Boston observes Labor Day with rally for worker rights

Workers and elected officials held a Labor Day rally on Saturday across the street from the Marriott Copley Place, while workers who lost their jobs last year continued to push to get back to work.

“We’ve been out here rallying for a year to either get people back to work, or to get fair severance,” said Carlos Aramayo, president of Unite Here Local 26.

A few people were brought back, Aramayo said; others were given half the severance the hotel had traditionally given.

“We’re fighting for full service (all departments) to be brought back,” he said.

Beatriz Torres, 70, said she worked at the Marriott for 23 years as a concierge attendant.

“I loved my job,” Torres said. “I loved working with people.”

She was fired on Sept. 10 last year, when she received a call from a manager, saying that her position had “disappeared,” she said.

The manager offered her 10 weeks of severance for the 23 years she had worked at the Marriott, Torres said.

“I didn’t expect the company I invested my life to let me go in the middle of a pandemic with 229 other people,” she said.

“To find a new job now with the same salary – $23 an hour – and benefits is almost impossible,” Torres said.

So she lives in one room with another family of three in Everett, she said.

Ramona Pena, 59, of Taunton was laid off by the Marriott last March after 16 years of working there as a cook, she said through an interpreter.

“At first they said I could come back in April, then May, then June, every month until they called me in September and told me they had eliminated my job,” Pena said.

She was washing dishes when she received the call, she said, and the plate shook in her hand.

“I feel it here,” Pena said, pointing to her stomach. “I’m feeling sad.”

Her unemployment is going to run out soon, she said, and she has no idea what she’s going to do.

The Marriott declined to comment.

The five candidates for mayor and members of Massachusetts’ Congressional delegation called on the Marriott to rehire the workers and called on all employers to treat employees fairly.

“This past year has shown us just how many people are close to being pushed over the edge … families that are on the precipice, that are forced to choose between paying for medical care or rent,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who worked three part-time jobs, including on the wait staff at the Marriott when she first came to Boston.

“I know what it’s like to be overlooked,” Pressley said. “You deserve systemic, transformative, lasting support.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2YxSrsp