Bottom-Up Organizing: HERE in New Haven & Boston

Abstract

[Excerpt] HERE is a union in the process of change. After decades of cooperative relations with management, the union's national leaders were rudely awakened when the major hotel chains jumped on the union-busting bandwagon in the late 1970s: contract concessions were demanded, organizing drives were vigorously opposed, and programs were implemented to weaken existing locals. HERE has responded with a newfound militance, demonstrated in strikes in New York, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and Monterey, California. To stem the decline in the union's membership, Vincent Sirabella, the innovative and politically progressive head of HERE'S New Haven Local 217 since 1957, was promoted to Director of Organization in 1983 by HERE President Edward Hanley.