UNITE HERE is an organization that represents 270,000 working people across North America. Our members in the U.S. and Canada work in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries.

Our membership is diverse. We are predominantly women and people of color, and we hail from all corners of the planet.

Together, we are building a movement to empower immigrants and all workers across North America to achieve greater equality and opportunity.

UNITE HERE & IMMIGRATION POLICY

When employers abuse immigrant workers or try to divide us, all workers get less.

Current U.S. immigration policy has become a blueprint for employer manipulation and abuse, causing both immigrants and U.S.-born workers to suffer. UNITE HERE, in coalition with the AFL-CIO and immigrant rights activists nationwide, has pushed for comprehensive, worker-centered immigration reform and an end to criminalizing enforcement strategies.

freedom-rideOUR HISTORY OF EMPOWERING IMMIGRANT WORKERS

Past and present, immigrants have been at the center of our Union’s work to end poverty and change lives. More than 100 years ago, UNITE HERE’s founding immigrant ancestors, mostly women, led the historic Bread and Roses strike. In Las Vegas, our members transformed the lives of thousands of gaming workers after mounting a six-year picket line at the Frontier Hotel and Casino. And in Chicago, hotel workers at the Congress Hotel inspired many by staging the longest strike in history—all with the goal of winning dignity and economic equality for working men and women.

The struggle for immigration reform similarly has been a long one. A decade ago, UNITE HERE led the labor movement in organizing the Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride, calling attention to the need to reform and honoring the legacy of the Civil Rights movement.

For years, UNITE HERE has been building a movement in Arizona with high school aged immigrants who are the sons and daughters of hotel and food service workers. This effort has led to the registration of tens of thousands of new voters and made citizens out of thousands of immigrants—and in 2016, the movement to oust the terrorizing Sheriff Joe Arpaio paid off.

In 2016, we helped 5,180 people in more than a dozen cities complete the process of becoming U.S. citizens.

Today, UNITE HERE members continue to carry the torch for comprehensive reform while fighting on the front lines against the anti-immigrant rhetoric and attacks of the new administration.