Unite Here (sometimes styled UNITE HERE or Unite HERE) is a major labor union principally organizing employees in the hotel, restaurant, and gaming industries. Unite Here was formed in 2004 from a merger between the Hotel Employees-Restaurant Employees (HERE) union and Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) and has become notable for aggressive “corporate campaign” organizing tactics. Since 2009, the union has been a member of the AFL-CIO labor federation;5), and pushed for minimum wage policies with loopholes allowing union contracts to under-cut the wages paid to non-union employees.7 and the 1986 President’s Commission on Organized Crime identified HERE alongside the Teamsters, Laborers International Union, and International Longshoremen’s Association as national unions controlled by organized crime.9
By the mid-1970s, Edward Hanley had risen to lead the national HERE union. Hanley was notorious for a high salary and substantial perks: His annual pension after retirement exceeded his presidential salary, and he reportedly made use of a $2.5 million private jet.11 Hanley denied the allegations; in 1998, he resigned from union office amid allegations by a federal overseer that he had received improper financial benefits.9 made his name in HERE by leading an organizing campaign among clerical employees of Yale University.14
UNITE basked in a legacy of labor union history; the ILGWU rose to prominence after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory disaster, a core event leading to the rise of labor unions in the United States.16 The union exploited a provision of the 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act to extract kickbacks from clothing manufacturers engaged in offshoring; members were not compensated, with funds going into the union coffers.17
UNITE’s most important asset was the Amalgamated Bank of New York, the nation’s only union-controlled financial institution. In 2004, when UNITE and HERE merged, Amalgamated had $3.6 billion in assets.18
UNITE-HERE Merger
By the early 2000s, HERE was in financial distress, with its revenues and membership rolls hurt by the decline in tourism following the attacks of September 11, 2001. HERE, led by career union organizer and onetime Students for a Democratic Society activist John Wilhelm, solicited support for a contract campaign at Yale University from other labor unions; support arrived from UNITE, led by “child of the ’60s left” Bruce Raynor, which provided financial assistance and union activists.22 On major union policies, Raynor and Wilhelm acted as “co-presidents.”23
Raynor responded by attempting to dissolve the union of which he was still nominally president. With Raynor’s support, then-Service Employees International Union (SEIU) international president Andy Stern offered to incorporate Unite Here into the SEIU; HERE-side activists saw Stern’s offer as a threat that SEIU would begin organizing in casinos and hotels previously left to Unite Here.23 Regional bodies of the former UNITE voted to secede from Unite Here and agreed to form a new union, Workers United, which would affiliate with SEIU.33 and most powerful local union of Unite Here.46 It is perhaps best known for representing workers for Disneyland. The union has been criticized for disruptive demonstrations against hotels in Long Beach.51 led pro-amnesty demonstrations in the 1990s.52 Left-wing pro-union writer Harold Meyerson noted that UNITE, HERE, and SEIU led the effort to turn the unions in favor of expanded immigration, noting that “If there are new members to be had, that’s where they are”; namely, among immigrant workers.76 The union reported 280,389 members.77
Notable recipients of Unite Here funds in 2017 include the media consultancy BerlinRosen, Democratic political consultancy Hilltop Public Solutions, the Alliance to Fight the Forty coalition, the left-wing healthcare coalition America’s Agenda Health Care for All, the agitation group Center for Popular Democracy, Democratic-aligned PAC Emily’s List, the community organizing group Center for Community Change Action, the pro-immigration advocacy group Catholic Legal Immigration Network, left-wing media convention Netroots Nation, civil rights advocacy group Rainbow Push Coalition, and the New York-based socialist group Workers Defense League.78
Leadership
The national president of Unite Here is Donald “D” Taylor, formerly head of the Culinary Union until taking over the national union in 2012. Taylor has worked in Unite Here and its predecessor unions since 1979, when he joined a restaurant workers union; in 1981, Culinary hired Taylor. 0){
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