ED GORDON, host:
Unionized hotel workers accuse big name hotels like Hilton, Hyatt and Westin of discrimination in hiring African American workers who were once a mainstay of the industry. As Robin Urevich reports, the Hotel Worker's Union unites here, plans to press the issue this year in contract talks from New York to Honolulu.
ROBIN UREVICH reporting:
Former banquet chef Donald Wilson first came to LA's posh Century Plaza Hotel 27 years ago to work as a fry cook. There were a lot of African Americans in the kitchen then. But...
Mr. DONALD WILSON (Fry Cook, Century Plaza Hotel): The last 20 years they have locked out the African American race and working in these hotels.
UREVICH: Look at the numbers, he says. Of more than 400 workers at his hotel, just 30 are African American. Most of the rest of them are immigrants. But Wilson, who has left the kitchen to work full-time for the Union says black workers need the jobs. Consider, he said, what happened last year when he and his mostly Latino co-workers were nearly locked out in a labor dispute at his hotel.
Mr. WILSON: We were getting our picket lines ready to start at 5:00. I started seeing African American chefs coming from out of nowhere in uniform ready to work. Where in the hell did they get these people? They know that those blacks would have come to work and would have pitched the Latino community against the African American community.
UREVICH: Civil rights leader Rev. James Lawson, now president of the LA Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, says hotels haven't hired African Americans for one reason.
Rev. JAMES LAWSON (President, Los Angeles Chapter Southern Christian Leadership Conference): Basically, the issue is racism. One of the reasons Los Angeles has a 42 percent unemployment level among black men between the ages of 15 and 50 is because of the numbers of big corporations that are refusing to hire black men.
UREVICH: Lawson says that applies to hotel corporations. Not so, says Joe McInerney of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
Mr. JOE MCINERNY(American Hotel and Lodging Association): There is no discrimination in our industry whatsoever. Our problem is we're trying to find people and people don't want to work in our industry.
UREVICH: McInerney says the industry is willing to talk diversity with the union. In recent years, the hotels have responded to NAACP demands to recruit more senior managers of color and purchase from minority vendors, says industry consultant Taroon Kapoor. It can do the same with entry level hiring. But, he says...
Mr. TAROON KAPOOR (Consultant): They can't just peg the blame on the industry. Can the union partner with the companies to convey that these are good jobs?
UREVICH: Union officials say they'll do that if the hotels agree to a program for hiring more African Americans in contract talks this year. The union also wants black community support for boosting hotel wages, improving working conditions and organizing the unorganized.
At a recent Labor sponsored luncheon in Los Angeles, Union president John Wilhelm pitched the campaign to African American community leaders.
Mr. JOHN WILHELM (Union President): We're challenging the industry to make these the kind of jobs that people can build lives with. And as part of that, to reopen those jobs to a community which built the industry and built our union.
UREVICH: One of those who signed on to the campaign is actor Danny Glover. He joined Wilhelm at the luncheon. Earlier that day, the two of them, along with LA city attorney Rocky Delgadillo visited the LA Airport Hilton, where workers are trying to unionize.
Mr. WILHELM: Actually, I am so welcome if you and Rocky were here. This is wonderful.
UREVICH: Glover strode through the hotel's marble floor lobby and into its steamy kitchen. More than one cook did a double take upon seeing the Lethal Weapon star towering over simmering pots and pans.
Unidentified Man: I'm glad you guys are here to support us, because we need it. We need it. It's pretty tough around here. I'm glad you guys are here.
UREVICH: Workers jammed the employee cafeteria to ask Glover to get the word out about how hard it is for them to survive on $8.00 an hour. Here is waiter, Francisco Diaz.
Mr. FRANCISCO DIAZ (Waiter): That's why we all unite. We say enough is enough. They invest so much money in to enhance the hotels, but they have not spent any money when it comes to human capital. You are just a number.
UREVICH: Hilton Hotels referred questions about its working conditions to the Hotel and Lodging Association's Joe McInerney. He insists that wages and benefits are adequate.
Mr. MCINERNEY: We believe that we have been providing competitive wages, affordable healthcare, and good pensions. And we remain committed as an industry to do that.
UREVICH: Back at the luncheon, Glover shared his impressions with the assembled pastors and activists. The hotel workers, he said, represent a new way of engaged citizens, just as his own parents did in the 1940s. They too came to California from the south and joined unions and civil rights struggles.
Mr. DANNY GLOVER (Actor): These citizens that we are talking about and that we work in concert with, and that we call brothers and sisters are from Guatemala, Nigeria, Ethiopia, they are from Mexico, and we create this new activism that we envision for the 21st century.
UREVICH: Local LA pastor William Campbell attended the luncheon. He said he and other African American leaders have long supported immigrant workers. But he especially welcomes the union's current push to bring African Americans back to the hospitality industry. It's been a long time coming, he said.
Rev. WILLIAM CAMPBELL (Pastor): I think it's a matter of the message being heard, and at the same time, the union recognizing that it has to broaden the space of support.
UREVICH: Former hotel worker and new organizer Donald Wilson hopes the union's campaign will diffuse tensions between African American and Latino workers. Its efforts to build solidarity between immigrants and African Americans will likely be tested this year, as contracts expire for 6,000 workers in 400 hotels in the U.S. and Canada.
For NPR News, I'm Robin Urevich, in Los Angeles.
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