Several Bay Area rabbis plan to take part in a Labor Day march to demonstrate on behalf of San Francisco hotel workers’ rights.
The event at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 5 will start at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco and continue on to Justin Herman Plaza. Among the participating clergy are rabbis Allen Bennett, Moishe Levin, David Cooper, Julie Saxe-Taller and Jane Litman. Several cantors will take part as well.
According to organizers, city hotel workers continue to demand safer workloads, just wages and benefits and the right to unionize.
Saxe-Taller and Litman also contributed to the recent “Open the Gates of Justice: A Clergy Report on Working Conditions at Hyatt Hotels,” which describes business practices the group of rabbis found “contrary to the religious traditions we uphold.”
As a result, Bay Area Jewish clergy and organizations have pledged to boycott a number of Hyatt Hotels, including Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf.
Local rabbis signing the pledge, in addition to the march participants, include Camille Angel, Andrew Berlin, Menachem Creditor, Dan Goldblatt, Roberto Graetz, Yoel Kahn, Dean Kertesz, Michael Lerner, Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Katie Mizrahi, Larry Raphael and Bridget Wynne.