To the ISO New England Board,
We write to you as representatives of the No Coal No Gas campaign. We are the network of ratepayers who organized the Consumer Liaison Group “ballroom coup,” used direct action to shut down the Merrimack Generating Station, and are now working with other groups to retire all fossil fuel peaker plants in New England. Dozens of us have commented at the first two annual public ISO board meetings. This year, many of us were again hoping to participate and submit comments for the board’s consideration.
We were extremely concerned, however, when we realized that this meeting would be taking place at the Seaport Hotel, which has been embroiled in labor struggles for the past two years. In December 2022, Seaport Hotel cut the hours and benefits of the majority of Banquets and Convention Services staff- the same staff who serve you today. In July 2023, Seaport Hotel workers filed for a union election, which was then delayed for months by baseless objections from hotel ownership. This past January, hotel workers won their vote for union representation, but the hotel refused to recognize the election results or negotiate a contract. In February, Seaport Hotel illegally retaliated against the union by withholding raises and benefit improvements and changing hotel renovation plans. In July, workers launched a boycott of the hotel, and this past Labor Day, Seaport Hotel employees participated in a one-day strike with other members of UNITE HERE Local 26. Currently, they are calling for a boycott of Seaport Hotel and asking all of us not to eat, meet, or sleep at its facilities until their demands for recognition are met. Yet despite months of warning, the ISO-NE board has chosen to hold its meeting here. In doing so, you are disrespecting the Seaport Hotel workers’ call for a boycott.
It is unacceptable to ignore the demands of these workers and UNITE HERE Local 26 and their call for solidarity. With your actions, you communicate that you do not actually care about the wellbeing of everyday New England residents. Using our ratepayer dollars to pay a boycotted business is in bad taste. A board meeting is not truly accessible and open to the public if it is held at an exploitative work place in the midst of a worker-led boycott. As ratepayers, we should not have to decide between having a voice in our grid’s management and supporting our community members in their labor struggles.
As a campaign, we have decided to honor workers’ call to boycott the Seaport Hotel, and we will not attend the ISO-NE board meeting online or in-person. Instead, we want to amplify UNITE HERE Local 26’s demand for recognition and fair treatment. We call on the Seaport Hotel to accept the results of the union election and agree to a contract that respects the dignity and labor of workers. We insist that ISO New England cancel all contracts with the Seaport Hotel until such time that workers’ demands are met.
In the future, we expect the ISO-NE board to honor boycotts and act in line with ratepayer interests. Today, we are so frustrated with your response to labor struggles that we will not comment on your climate failures, market designs that enable price gouging, and bureaucratic nonsense. By holding your meeting in violation of a call for boycott, you imply that ratepayers must choose between issues - that we can only care about grid transition or economic justice, but not both. We reject this attempt to divide us. The ISO-NE board may be comfortable sacrificing the well-being of some New Englanders for the convenience and profit of others, but we are not.
If the board of ISO-NE thinks that it can hide from public engagement by hosting inaccessible meetings in boycotted locations, you are mistaken. While you hide in luxury hotels talking only to each other, we are taking action in our communities, building relationships and solidarity, making each other stronger, and continuing to organize in ways that will push for a swifter and more just grid transition.
With love and fury,
The No Coal No Gas Campaign
For more information about the boycott, visit the UNITE HERE Local 26 webpage: https://www.local26.org/seaporthotel/
