Last Week around 40 housekeepers and guest-room workers at the Trump International Hotel Washington voted to join Unite Here Local 25. This is the first major unionization vote of Trump-company workers following Trump’s inauguration. This is not however the first time Unite Here has been affiliated with the Trump Company, in December the company reached negotiations With Unite Here Nevada to offer new benefits to employees at his Las Vegas hotel. Although Unite Here was not apart of Trump’s union talks early on, in the coming months another 80 Trump hotel workers are expected to vote on union membership.
The union marched during the Women’s March in Las Vegas the day after Trump’s inauguration, saying in a statement, “We will fight and ensure that all people who make this country great have a seat at the table.” John Boardman, executive secretary and treasurer of the Unite Here’s D.C. affiliate, said 95 percent of Trump housekeepers and guest-room workers voted to join the union, which will push to adopt the same benefits and protections offered to workers at other downtown Washington hotels.The union will serve as the workers’ bargaining agent with the Trump company, said Boardman, who expects contract negotiations to begin “very soon.” He said he thinks the company “would like to reach an agreement” and that negotiations would end fairly quickly. The union, Boardman said, hopes to cover Trump hotel workers under a broader multi-hotel agreement providing for pension plan increases and raises for workers, with housekeepers and dishwashers’ annual income rising to $52,000 by the end of the five-year contract.