PENN IS IN BED WITH HEI HOTELS & RESORTS.

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Our university, the University of Pennsylvania, has $15 million invested in HEI Hotels & Resorts.  Wharton's Executive MBA Program, Wharton San Francisco, is also one of the biggest customers of the HEI-owned Le Meridian - a hotel that is under boycott!

While it owns a hotel, HEI employs a range of techniques to bring costs down. Employee experiences include:
- Cutting back on staffing levels-HEI reduces the hours of some workers, lays off others, and even eliminates entire job functions.
- Shortages in the basic materials workers need to do their jobs-employees report struggling to find enough towels and linens, and workers have encountered shortages of basic cleaning supplies like sponges and vacuum cleaners.
- HEI's practices can take a physical toll when they make already-heavy workloads even harder, particularly in housekeeping.

Workers have been campaigning for justice and demanding a fair and democratic process to decide on unionization without management intimidation.

Meanwhile, there are complaints before the National Labor Relations Board that HEI engaged in violations of federal labor law, including:
- Allegedly interrogating employees about their union activity
- Allegedly creating the impression of surveillance by interrogating employees about their union activities
- Allegedly threatening employees with reprisals because of their union activity and allegedly threatening employees with losing their employment if they continued to participate in union activity
- Allegedly coercing employees by confiscating union materials
- Allegedly coercing employees by implying that they were disloyal to their employer because they engaged in union activity
- Allegedly suspending and discharging union leader Ferdi Lazo because he formed, joined and/or assisted the union and engaged in concerted activities, and to discourage employees from engaging in these activities

For a year and a half, Penn students have been asking university administration to take action on this issue.

Students will meet with administration again on Thursday, April 8 at 5pm.  Email respi@sas.upenn.edu if you would like to attend.

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