Text from petition submitted to UofC administration and over 56 other universities around the country:
U of Chicago, STOP INVESTING IN SWEATSHOP HOTELS!
HEI Hotels & Resorts is the 7th largest hotel management company in the US. It’s also one of the fastest growing. The company, which owns more than forty hotels, has reached this size in just nine years. HEI buys hotels in order to turn them around and sell them again for profit.
We stand united with hundreds of HEI hotel workers to demand justice at HEI hotels and on our university campuses. Unlike many other companies, HEI is funded primarily through university endowment money.
We call on our universities to make a clear commitment to not invest in HEI.
Responding to students’ and workers’ concerns, two universities whose endowments are invested in HEI made public statements regarding HEI in 2011. In February 2011 Brown University announced that it will not reinvest in HEI until the University is confident that HEI is respecting the rights of the workers. In March 2011 the University of Pennsylvania stated publicly for the first time that it had no current plans to make future investments in HEI-sponsored funds.
As core members of our university communities, we expect our administrations to respond accordingly when we raise serious concerns like this about how our tuition dollars could be spent. An investment in HEI Hotels and Resorts would support the company’s pattern of unethical and illegal business practices. We call upon you to pledge that our university will not make any investments in HEI.”
Campaign Updates:
11/17/11 Petition delivered to UofC administration by SSN members and strike leaders visiting from the HEI-owned W Hotel in Los Angeles.
Students and Hotel Labor leaders
