negotiations were ongoing in Chicago and Honolulu. He said that while Local 483 does not have as many members as some of the unions in the larger cities, "there is no union that is stronger or tougher!"

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