Victory! HRC Moves Event to Sheraton Due To Pressure from Labor Movement
Posted by QueerToday on August 18, 2008 click title to link
HRC Staff may say publicly that the protests of their Galas have "nothing to do with organized labor," but Unite Here Local 26 just informed us that thanks to their months of lobbying HRC, they have decided to move their event to the Sheraton. Not only does HRC fail to see how ENDA is related to labor (duh!), they have also historically chosen to ignore the fact that their caterer was anti-labor and anti-gay. Now that the pressure is on, and in the spotlight they had to take action.
This is what solidarity with allied movements can achieve. The momentum, again, is on our side.
Aramark was one of the 5 lowest scoring corporations on HRC's "Equality Index" just a few years ago, but they have always catered the HRC Gala at the Hynes Convention Center. Aramark is the only company that caters events at the Hynes.
But Aramark hasn't just received low marks for LGBT support, they have a longstanding history of protest from the labor rights movement.
Labor organizations nationwide have been trying to convince Aramark to treat their workers fairly, and things have escalated as of late. On June 21, 2008 hundreds of activists
Our Unite Here! Local 26 chapter has been protesting Aramark at the Hynes Convention center.
Their website reads:
"The 350 food service workers at the Hynes Convention Center and the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center have been in contract negotiations with their employer, ARAMARK since September 2007. Throughout these negotiations there has been an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against Hynes and BCEC food proivder ARAMARK for:
* Interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of their rights.
* Discriminating in regard to hiring, tenure or terms of employment of its employees, thereby discouraging membership in a labor organization.
* Failing and refusing to bargain collectively and in good faith."
So when HRC staff say that the protests of their Galas "have nothing to do with organized labor," we can kindly remind them that not only does ENDA have everything to do with labor but so does everything right down to who caters their fancy meals.
8/18/08
Press Release Call On HRC (Human Rights Campaign) to employee Civil Response to Protest
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LEFT OUT PARTY ORGANIZERS JOIN BOSTON’S QUEERTODAY.COM, DALLAS’S TRANSGENDER ADVOCATES AND ALLIES, AND THE TEXAS GENDER ADVOCACY AND INFORMATION NETWORK TO DEMAND THAT HRC ADDRESS DISSENT AT FUTURE FUNDRAISERS WITH NON-VIOLENCE AND SAFETY PROTOCOLS
Contact:
Left OUT, Hale Thompson, 415.310.8569
QueerToday.com, Ethan St. Pierre, 978.518.1835
Texas Gender Advocacy and Information Network, Vanessa Edwards Foster, 832.483.9901
Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies, Kelli Anne Busey 214.226.7080
AUGUST 15, 2008
A national coalition of LGBT organizations have come together in response to HRC’s disturbing pattern of enlisting potential force to address dissent within its own communities. In the wake of the ENDA debacle, HRC has demonstrated a reliance on force to address possible dissenters—LGBT ones-- at their gala fundraising events. In Houston last spring, HRC requested riot police for less than a dozen transgender and allied activists. In San Francisco, private security guards forcefully removed a dissenting attendee, Catherine Cusic.
Brutality and violence are unacceptable ways for any organization, let alone the largest LGBT human rights organization, to deal with dissent or even disruptiveness within its own communities. The incident inside the San Francisco HRC Gala dinner should be fully investigated and in the meantime, HRC should develop a set of protocols in anticipation of future confrontations with dissent that outline humane ways to address dissidence within and outside its events.
Dissent is a critical part of both the political process and political change and calling the police on or using force against fellow LGBT protesters to squash dissent is unacceptable. Clearly with HRC Galas planned for Boston, Minneapolis, Dallas and D.C. in the upcoming months, there will likely be protests, parties, and possibly disruptiveness from persons in our communities who feel excluded by or misrepresented by HRC, and HRC should be fully prepared to address them thoughtfully, humanely and peacefully.
The struggle for civil rights requires solidarity as well as dissent. If any organization should understand and respect that notion, it should be the Human Rights Campaign. Not everyone in our communities can afford to or even wants to enlist HRC in this movement. This coalition calls on our communities, and in particular, HRC, to approach our struggles for civil rights and full protections under the law non-violently and in solidarity.
LEFT OUT PARTY ORGANIZERS JOIN BOSTON’S QUEERTODAY.COM, DALLAS’S TRANSGENDER ADVOCATES AND ALLIES, AND THE TEXAS GENDER ADVOCACY AND INFORMATION NETWORK TO DEMAND THAT HRC ADDRESS DISSENT AT FUTURE FUNDRAISERS WITH NON-VIOLENCE AND SAFETY PROTOCOLS
Contact:
Left OUT, Hale Thompson, 415.310.8569
QueerToday.com, Ethan St. Pierre, 978.518.1835
Texas Gender Advocacy and Information Network, Vanessa Edwards Foster, 832.483.9901
Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies, Kelli Anne Busey 214.226.7080
AUGUST 15, 2008
A national coalition of LGBT organizations have come together in response to HRC’s disturbing pattern of enlisting potential force to address dissent within its own communities. In the wake of the ENDA debacle, HRC has demonstrated a reliance on force to address possible dissenters—LGBT ones-- at their gala fundraising events. In Houston last spring, HRC requested riot police for less than a dozen transgender and allied activists. In San Francisco, private security guards forcefully removed a dissenting attendee, Catherine Cusic.
Brutality and violence are unacceptable ways for any organization, let alone the largest LGBT human rights organization, to deal with dissent or even disruptiveness within its own communities. The incident inside the San Francisco HRC Gala dinner should be fully investigated and in the meantime, HRC should develop a set of protocols in anticipation of future confrontations with dissent that outline humane ways to address dissidence within and outside its events.
Dissent is a critical part of both the political process and political change and calling the police on or using force against fellow LGBT protesters to squash dissent is unacceptable. Clearly with HRC Galas planned for Boston, Minneapolis, Dallas and D.C. in the upcoming months, there will likely be protests, parties, and possibly disruptiveness from persons in our communities who feel excluded by or misrepresented by HRC, and HRC should be fully prepared to address them thoughtfully, humanely and peacefully.
The struggle for civil rights requires solidarity as well as dissent. If any organization should understand and respect that notion, it should be the Human Rights Campaign. Not everyone in our communities can afford to or even wants to enlist HRC in this movement. This coalition calls on our communities, and in particular, HRC, to approach our struggles for civil rights and full protections under the law non-violently and in solidarity.
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