Kalila Barnett of Alternatives for Community and Environment noted that the Local 26 hospitality union starts workers at $18 per hour with benefits…“The hotel chosen by Urbanica is non-union, and will pay $5 less than union standard,” Barnett said. “I’m wondering, why is Roxbury being treated differently?”
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and long-time activist Mel King remark on the establishment of the city-wide diversity in the hospitality industry task force formed by Local 26 union contracts with major Boston hotels. The remarks were made at the announcement of the task force this summer.
“This is a model that you have developed here that says really clearly that change is possible,” said Mel King.
Mayor Martin Walsh joined members of Boston’s hospitality union, Local 26, and executives from several local hotels yesterday to celebrate the graduation of the first African-American hospitality training class from Local 26’s Best Corp Hospitality Training Center. At the event, Local 26 announced that the class would be named the “Mel King Empowerment Program” in honor of longtime community activist and former state legislator Mel King.
“I commend Local 26 hotel workers for standing up for fairness and equality for all of Boston’s residents,” Walsh said. “Together, the union and their hotel employer partners are making strides to ensure that people of color have access to life-changing career paths in the hotel industry.”
The class is a four-week “Intro to Hospitality” training that includes job shadowing at several of the best hotels in Boston. After graduates complete the class, Local 26 works with hotels to place graduates into hotel jobs.
“Union hotel jobs are good jobs, with low-cost full-coverage healthcare, high wages, and a pension,” said Brian Lang, President of Local 26. “We know that forming a partnership with the best hotel employers in New England to recruit, train and hire African Americans is good for the hospitality industry and is good for the neighborhoods of Boston. We’re proud to see members of the first graduating class start their union jobs this month.”
Local 26 negotiated diversity language into its contracts with 29 Boston area hotels after noticing a decline in African-American representation in the hospitality industry. Local 26’s “Best Corp Hospitality Training Center” coordinates with the hotels on a training class for African Americans.
“I’ve been a cook for more than 25 years, but it’s always been a struggle to make ends meet,” said Bobby Oliver, 49, a resident of Dorchester who graduated from the class last month. “During the hospitality training class, I was able to shadow employees at the Westin Waterfront, and now I’ve got an interview with the General Manager. Getting a union job with higher wages and benefits will really change the lives of my three kids.”
Local 26 represents 7,000 workers in the hospitality industries in the Greater Boston Area. Members include workers of hotels, restaurants, university dining services, the Boston Convention Centers, Fenway Park and Logan International Airport.
The training program is the central component of an effort by Unite Here Local 26, the hospitality workers’ union, to reach out to the African-American community to fill jobs that offer good wages and benefits. The initiative aims to expand the diversity of hotel workforces, increasingly dominated by immigrants, and meet the growing demand in the industry for employees who are fluent in English. Local 26 is taking a progressive approach to dealing with the economic disparities facing African-Americans, said Tito Jackson, a Boston councilor who used his connections with the black community to recruit trainees for the program.
“There is a very long history of African-American workers in that industry, but as of late we have seen a lot less,” he said. “This program is a workforce development and job-preparedness program that really gives people the skills, the confidence, as well as the opportunity to open the doors of jobs where they can take care of their family.”
The Greater Boston Labor Council worked closely with a number of its affiliated unions and a host of Boston-based immigrant rights advocates in lobbying the Trust Act ordinance through the Boston City Council, which unanimously passed the Boston Trust Act in August.
Brian Lang, the president of UNITE HERE Local 26, whose union helped spearhead the effort to protect immigrant workers, praised Walsh and the Boston City Council.