Archive for category: Press Releases

MEDIA ADVISORY for Thursday, March 25

MJ Leira, [email protected] (917) 565-7697

Hospitality Workers Union Launches National Effort to Register Laid-Off Workers for Health Care Coverage through the American Rescue Plan

WHO: UNITE HERE Local 355 laid-off hospitality workers alongside community allies.

WHAT: National launch to register workers for 100% COBRA coverage under President Biden’s American Rescue Plan.

WHERE: Diplomat Beach Resort, 3555 S Ocean Dr, Hollywood, FL 33019.

WHEN: Thursday, March 25 at 10:30 am.

WHY:

Spring break has put Floridians at greater risk across the State. Hollywood Beach’s laid-off hotel workers are eager to receive health care coverage to stay protected during this pandemic.

South Florida’s hospitality workers Union, UNITE HERE Local 355, will launch a COBRA health care registration program included in President Biden’s Relief Plan. The 100% COBRA subsidy in the American Rescue Plan means that laid off Americans will have the option to extend their workplace healthcare insurance for free for six months. As the Diplomat Beach Resort makes its plans to reopen, its nearly 650 union employees have been cut from their employer-paid health insurance.

Hotel housekeepers, servers, cooks, and bartenders at the Diplomat Beach Resort faced layoffs at the peak of the shutdowns and as a result hundreds of families were cut from their health care coverage, disproportionately affecting Black and Latinx workers. Now these workers are demanding guarantees that they will be brought back to work as the business comes back.

During the presidential election, 300 UNITE HERE Florida laid-off hospitality workers knocked on over 450,000 doors statewide to elect President Biden. They then went on to Georgia to join Stacey Abrams and others to take back the Senate, knocking on over 1.5 million doors to win transformative relief for workers and their families.

Labor Union to distribute gifts to 700 workers and their families laid off during COVID-19

MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact:

Wendi Walsh

[email protected]

(305) 934-7373

WHO: Over 700 UNITE HERE Local 355 laid off hospitality workers alongside Miami Gardens City Council member Reggie Leon, and allies.

WHAT: Holiday giveaway of supermarket gift cards and holiday presents ranging from kids toys to gifts for adults for workers who have been laid off since March as they call attention to the need for recall rights and unemployment extension.

WHERE: Betty T. Ferguson Recreational Complex, 3000 NW 199th St, Miami Gardens, FL 33056

WHEN: Friday, December 18 at 11:00 am

WHY: Thousands of South Florida’s hospitality workers who have been furloughed from hotels, casinos, stadiums, and airport concessions have been out of work for more than 9 months. Florida’s abysmal unemployment assistance and the end of all federal aid leaves these workers scrambling for the holiday. The Union for hospitality workers, UNITE HERE, and the Hospitality Employees Advancement and Training Center, HEAT Inc, have partnered to provide some relief to these workers. More than 700 workers will be receiving supermarket gift cards and holiday presents ranging from kids toys to gifts for adults.

 

UNITE HERE employed more than 350 hospitality workers in Florida, and over 1,500 nationally in Nevada, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, to deliver the Presidency for Joe Biden. The Union also had those canvassers knocking doors to support now Mayor Daniella Levine Cava as well as several candidates for County Commission. Florida’s UNITE HERE members are now canvassing to get out the vote in Georgia’s senate races. The stakes are high for UNITE HERE members as they continue to campaign for federal unemployment assistance and other forms of support for laid off workers.

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UNITE HERE Local 355 is a labor union that represents over 7,000 members working in the hotel, gaming, food service, and airport

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Contact: MJ Leira, 917-565-7697, [email protected]

Union members, many unemployed due to COVID-19, form largest
door-to-door canvass operation in battleground state of Florida.  

 

FLORIDA—Over 300 hotel housekeepers, dishwashers, cooks, and casino attendants knocked on over 450,000 doors statewide closing this Election Day, doing their part to win the election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. In Florida, UNITE HERE hospitality workers—primarily Black and Latinx workers whose jobs and families have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19—got out on the doors first and stayed out longest to get out the vote for the Democratic nominees. They’ve worked to make the critical difference in Florida where, in 2016, Donald Trump won by only 1% and 500,000 registered democrats did not vote.

 

UNITE HERE Florida has been on the doors since August and on the phones since June, persuading voters to support Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, as well as state and local candidates. They’ve dialed more than 6,000,000 phone numbers, knocked over 450,000 doors, and had 260,000 conversations with voters. We persuaded more than 85,000 people who had not voted in 2016 to make a plan to vote for Joe Biden this year. Over 44,000 of them had already voted as of Sunday, during Early Vote or Vote by Mail.  We spent all day today talking to the rest of them, turning them out on Election Day. These numbers reflect UNITE HERE as the largest canvassing operation in the state of Florida.

 

The workers are members of UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers’ union, which organized the largest union door-to-door canvassing operation in the U.S. in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, which at its peak put 98% of the union’s members in Walt Disney World, the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and the Diplomat Beach Resort, Florida’s airports, restaurants, and casinos out of work. As part of UNITE HERE’s Take Back 2020, union members have canvassed door-to-door for months in Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Polk counties.

 

The hospitality industry and its workers define Florida. During these last many months, our members have laid the foundation of their political power, which will only get bigger and stronger moving forward. “Regardless of tonight’s results, nobody should ever underestimate the power of UNITE HERE’s members in Florida. Our members may be in the background at work, but they are organized, focus, trained, and powerful—and they’re paying attention. No doubt, 2020 has been a rough year for our members, and they’ve watched to see who had their backs.  I am confident that the results of tonight’s elections will show that if you stand with our members, they’ll stand with you,” said Wendi Walsh, UNITE HERE Florida Political Director

 

UNITE HERE was the first group in Florida to begin door-to-door canvassing in 2020, a year in which many groups initially abandoned in-person canvassing—a cornerstone of GOTV electoral work—in the face of the global pandemic.

 

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UNITE HERE Florida is a labor union that represents over 34,000 workers in the hotel, casino, food service, and airport industries in Central and South Florida. At the peak of the pandemic, over 98% of UNITE HERE members were unemployed, and 75% are still out of work today. UNITE HERE’s Take Back 2020 campaign is the largest canvassing operation in the state of Florida, with more than 300 full-time canvassers and hundreds more volunteers.