Listen to WBUR Radio Podcast with Brian Lang, President of Unite Here!, the hospitality workers union and Professor Thomas Kochan, Co-Director of the Institute of Work and Employment Research at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
Ramon & Rosanna Suero, along with President Brian Lang, meet with Senator Warren to discuss wasys to resolve the foreclosure crisis.
Members of the Hospitality Workers Union, Local 26, join City Life/Vida Urbana in calling for a change of policy by Freddie Mac to help more people who lost their homes to foreclosure. Report for BNN News aired January 31, 2012 on the Boston Neighborhood Network.
A Call for Change in Freddie Mac Foreclosure Policy from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.
Union representation rose significantly in Massachusetts last year and bucked an ongoing national decline, thanks in part to aggressive organizing in the health care and hospitality sectors.
The percentage of the state’s workforce represented by a union rose to 16.2 percent in 2012 from 15.4 percent in 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, total union representation nationwide dropped to 12.5 percent in 2012, down from 13 percent in the previous year. The figures include union members as well as other people whose jobs are covered by unions.
UNITE HERE is proud to stand with President Obama and the movement for equality for immigrant workers in our country. The hundreds of thousands of women and men who are our members and future members come from all over the United States and the world. Through the work they do every day–making beds, preparing food, cleaning rooms, washing dishes, serving travelers–they keep our economy moving and build stable lives for themselves and their families. Like all Americans, they hope for secure and happy lives for their children. And those who are immigrants dream of achieving citizenship so that they can be full and equal participants in our society.
It is time for a 21st century immigration system: one that recognizes the mobile, interconnected world in which we live. That new system must include a timely roadmap to citizenship for the millions of new Americans already contributing to our industries and communities every day.
The members of UNITE HERE will join the President, members of Congress, and our partners in the labor and immigrant movements to achieve that 21st century immigration system. We look forward to a time before long when the aspiring citizens in UNITE HERE and in our country will be welcomed as full and equal Americans.