West GS ’80 speaks at workers’ rights panel

Yet most of the panel discussion, organized by the student group Princeton for Workers’ Rights, focused not on the University’s workers, but rather on those at HEI Hotels and Resorts.

PWR asserted that the University has invested $90 million in the hotel management company, which has been accused by its workers of using coercion to prevent unionization. The University has not responded to this claim, as it does not routinely disclose the details of its investments.

Mike Hachey, a union organizer who spoke and acted as a translator for some of the workers during the panel, said HEI currently owns 32 hotels and is the seventh largest hotel company in the United States.

“They’re like vultures — they swoop in when prices are low,” Hachey said, referring to what he saw as HEI’s practice of buying hotels only with a plan to sell them again after business has been streamlined and prices rise.

Ferdi Lazo, whose remarks were translated by Hachey, has been an employee at the Sheraton Crystal City in Arlington, Va., since 1990. He said that staff was cut and workload increased under HEI management.

After receiving a raise of 10 cents per hour, Lazo said that he “spoke up and said, ‘This isn’t what I deserve.’ ”

Lazo’s boss gave him one month to improve his work level, he said. After another review, he was told that he was doing his work well, but he was not given a raise.

Lazo responded by attempting to organize his fellow co-workers.

“We achieved it and planned Feb. 26 as our first action,” he said, but “the bosses already knew that I was organizing my co-workers, so the same morning they fired me.”

Lazo was told that he was being fired because he did not complete his work fast enough. “None of the bosses at the hotel wanted to listen to us,” he said.

“Three days later ... the bosses called me to come back to work,” he continued, but when workers later organized a delegation to confront management about treatment to housekeepers, Lazo was again fired, he said.

HEI officials have repeatedly denied the allegations leveled against the company.

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“HEI is in no way anti-union,” Jess Petitt, corporate director for sales and marketing for HEI Hotels and Resorts, told The Daily Princetonian earlier this month. “The accusations are unfounded ... and we’re looking forward to a fair and impartial hearing with the National Labor Relations Board.”

“Keep in mind that there are two sides to every story, and if the accusations are true, then the National Labor Relations Board will look into it,” he added in an interview on Tuesday.

The panelists called for the University to divest from the company.

Tom Parker, a University worker, stressed the need to support HEI workers.

“Communication is key,” he said. “We need to stay on top of what is going on.”

West spoke generally about the need for treating all people with respect.

“Every member deserves a fair and just treatment,” he said. “Princeton has the most beautiful campus in the country. One of the reasons it stays beautiful is because someone works to keep it beautiful.”