I went out to San Francisco on Saturday Oct 2nd to help support the pickets lines of Hotel workers either on strike or locked-out by their employers. The workers were in high spirits at every picket line I visited -- all chanting and keeping a beat to the marching of the lines.

Compared with the bureaucracy of other large unions and strikes I have witnessed, it was a breath of fresh air to see that the rank and filers of UNITE HERE local 2 have a strong position within their unions, negotiations, and actions. All the workers are extremely astute with what they demand: better raises than the piece-meal $0.05/hr they received, fully-paid health care (the hotels recently decided to stop paying the $270 price-tag for health care), & most importantly contract renewal in 2006 (positioning the contract negotiations in solidarity with hotel workers around the US to get better working conditions around the US). Most folks I talked with imagined that this strike/lockout will continue well past the proposed 2 weeks as the hotels will most likely not be ready to come back to the negotiation table.

More solidarity is definitely needed from rank and filers of other unions, anti-authoritarians, etc.. Every one of the 14 hotels have 24 hour strikes which makes the lines small at different times of the day. If you work in or around Union Sq or the financial district, most likely there is a hotel less than 2 blocks away from where you work. Come join the picket lines and show solidarity with other workers fighting for better living standards!