Baltimore City Council Resolution in Support of Boycot of Baltimore City Center Sheraton

The boycott has been going very well. Anecdotally, I hear that
occupancy is slow low that the company has turned off the lights in one
of the towers.

The Baltimore City Council just voted to support the boycott.

CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL 08-0083R
(Resolution)

Introduced
by: Councilmembers Clarke, D’Adamo, Kraft, Henry, Cole, Young, Holton,
President Rawlings-Blake, Councilmembers Branch, Welch, Conaway,
Curran, Spector, Middleton, Reisinger

At the request of: NAACP Baltimore City Branch of the and the Philadelphia Joint Board of UNITEHERE!

Address:
c/o Marvin L. “Doc” Cheatham, President, NAACP Baltimore City Branch, 8
W. 26th Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 Telephone: 410-366-3300

Introduced and read first time: October 27, 2008
Assigned to: Labor Subcommittee

REFERRED TO THE FOLLOWING AGENCIES: Baltimore Area Convention and
Visitors Association, Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts
A RESOLUTION ENTITLEDA COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning In Support of B-More United

FOR
the purpose of expressing support for the B-More United Campaign of the
cooks, housekeepers, servers, and banquet staff at the Sheraton
Baltimore City Center Hotel and their boycott of the hotel in demand of
adequate rights, job security, decent wages, affordable health care,
and a pension plan.

Recitals

The unionized employees at
the Sheraton Baltimore City Center hotel are employed by the Columbia
Sussex Corporation. Since March 2006, the cooks, housekeepers, servers,
and banquet staff have been trying to negotiate affordable healthcare
benefits, safer workloads, job security, and retirement benefits. They
have been working without a union contract since April 2006.

The
Columbia Sussex Corporation, the ownership company of the Sheraton
Baltimore City Center Hotel, has unilaterally implemented their final
offer to the employees. As a result, there has been a reduction in
benefits, a reduction in compensation for banquet employees, an
increase in workload for housekeepers, non-recognition of seniority
rights for scheduling, and significant reductions in workers’ rights on
the jobs.

An overwhelming majority of workers at the Sheraton
Baltimore City Center Hotel called for a boycott of their own hotel in
November 2007 – “By standing together, we are sending a message to
Columbia Sussex and the rest of the hotel industry: We are determined
to make our jobs decent jobs. We are determined to support our families
here in Baltimore”. The boycott is endorsed by the Baltimore AFL-CIO,
the Maryland and DC AFL-CIO, the Baltimore City Branch of the NAACP,
and many other organizations that advocate for working families in
Maryland.

The City Council supports the
employees of the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel and encourages
individuals and businesses to support the boycott until such time as
the contract is settled to the workers’ satisfaction.

NOW ,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That this
Body supports the B-More United Campaign of the cooks, housekeepers,
servers, and banquet staff at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel
and their boycott of the hotel in demand of adequate rights, job
security, decent wages, affordable health care, and a pension plan.

AND
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED , That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the
Mayor, the President, NAACP Baltimore City Branch, the Coordinator,
Hotel Development, Strategic Affairs Department, UNITEHERE!, the
Executive Director of the Convention Center, the CEO and President of
the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, the Director of
the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, and the Mayor’s
Legislative Liaison to the City Council.