Workers’ Dignity on the Move! 2015 Annual Report

2015 was a busy year, as we expanded our Just Hospitality Campaign, bought a new worker center, and began preparations to launch WDYO 104.1FM, Nashville’s first worker-run radio station.

JUST HOSPITALITY CAMPAIGN

Nashville’s convention and tourist hotel sector is red hot. Wages and conditions for cleaning workers, however, are among the worst in the country. Since Workers’ Dignity launched our Just Hospitality Campaign in 2013, housekeepers in Nashville have improved wages and benefits in 7 hotels by over $680,000 per year!
The economic boom propelling Nashville to our “It City” status has been built on the backs of low-wage laborers. – Neptalí Pérez (Workers’ Dignity) & Vonda McDaniel (Central Labor Council) in Tennessean Labor Day editorial


Improved Conditions at Homewood

In April, housekeepers at the Homewood Suites Nashville Vanderbilt won across-the-board wage increases and recovered an estimated $21,000 in unpaid wages. African American workers led the fight, and one inspector went on strike over conditions. Total wages improved by an estimated $53,000 per year.


Housekeepers Wake Up Marriott

In August, after an 8-month campaign, housekeepers who worked for a cleaning agency at the Courtyard Marriott Nashville Vanderbilt/West End recovered their full wages. In the lead-up to the victory, workers and supporters held a late-night protest and a 7:00AM “Wake-Up Call” drum-banging action.

Without us housekeepers, these hotels can’t stay open – Fanny López, former Courtyard Marriott housekeeper


Cleaning Workers’ Bill of Rights

In July, housekeepers crafted a Cleaning Workers Bill of Rights and signed on 140 of their coworkers and other cleaners to back their demands. In 2016, they’ll begin presenting their demands to major employers in the hospitality industry.

Construction-to-Cleaning Initiative In December, housekeepers joined unorganized striking iron workers at the Westin Hotel project to demand living wages and safe working conditions for current construction workers and future housekeepers at the luxury hotel. Stay tuned! This was just the beginning of our Construction-to-Cleaning initiative to improve conditions in tourism and convention projects awarded millions of dollars in local tax breaks.
Training &Leadership Development 96 low-wage workers joined Workers’ Dignity in 2015. Training was a cornerstone of our work. In August, after our 6-week Justice School, we hosted “Organizing Workers’ Dignity Style” – a daylong training on member outreach and leadership development. 65 workers and community allies hailing from Chattanooga, Clarksville, Knoxville, Memphis, and North Carolina joined in.

Several hundred workers participated in Defend Your Rights workshops, co-facilitated by members, in English and Spanish. We also joined Cayce United in four joint trainings with members.

Solidarity: Cornerstone on Our Mission

Members stood with our brothers and sisters in several actions in Nashville and across the South. In the spring, we marched with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida. On Martin Luther King, Jr Day, we joined Nashville’s Poor Peoples March, and later went to Selma to commemorate the civil rights struggles there. We stood with the TN Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition to confront xenophobia.

And in 2015, we continued to serve on the Interfaith Worker Justice Worker Center Board and the Middle TN Jobs with Justice Board. Organizer Mario Mercado was one of three recipients of the national IWJ Faith Works Award.

WORKERS’ DIGNITY HOUSE AND WDYO 104.1FM

We bought a house as our new worker center. Volunteer construction teams spent weeks preparing the space, located in the heart of Southeast Nashville. Not only will it be a hub for housekeeper organizing, but a space for other social justice groups, working-class artists, and others to use and  call home. The studio for WDYO 104.1FM, Workers’ Dignity’s radio station, is also located in the new center. Nashville’s only worker-run station will go live in 2016. Stay tuned!


Fundraising
2015 was a breakout year in our grassroots fundraising. We raised over $55,000 toward our organizing budget and toward our capital campaign to purchase the new worker center and 104.1FM WDYO. Contributions came from member dues, monthly donations, our annual 5thAnniversary Celebration and Labor Day Picnic, and our first ever Kickstarter Campaign to launch 104.1FM.


Steering Committee (Board) Members in 2015

Diana López, Estanislao Alvarado, Froylán Rodríguez, Jesús Carrizales, José Luis Carrizales, Kelly Waller, Mariana López, Neptalí Pérez, Reggie Butts, Ricardo Flores, Rosa Ponce, Marie Campbell, Tristan Call

ترجمة / 翻译 / Translate / Wergerîn / Turjum / Traducir