Catherwood LibraryILR School

With a strike deadline set for August 31 when its current contract expires with thirty Chicago-area hotels, and the owners refusing to begin negotiations over a new contract for the 7,000 union workers until August 5, Local 1 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union (HERE) began setting up strike headquarters yesterday. Workers at the hotels have set a target of $18.15 an hour and free family health insurance---the terms under which unionized room attendants in New York City work---and have made it clear that they are willing to engage in the first strike in the local?s 110 year history in order to win decent wages and benefits. According to the union hotel workers in Chicago make only $8.83 an hour on average, and most cannot afford the family health coverage which costs $85 per month---a bleak picture that is disputed by the Hotel Employer Labor Relations Association representing almost all Chicago-area hotels.