VA Hotel Workers Demand Contract

A sea of angry red protest surged around the Crystal City Hilton Thursday night as rush-hour traffic crawled past on Jefferson Davis Highway. “We're fired up, can't take it no more!” chanted hundreds of hotel workers, “No justice, no peace!” Clad in bright red union t-shirts and waving red placards, the hotel workers demanded a contract from the Hilton's new owners, a real estate holding company named Columbia Sussex. The contract covering 200 Hilton workers expired October 15 and “Columbia's proposals would completely gut the contract and protections these workers have had for more than a dozen years,” said UNITE HERE Local 25 Executive Secretary-Treasurer John Boardman. “We are together and we are united,” Raul, a banquet server from the nearby Doubletree Hotel told UNION CITY, wearing a big smile and carrying a picket sign in one hand and vigorously shaking a soda can noisemaker in the other. At a brief rally as the sun set behind the nearby buildings, a Hilton worker told the assembled crowd “Columbia bought the building but they didn't buy the workers!” Similar demonstrations are planned for other Columbia Sussex hotels around the country, including in Baltimore next week. - Report/photos by Chris Garlock