Photo by Unite Here
Strikers are shown last year on the picket line.

By Fox Valley
Labor News staff
Thursday, June 6, 2013
     They almost made it to 10 years, but the strike at the Congress Hotel downtown is over. UNITE HERE Local 1 officially called it quits May 30, citing the futility of striking against an owner that isn’t even based in the United States anymore.
     “The decision to end the Congress strike was a hard one, but it is the right time for the union and the strikers to move on. The boycott has effectively dramatically reduced the hotel’s business. The hotel treats their workers and customers equally poor and the community knows it. There is no more to do there. The reclusive owner lives in Geneva and Tel Aviv and hasn’t been to Chicago since the strike started. We don’t see getting a contract here, and we have many more battles to fight for economic justice,” said UNITE HERE Local 1 President Henry Tamarin in a statement.
     On June 15, 2003, Father’s Day that year, 130 members (100 percent of the workers) of UNITE HERE, Chicago’s hospitality worker union, walked out on strike after the hotel unilaterally reduced their wages, froze their health care contributions, and demanded the right to subcontract out all the work to minimum wage subcontracted workers.
     The strikers have picketed regularly ever since and held mass rallies over the years. Prominent political leaders including then U.S. Senator Barack Obama, Governor Pat Quinn, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinckle, and numerous others have walked the line in support of the workers.
     A majority of Congress strikers are immigrants to the United States and showed how low wage workers could lead the fight to raise the standards for hospitality workers and other low wage workers.
     When the Congress strikers went out on strike, the standard wage for room attendants was $8.83 per hour. The city wide standard for room attendants is now $16.40 an hour. Congress hotel room attendants still make $8.83 per hour.
     The union has found jobs for more than 60 strikers over the years and is looking for more. It has made an unconditional offer to return to work on behalf of the strikers, but it is unclear whether any strikers will choose to.