Hotel Workers Rising at Two SeaTac Hotels

550 workers at the Hilton and Doubletree hotels on the SeaTac "strip" have recently won a groundbreaking four year contract!  They had, however, asked the community to continue to honor the boycott until their fellow union members from the Vancouver Hilton had settled a favorable contract. The boycott is now lifted because the Vancouver Hilton workers have ratified a new contract!

Workers at the SeaTac Doubletree and Hilton Hotels had been fighting for a new contract since July 2007.  In February 2008, after months without negotiations, workers voted to enact a boycott on these two properties.  Community groups, labor unions, students and others threw their support behind this boycott.  With the help of a dedicated boycott committee, with leaders from labor and religious organizations, over $1.2 million in business was pulled from the SeaTac Hotels.  The success of this strategy brought hotel management back to the table.

The final agreement at tthe SeaTac Doubletree and Hilton Hotels provide workers with:

• Good wage increases
• Affordable health-care
• Safer workloads
• Improved immigrant protection language
• Job security through a no-subcontracting clause
• Job security through successorship language (if the hotels are sold, the new owners must take on the existing contract)
• (And for the first time) Growth Language. Workers in all future Hilton owned- and/or operated-properties built in King County will have the opportunity to organize without intimidation!
  

The success of this campaign was made possible with the support of the community.  The hotel workers thank all those that have honored the boycott.  A strong message was sent to the Hilton Corporation that every worker in the Northwest deserves a decent job with fair wages and affordable benefits.