More photos from August 31st Hotel Workers Protest

As in 2004, the Democratic Party and Local 2's officials are staging sit-ins and arrests in lieu of a labor strike that can win. In 2004, the sit-in was in front of the St. Francis on Powell. Here it is 2 years later, after the strike-lockout of 2004, and there is still no contract. This is clearly a strategy that can only win votes for Democrats at election time by having a few Democrats arrested for a misdemeanor or less (traffic ticket status) charge to pretend that they are pro-labor. Instead of trying to go back to work in 2004 at the end of a short strike (about 2 weeks), at which point the employers locked out the workers until a face-saving excuse could be made up to end the lockout (the holiday season mandated full hotels to maximize profits, not empty ones, and they were empty after the FIRST WEEK of the strike), the labor union should have called upon all the unions in San Francisco to go out on a general strike. In one day, the hotels would have signed the union contract as the ruling class cannot have this primary financial center shut down because the tourist industry's hotel chains decide to play games with workers' wages and health benefits. These hotels are owned by large chains and can easily withstand loss of some conventions and a strike/lockout confined to these hotels. By the end of the 2 month or so strike/lockout in 2004, most of the workers wanted to return so they could celebrate The Money Season; they too are propagandized to be consumers of the nonsense. The 2004 strike/lockout lasted from September until just before Thanksgiving. Until labor gets serious about a general strike, no advances can be made.