Dear Friend of Workers:
Right now, the democratic vote of workers all over St. Louis is being overruled by a backroom deal orchestrated by UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm. Worse, a Local 74 official reported that Wilhelm offered him tens of thousands of dollars to hijack the Local and return to UNITE HERE.
What Noel Beasley is describing is such an affront to workers I wanted to make sure everyone concerned about workers' rights reads it.
Last March, the hardworking food service, hotel and gaming workers democratically voted to leave the failed merger of UNITE HERE and voted to form Workers United. With their new union, they have been fighting back against unscrupulous employers like Pinnacle, which has denied workers their right to their union rep and at John Wilhelm's urging, refused to bargain a contract.
At the same time, these workers have had to fend off attempted raids by UNITE HERE, directed by its president John Wilhelm. UNITE HERE, which is facing a firestorm already for some of the substandard contract deals it has cut which failed to provide workers in Philadelphia schools with a living wage despite the fact that there is an ordinance on the books requiring it, has an established history of disregarding the interests of workers for its cronyism and patronage of union leaders. John Wilhelm's personal animosity for Workers United has led to workers being harmed all over the country.
And in an outrageous act of union-busting, Wilhelm has even sent letters to Workers United employers all over the country asking them to deny Workers United members access to their union and to escrow the members' dues money.
Now it appears Wilhelm's attempts to raid Workers United members may succeed. A Local 74 leader admitted that John WIlhelm's agents offered him $50,000 per year to overrule the members' vote to be in Workers United.This type of top-down unionism with the smell of corruption must not be tolerated in the labor movement.
There is only one solution to the situation in St. Louis - LET THE MEMBERS VOTE! Only in a fair, democratic vote can we be certain that workers' freedom is respected. With all these backroom deals, what is John Wilhelm afraid of?
In solidarity,
Noel Beasley
Central Midwest Region Joint Board,
Workers United
P.S. If you care about what it happening these workers all over the country, I ask that you take the workers' side in the dispute between UNITE HERE and Workers United and insist that both parties settle the fight now.
