NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Several hundred employees who were let go from a popular hotel in Times Square say they deserve their jobs back when the coronavirus pandemic is over. Peter Dorton spent nearly two decades as a server at the New York Marriott Marquis . He was furloughed due to COVID-19 last year and was devastated to recently learn he and many of his fellow employees have been permanently let go. “Our world was … came crashing down. Not only were we in a pandemic, now we’ve lost our career,” Dorton said told CBS2’s Kiran Dhillon. READ MORE : Exclusive: Hotel Association Of New York City Pleads With De Blasio Administration For A Lifeline Dorton and hundreds of other employees are now speaking out, forming a group called Ready to Respond and arguing they have not received fair severance from the hotel. COVID VACCINE New York State book online here or call 1-833-NYS-4-VAX New York City book online here or call 877-VAX-4NYC Track NYC vaccinations by zip code Nassau County more info here Suffolk County more info here Westchester County more info here New Jersey book online here or call 1-855-568-0545 Connecticut book online here Members of the group also said they worry they will not get hired back, that the hotel will prioritize outsourcing jobs or hiring cheaper employees. “This wasn’t fair that we were loyal to Marriott and they promised they would take care of us,” Dorton said. The group has also enlisted the help of City Councilman Brad Lander , who recently introducing legislation that would require most businesses that rehire positions that were eliminated due to COVID to first offer them to employees that were laid off. “It doesn’t provide a mandate for them to hire back just as many people as they had before. Those jobs that you do rehire, offer them to the people that were already working for you in the years before the pandemic,” Lander said. READ MORE : COVID Unemployment: Many ...
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‘Taking Advantage Of The Pandemic’: Furloughed Hotel Workers Picket In Boston
BOSTON (CBS) — Hotel workers furloughed during the coronavirus pandemic picketed in front of the Marriott Copley on Tuesday. Members of Unite Here Local 26 say a deadline for hotels to release their plan to re-hire them has passed and they’re still in the dark about their future. “We know the economy is coming back. We know the industry is going to come back and what we’re seeing is the industry is cynically taking advantage of the pandemic to fire workers, to permanently change their labor structure,” said union president Carlos Aramayo. READ MORE: Duxbury High School Football Team Used Anti-Semitic Language In Play-Calling System The rally comes on the heels of the Nine Zero Hotel firing 52 employees. According to Aramayo, 90% of the employees represented by the union in the hotel industry were laid off and out of work in the early stages of the pandemic. Now that number is closer to 80%. READ MORE: Graduations Get The Green Light From State Of Mass., Indoor And Outdoor Guidelines Released But Aramayo said there are several reasons for the industry to feel optimistic about the future. From the vaccine rollout to the weather improving, he believes business will come back. What about the jobs, though? More than 30 Boston hotels have made commitments to recall their workers, Aramayo said and legislation is being introduced toward that end. MORE NEWS: Flock Of Nearly 2,000 Lawn Flamingos On Display In Boston's Seaport Neighborhood “Today we’re here to fight for our rights, we deserve better,” said one worker. ...
Corporate Donors Dominate Push to Give Amnesty to 4.4M Illegal Aliens
Multinational corporate executives, who often serve as the biggest donors for the nation’s political class, are the driving forces behind an amnesty plan passed by House Democrats and nine House Republicans. Last week, the House passed H.R. 6, known as the “Dream and Promise Act of 2021,” to provide potentially 4.4 million illegal aliens with amnesty and put them on a track for American citizenship. All 218 House Democrats voted to support the amnesty and nine House Republicans joined them, including: Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) The amnesty’s biggest backers are a series of multinational corporations and their executives who often provide campaign cash to lawmakers. In a March letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the corporations’ executives urged the Senate to pass the expansive amnesty. “This important legislation has our strong support and we ask that you and your colleagues consider and pass it in the immediate weeks ahead,” the executives wrote. The full letter can be read here: Schumer McConnell Letter by John Binder Those who signed off on the letter include tech conglomerates like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google, IBM, Uber, and PayPal. Also lobbying for the amnesty is the United States Chamber of Commerce, Visa, Marriott International, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Chobani, Starbucks, General Motors, Target, and Hilton. A flooded U.S. labor market has been well documented for its wage-crushing side effects, so much so that economist George Borjas has called mass immigration the “largest anti-poverty program” at the expense of America’s working and lower-middle class. The biggest winners are corporations and investors who ...
Former Trump official Fiona Hill: ‘President’s actions have put us on the brink of civil war’
Former Trump National Security Council member Fiona Hill on Monday said that President Trump Donald Trump The Hill's Morning Report - Biden: Back to the future on immigration, Afghanistan, Iran Juan Williams: Biden flips the script The Memo: Two months in, strong Biden faces steep climbs MORE ’s “actions have put us on the brink of civil war” after pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol last week. Hill, who served as the senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council, called the Capitol raid a “coup” in a Politico op-ed , saying that a coup does not need to be a “sudden, violent seizure of power involving clandestine plots and military takeovers.” “Trump disguised what he was doing by operating in plain sight, talking openly about his intent,” she said. “He normalized his actions so people would accept them. I’ve been studying authoritarian regimes for three decades, and I know the signs of a coup when I see them.” ADVERTISEMENT The former Trump official said Trump’s efforts to stay in power during his presidency amounted to a “self-coup” that was ultimately unsuccessful. But she noted “the bad news is that his supporters still believe the false narrative” that the president won reelection after he and other Republicans have promoted unfounded claims that widespread voter fraud led to his loss. “Trump has not repudiated it, nor have the House and Senate Republicans who voted against the Electoral College results,” she wrote. “Millions of people still think the election was stolen. They still support Trump the person, not the Republican Party, and many are prepared to take further action on his behalf.” “As in the case of other coup attempts, the president’s actions have put us on the brink of civil war,” Hill continued. “Trump did not overturn the election results, but, just as he intended, he disrupted the peaceful democratic transition of executive power.” Hill called on ...
Chamber of Commerce: ‘Critically Important’ for Senate to Pass Amnesty
The United States Chamber of Commerce says it is “critically important” for the Senate to pass two amnesty bills that will pack the U.S. labor market with more foreign workers whom millions of jobless Americans will be forced to compete against. Last week, the Democrat-controlled House — with support from 30 House Republicans — passed two amnesty bills. One of the amnesties would put about 4.4 million young illegal aliens on track for American citizenship while the other would provide green cards to up to 2.1 million illegal aliens claiming to have worked on U.S. farms. The Chamber of Commerce praised the House Democrats’ passage of the amnesties. In a statement, the Chamber’s Vice President, Neil Bradley, called the amnesties “critically important” to big business and corporate interests. “Both the American Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act are critically important to the business community,” Bradley said: For years, Washington has spent time bickering about immigration and letting huge problems go unaddressed. Today’s votes are steps in the right direction towards solving some of our nation’s pressing immigration challenges. The U.S. Chamber is committed to ensuring these proposals are passed in the U.S. Senate and signed into law . [Emphasis added] In a letter to Congress, Chamber executives urged lawmakers to pass the amnesties, claiming “they provide bipartisan solutions to very important issues.” The Chamber’s push to pass the amnesties is significant because of the campaign cash that the business group continues to funnel to lawmakers, mostly Republicans. In the 2020 election cycle, for instance, the Chamber donated more than $573,000 to Republicans and nearly $212,000 to Democrats. The biggest campaign donations went to lawmakers such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The ...
