Catherwood LibraryILR School

With 25,000 hospitality and tourist industry workers out of work in the D.C. area---4,500 of them members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 25---the local president and his twenty-six staff members have been overwhelmed by pleas for assistance. Having exhausted all available funds, the union has been seeking donations of food and money while at the same time calling hundreds of the most at risk members every day to make sure they are not in danger of running out of food or defaulting on bills or loans. His staff working full time to support out of work members, and dues payments severely curtailed by the drop in employed membership, Local 25 President John Boardman is concerned about the union's readiness for upcoming negotiations with new food service contractors at several major government buildings.