Workers' Rights Board Hearing

Workers share stories about the effects of outsourcing and privatization on their workplace, and being forced to re-apply for their jobs at lower wages.

When:  Saturday, March 21, 2009, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Where:  Promise Land Chrisitian Community Church, 803 Edgemont (one block west of Dr. Martin Luther King Street, between 24th and 25th streets).  Map

Indianapolis – Workers from the Westin Hotel will join workers from other industries on Saturday, March 21, 2009, to provide testimony to an independent panel of community leaders about the effects of outsourcing on their workplace.  Frequently viewed as a union-busting tactic, the Westin Hotel has most recently outsourced Shula’s restaurant.  Many other central Indiana workers have fallen victim to corporate greed in the name of the “bottom line”, and will be present on Saturday to support their colleagues.

This event follows the swell of community support for hotel worker, William Selm.  Selm is a former Westin employee who was part of the bell department outsourced to Towne Park, the national leader of hospitality contract services and parking systems.  He was then forced by Westin Management to transfer to another hotel after sharing his concerns about his co-workers being outsourced at Shula’s.

The Workers’ Rights Board (WRB) is a project of Central Indiana Jobs with Justice with the mission of forming a community voice on workers' rights issues.  This Board is composed of concerned local leaders who are drawn from a broad spectrum of the community, including representatives from different ethnic and social groups, community organizations, faith-based groups, people with specialized knowledge about the issues confronting workers, and local elected officials. 

At Saturday’s hearing, WRB panel members include State Representative John Bartlett, IUPUI Professor Tom Marvin and IUPUI Masarachia Scholar Anne Weiss.  The hearing will be facilitated by Laura McPhee, News Editor at NUVO.

About the Westin Hotel and Outsourcing in Indianapolis

About William Selm.

Click here to RSVP via email.  Click here to RSVP via FACEBOOK.

Past Workers' Rights Board Hearings

The last WRB hearing was held on September 20, 2008 for the janitorial workers employed at Executive Management Services.  

Click here to see the letter sent to tenants of 101 W Ohio, asking them to stand up for the janitors and their families.

Click here to download the tenant list and send your own letter! 

Current WRB Members

Tom Marvin, IUPUI

Marquita Walker, IUPUI

Cornell Burris, NAACP Indianapolis Branch

Joanne Sanders, City County Council

John Bartlett, State Representative

Rev. Moja Ajabu, Light of the World

Ann Weiss, IUPUI Masarachia Scholar

Rev. Willoughby, Concerned Clergy

Workers' Rights Boards (WRBs) are institutions that engage the power of local religious and community leaders, academics, and elected officials to exert moral, public and political pressure on an unfair employer to expose abuses of workers and their communities.  There is a local Worker's Rights Board in Indiana as well as a National Workers' Rights Board.  As a strategy unique to JwJ, the WRBs have been effective tools that win power for working people through supporting workplace organizing and issue/policy campaigns.  By bringing in faith and community leaders, WRBs have involved new allies in the fight for workers' rights and economic justice. 

In addition to building alliances between labor and community groups, WRBs combat the lack of an adequate legal framework to support worker and economic justice issues.  Although the Boards have no legal authority, the last 13 years have taught us that the local structure of the Boards can produce real results; where the withered legal framework is slow to move, the Boards can spur important action.

Leaders who agree to serve on a WRB review worker complaints and often conduct public hearings - giving employers the chance to participate - and then seek follow-up meetings with management to report their findings and, if possible, resolve the dispute. WRBs may also use letters, delegations, or other tactics to engage employers. WRBs also hear cases regarding social and economic justice issues as well. WRBs throughout the country have recently held hearings on the minimum wage, health care, and immigrant rights.

Click here for a history of the Workers' Righs Board in local communities across the country and at the national level.