UNAFRAID
By David Adler
28 Sep 2010
On September 24, 2009, unionized hotel and hospitality industry service workers, members of UNITE HERE! Local 1, and sympathetic local labor movement supporters, staged a public act of mass civil disobedience in Chicago to protest their working conditions and the lack of progress in contract negotiations with their employers. The protestors engaged in a rush hour sit-in on Chicago Avenue in the heart of the downtown retail shopping district. A location in front of the Park Hyatt Chicago Hotel was specifically chosen to demonstrate solidarity with the Hyatt 100, 100 Boston Hyatt Hotel housekeepers recently discharged and replaced by out-sourced, non-unionized and lower salaried workers. After disobeying police orders to vacate the street, over 175 sit-in participants peacefully submitted to arrest and were led away from the scene in police custody.
