A Sour Victory — What the Holiday Inn Settlement Shows

More Protections Needed for Undocumented Workers in the U.S.

by Sarah Horstmann

The following article is from the home page of the Minneapolis-based Resource Center of the Americas http://www.americas.org.

Supporters of nine Mexicans who were fired from a Holiday Inn Express here are hailing a $72,000 settlement with the hotel as a landmark victory. But the pact, reached January 6 after a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigation, also exposes gaping holes in federal protections for undocumented workers who try to form a union.

The settlement shows that “the voices of undocumented workers can be heard,” says Uriel Pérez Espinoza, an organizer of the workers’ union, Local 17 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE). “There’s support in the unions, churches, community, and government.”

Yet the workers will not recover their jobs, and eight of them face almost certain deportation. For this reason, says Dick Johnson, president of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council, the case probably won’t give most undocumented immigrants the confidence to form unions and “stand up for themselves and their co-workers where they see injustice.”

And the settlement amount sends the wrong message to employers, says John Williams, business manager of the Minneapolis Building Trades Council, a union representing construction workers. “The Holiday Inn not only got away with it, but it greased the skids for others that hire undocumented workers."

New EEOC Policy “Has Teeth”

For months the hotel’s 20 workers had been pressing for a half-hour lunch break on their seven-hour shift and a pay raise. In August, the workers finally voted to join HERE Local 17.

The hammer came down October 13, three weeks before the union was scheduled to begin contract negotiations. Hotel manager Kevin Koenig called in the workers, including all five members of the union negotiating committee. They didn’t know it was an ambush until the INS was taking eight of them into custody. The INS released two of the workers within hours to care for their young children and the rest six days later after the union posted bonds totaling $18,000.

The union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, which worked with the EEOC on the investigation after the commission announced October 26 it was expanding its discrimination protections to cover undocumented immigrants. The AFL-CIO had pushed hard for the EEOC policy, arguing that failure to enforce discrimination laws for undocumented immigrants undercuts all workers.

Investigators rushed to complete their work before the INS deported the workers. The investigation found that the hotel had violated a federal law barring retaliation for union activity and another that bans discrimination based on national origin.

The settlement shows that the new EEOC policy has “teeth and is not just bark,” says Lloyd Zimmerman, senior trial attorney for the commission’s Minneapolis office.

And the case may embolden agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to rigorously enforce their own protections for undocumented workers.

But federal agencies can’t compel an employer to reinstate an employee who lacks legal papers. And only Justice Department officials can cancel a deportation. Unless the Justice Department or INS grants a reprieve, “the fact remains that the workers will be deported," says Bernie Hesse of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789, which represents area grocery workers. “It was a cheap way out for the Holiday Inn."

With no other recourse, the workers and their attorney, Jorge Saavedra F., chief legal officer of Centro Legal in St. Paul, are joining union and community supporters in a letter-writing campaign asking for a reprieve from U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

Maintaining the Pool

The Twin Cities economy includes tens of thousands of undocumented workers. Most toil for low pay in industries such as hospitality, food processing, construction, and agriculture.

Deporting a worker costs the local economy at least $20,590 per year in industrial output and $10,350 in wage-based spending, according to a February 1999 study by bank-market researcher James Kielkopf. For every four deportations, at least one legal resident loses a job, according to the study, commissioned by immigrant advocates.

The local economic role of undocumented immigrants mirrors their role on a national scale. [According to the national AFL-CIO, there are an estimated 6 million undocumented workers currently in the U.S.] Among the forces helping to maintain this pool of inexpensive and docile workers is the federal government itself: it has provided few disincentives for hiring them but numerous tools for preventing them from organizing.

The Holiday Inn case signals that one of these tools — brazen retaliation — now carries a modest price tag. But employers have other ways to keep would-be organizers at bay, notes Minnesota AFL-CIO Communications Director Bill Moore. “Instead of getting scared, employers will just get harsher.”

One employer that doesn’t seem scared is GFI Premium Foods Inc., a nonunion meatpacker in south Minneapolis listed by Forbes magazine as one of the nation’s largest privately held firms. The company has been raided numerous times by the INS over the years and fined for hiring undocumented workers.

GFI has retained an attorney for briefings on federal immigration policy and enforcement. And it has installed computer software for checking employee data with the Social Security Administration, the INS, and other government agencies. “We’re well covered with sources of information to find out if people are who they say they are,” says human-resources chief J. Overbee.

The expertise and technology mean GFI is also well covered against union-organizing efforts. The government doesn’t require employers to contact the INS when a computer search discloses that a staff member lacks authorization to work. Union organizers say the information’s main purpose is for intimidating workers and forestalling union drives.

The Sacrifice

In the Holiday Inn settlement, the hotel agreed to post for 60 days a notice telling employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act to organize, have lunch, take rest breaks, and so on. The hotel has promised not to retaliate or discriminate against employees and to train its managers and supervisors. And it must report to the EEOC for one year.

The hotel has also signed its first union contract, a two-year pact that provides a starting wage of $7.25 for housekeepers, a raise after 90 days and another raise after one year.

The case has attracted national media coverage, including reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times. “Employers are realizing that they will be held accountable,” says Ed Leahy, associate pastor of Holy Rosary Church, a south Minneapolis parish supporting the workers.

But the fired Holiday Inn workers, stuck in deportation proceedings, expect to pay dearly for their stand. They say they would gladly trade the settlement checks, $8,000 each, for the right to stay and work legally here in the United States.

They realize their sacrifice is part of a national movement to revamp U.S. immigration law, says Pérez Espinoza, the Local 17 organizer. “This is just the beginning.”

Readers of this article are urged to contact U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner and ask them to grant a reprieve.

For more on this case, see: “Attorney seeks amnesty for undocumented workers” (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1/12/00); “Immigrants fight deportation” (Associated Press, 1/12/00); “Mexican workers win — for now” (Star Tribune, 1/10/00); “Workers busted by INS are part of something bigger” (Star Tribune, 11/15/99)


Sample Letter to Attorney General Janet Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner on Holiday Inn Workers Case

The following materials are from the home page of the Minneapolis-based Resource Center for the Americas http://www.americas.org.

The nine immigrant workers who were fired from a downtown Minneapolis hotel face the threat of deportation. The Holiday Inn Express terminated the workers October 13, 1999, after they organized a union. On the same day, the hotel called in the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service, which arrested eight of the workers, all Mexican, and started deportation proceedings. On January 6, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the union, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 17, reached a settlement with the hotel. But the workers’ immigration status remains in doubt. (Find more background below.)

Take Action

Urge Attorney General Janet Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner to allow the workers to remain in the United States. (Their addresses follow, along with a sample letter.)

Honorable Janet Reno, Attorney General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, Room 4545
Washington D.C., 20530
Phone: (202) 514-2000
Fax: (202) 514-5331
web@usdoj.gov

Doris Meissner, Commissioner
Immigration and Naturalization Service
425 I Street NW
Washington, DC 20536
Phone: (202) 514-1900
Fax: (202) 514-3296

Sample Letter

Dear Madam Attorney General:

I am writing regarding nine workers terminated from the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Minneapolis and arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service after they formed a union (NLRB Case 18-CA-15400).

A settlement, signed January 6, includes a $72,000 compensatory award to be shared equally between the nine workers. The settlement also resolves a lawsuit alleging discrimination and retaliation, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation alleging abuse based on citizenship status, and a National Labor Relations Board determination of retaliatory discharge for union organizing activity.

This victory for the right to organize a union would not have been possible without the workers’ courage, participation, and contributions. Each of these nine individuals has cooperated with investigations by the NLRB and the EEOC, knowing their immigration status would remain uncertain.

Without your help, each worker is likely to receive a deportation order. This would be an unfair outcome in light of their cooperation with significant federal investigations. And Minnesota would suffer greatly from losing these community members.

On behalf of the workers, we are asking the Justice Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to allow the workers and their families to remain in the United States and to work. The power to grant such relief is within INS discretionary powers.

Thank you for your support.

For more information, contact:

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE, JOIN US!