Hotel Strikers Need $6 SEIU 790 Tax; Not Capitalist Democrats

SEIU 790, the City & County employees' union, wants to tax its members $6 to promote the reactionary Democrat Kerry instead of a general strike to win the hotel workers' union contract, which is what is desperately needed.

See San Francisco Chronicle, Matier & Ross, 10/24/04, end of article starting with "Union dues" at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/24/BAGPV9EJML35.DTL

The authors, Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross, claim many members object because they plan to vote for our latest Hitler, Pres Bush. We can be sure most of the fascists in SEIU 790 voting for Bush are the police and sheriff's departments, both of which should be kicked out of the union as the police and their jailers, the sheriffs, are the armed thugs of the capitalist class, who cannot possibly fight street crime as the solution to the street crime crisis is the elimination of poverty, which is not possible so long as the private profit system, capitalism, exists.

As to the Republican's twin party of capitalism, the Democrats, that good reactionary Democrat Bill Clinton got into office with labor's support and a promise to promote a national healthcare system. He had both houses of Congress with a majority Democrat upon arrival in 1993, and NEVER passed any national healthcare system guaranteeing everyone who lives here free medical and dental care from cradle to grave, paid for with our tax dollars, as exists in the rest of the industrialized world, instead of paying for war.

The net result of labor's support of Democrats is that every labor strike is about healthcare benefits, we have an increasing number of uninsured, now 45 million out of a population of 300 million, and about 50% of all personal bankruptcies are due to inability to pay medical bills, despite having insurance. We have the lowest life expectancy and highest infant mortality in the industrialized world, thanks to having no national healthcare system. See, among many places, including UN statistics, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/3/04, “Too Young To Die: Part One” by Erin McCormick and Reynolds Holding, and the chart “World Snapshot for 2000” at: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/03/MNINFANTMOMAP.DTL&type=printable

The labor unions have no business taxing their members for support of any political party, and definitely not for the support of any capitalist party, which by definition is anti-labor. They should all be members of the socialist Peace & Freedom Party as only socialists, by definition, represent labor, not anyone supporting capitalism. For more on the Peace & Freedom Party candidates, see http://www.peaceandfreedom2004.org

The labor unions also have no business running to capitalist politicians for hot air sessions that accomplish nothing. Obviously, the labor unions are looking to the anti-tenant, pro-war, pro-PATRIOT ACT, election-frauding millionaire thug, Democratic mayor Gavin Newsom, to bail them out of this lockout. Nazi Newsom’s response was “I want this lockout to end” but he did not say what he would do. See San Francisco Sentinel’s article with excellent photos of the poor strikers, 10/23/04, at http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/

Green Party member and president of the Board of Supervisors, Matt Gonzalez, says this show hearing was to provide support for his resolution opposing the lockout, although this hearing was not need for this resolution; it would easily pass.

Neither Democrat Newsom nor Green Gonzalez offered a SOLUTION to the crisis.

A far better resolution would be for the City to take over all the locked-out hotels by eminent domain, with no compensation to the hotel owners as they are clearly no longer running a hotel but rather a union-busting scheme, and run the hotels ourselves, so that we derive ALL the benefit for which we pay with all kinds of tax subsidies anyhow. The tourist industry, of which the hotels are a central part, are vital to San Francisco’s economy. The hotel guest’s bill is taxed to pay for our Grants for the Arts, which pays for everything from local community theater and music groups to the world class San Francisco Opera, Symphony, Ballet and American Conservatory Theater. All of the money the tourists spend in San Francisco keeps our economy alive.

Labor does not need any resolutions. It needs to call a GENERAL STRIKE NOW! In one day, the hotel owners would sign the union contract as the hotel owners would be told by their fellow capitalist class that this game is over. To these stinking rich parasites, it is all just a game. They can easily pay the small increase in wages and all of the medical benefits demanded in the union contract, all of which are a tax write-off, although these huge corporations do not need the tax write-off.

Meanwhile, we all can do our part. Bring diapers, baby food, canned milk, toilet paper, hand towels, laundry soap, dishwashing soap, hand soap, toothpaste, and lots of non-perishable food to either any union picketline or to the union hall at 209 Golden Gate, San Francisco, CA. The workers are having to get other jobs as they have no savings and $200 per week strike pay does not pay the bills, which means the strike is being lost.

All of you who are union members,
(1) Demand ALL DELIVERIES to the struck hotels be STOPPED NOW as picketlines mean DON'T CROSS; and

(2) DEMAND the Central Labor Council call a one-day GENERAL STRIKE NOW!

You can deliver the goods and walk the picketline at the struck hotels at:
(from http://www.hotellaboradvisor.info/hotelguidestrike.asp)
Argent Hotel (50 Third Street near Market)
Crowne Plaza Union Square (Sutter and Powell)
Fairmont Hotel (California and Mason)
Four Seasons (757 Market between 3rd and 4th Sts)
Grand Hyatt (345 Stockton at Sutter)
Hilton (333 O'Farrell at Mason)
Holiday Inn Civic Center (50 Eighth St at Market)
Holiday Inn Express at Fish Wharf (550 Northpoint)
Holiday Inn at Fish Wharf (1300 Columbus)
Hyatt Regency(Market at Embarcadero)
Mark Hopkins (California and Mason)
Omni San Francisco (500 California)
Sheraton Palace (Market and New Montgomery)
St. Francis (Powell and Geary)