new orleans hospitality workers alliance

March 18, 2020

New Orleans Hospitality Workers Demand Income Replacement During Pandemic

From our comrades in the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Alliance, their demands of the city to meet the immediate needs of workers during the COVID-19 emergency:

List of Demands

Immediate expansion of unemployment insurance. Change the current eligibility to include those who stay home during this crisis, who do not have paid leave. This should extend to all gig, independent contractors, and freelance workers.
Expansion of Medicaid to all who need health care.
Expansion and an increase of food stamps to all workers and families in need.
Testing, ER visits, and treatment for COVID -19 must be free for all and administered at conveniently located test centers that are geographically dispersed. Expansion of testing must be done urgently
Issue an order that no workers be fired for staying home
Immediate closure of restaurants, retail shops and bars with a guarantee that when the establishment reopens workers will get their jobs back.
Those who choose to keep working at essential places like pharmacys, hospitals and supermarkets should be given full protective gear.
Order a state-wide halt to evictions, foreclosures, water, electric and internet cut offs. (Including student loan payments and credit card debt.)
People without homes should be provided shelter and utilities necessary to protect themselves from both contracting and spreading COVID-19. (We have enough houses to shelter every person in the city, and we demand that anybody in need of housing is granted access to one of our numerous uninhabited units.)
Establish a system for no cost food and other necessities distribution to quarantined people or areas and to sick or self-isolated households
Price controls put into effect to shield workers from the disruptive effects the virus has on the global economy.
Establish easily accessible centers to replace breakfast and lunch for all students. (Currently New Orleans has only set up one school each on the East and West banks. Closing the schools without many food centers will create massive hunger for Louisiana’s children.)
Waive citizenship requirements for state and local benefits to ensure all workers have the option to stay home and effectively contain the virus.
Immediate release of migrants in detention camps and incarcerated people not convicted of violent crimes. (These sites are overcrowded with limited access to healthcare. This will improve containment of the virus and cannot be ignored. Provide remaining prisoners with free phone calls as visits are being stopped and deposit money in their commissary accounts especially as prisoners must buy their soap, etc.)
Guarantee replacement income for all (on top of the expansion of unemployment)

The eyes of all workers in Louisiana, who are very aware of the huge inequality between legislators and government official’s income and health coverage, are on the actions of the government. This is the time to suspend state and local corporate tax exemptions to provide resources for these measures. Suspend the city charter which gives $180 million dollars in tourist taxes to private companies, suspend the $300 million dollars in public funds that is being used for a private convention center hotel and the millions being used for the super dome renovation.

These public funds MUST be redirected towards this crisis immediately!

We hope you will carry out the responsibilities to the people of our state and work expeditiously to enact these necessary measures.

Sincerely,

The New Orleans Hospitality Workers Alliance

504.444.9096

www.NOHWA.org

October 7, 2019October 7, 2019

Stop Caging Workers!

On Friday, September 27, dozens of hospitality workers and supporters gathered in Congo Square for a Workers Unity Rally called by the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Alliance. Organizers stressed the urgent need for workers to resist police and ICE terror in the workplace. Speakers included Eugene Grant of the Slow Rollas Brass Band who spoke on behalf of street musicians who have been targeted for harassment by the police who take their orders from gentrifiers and real estate developers. From Congo Square demonstrators marched through the French Quarter, calling on their fellow workers to come together to fend off cops and ICE agents who are attacking workers on behalf of greedy, racist bosses. Demonstrators chanted “Lift the wages, no more cages!” Grant summed up the attitude of the marching workers best, chanting “We gotta fight to get it!”

February 5, 2019February 5, 2019

New Orleans: We Must Fight Get the Stolen Taxes Back

Every year non-elected commissions of capitalists steal $180 million in taxes. These commissions include the Convention Center, the Superdome, Tourism Commission and others. Every year, the city of New Orleans brings in billions because of the hard work of hospitality workers. That labor also brings in the $180 million in taxes. But instead of this going into the city budget and set aside for workers’ benefits and community needs, they are used to produce more profit for the white capitalist hospitality owners.

The Hospitality Workers Alliance, Peoples’ Assembly and a coalition of organizations representing the working women of New Orleans are demanding these stolen taxes be used to support the workers with childcare resources, healthcare, and other services that are needed for our survival. For months, the HWA has been protesting this theft and highlighting the lack of benefits workers in the city face, including protesting at the Tourism Commission and the Convention Center. Together with the Peoples’ Assembly, they are calling for a March 16th protest.

Recently, Mayor Cantrell has requested $12 million of these tax dollars be returned to the city for infrastructure. This is a small request and doesn’t acknowledge the workers or community needs. Even this minor request was met with racist arrogance by Stephen Perry, head of the Convention Center, who earns $500,000 a year from the stolen taxes. Governor Edwards and reactionary state legislators also dismissed Cantrell’s modest demands, once again denying right of home rule to the people of New Orleans.

While it’s good that Mayor Cantrell is even raising this demand, at a recent meeting she stated that she is not trying to start a fight or divide the city. Well, the city is already and increasingly divided between the rich, majority white ruling class who owns everything and the majority Black working class who struggle with low wages and gentrification. The city should be calling the people out to fight for not only $12 million but the whole $180 million that rightfully belongs to the people.

The racist attitudes of the hospitality bosses and state legislature are reflected in the treatment of workers in the city. Recent studies from the Data Center report that people of color, especially women, are paid less, intentionally hired for lower paying positions while white men are given better paying jobs. Big Easy Magazine cites that 68% of hotel housekeepers, 81% of whom are Black and LatinX, earn an average of $10.60/hr. Over half of all hotel workers are women, but the majority earn much less than $15/hour. It is widely acknowledged that at least $19 an hour is necessary to live in the city.

Although hospitality workers are responsible for the city’s wealth, they see little of it themselves. This is our city. This is our money. We demand that it be used to serve us, not the super-rich.

January 12, 2019February 3, 2019

Women Hospitality Workers Declare: “We’re Fed Up and We’re Organizing for Ourselves & Our Families. Return $180 Million in Tourist Tax Dollars to the People!”

The Hospitality Workers Alliance (HWA) and Peoples’ Assembly have issued the following call to Action:

Honor Women Hospitality Workers Saturday March 16, International Working Women’s Day

Billions of dollars flow into New Orleans which has been designated a number one tourist spot. This is due to the hard work of restaurant, hotel, retail and other workers. It is our labor that brings in $180 million a year in tourist tax revenues that go directly to Private Commissions and Corporations, not the city budget. This is free money to boost profits.

$180 million in Tax Revenues belong to the people

When you add in tax exemptions for real estate developers, private universities, and other corporations, the working class of our city is being defrauded and our tax revenues stolen. Yet our wages are low, our jobs are insecure and we lack benefits. The conditions of hospitality workers affect all working-class communities and our families’ lives.

We protested at the Tourist Commission asking that money be used for health care clinic or insurance for hospitality workers. At the Convention Center we protested the further rip-off to build a hotel that will not pay taxes but will produce private profit and get public funds.

We take note that Mayor Cantrell has finally asked the Convention Center for a mere $7 million for infrastructure, and even this is being rebuffed. We Demand:

The $180 million a year in stolen taxes go to:
$50 million for sick, maternity leave, vacation pay and pension funds for hospitality workers
$50 million for health coverage for all hospitality workers
$40 million for fully funded, free, accessible child care centers
$20 million be used for infrastructure like fixing streets
$20 million to fully fund all early child hood education

We are inviting all organizations, social clubs, unions, and faith-based institutions to join us that day. We cannot depend on the politicians in New Orleans or Baton Rouge. We must mobilize a movement to demand our rights.

All workers, women and men, can get involved.