Efforts to Unionize Georgia’s Hospitality Industry Is on the Rise | Eater Atlanta

"A large downtown convention hotel where banquet servers like Theresa Cross — a single mother who returned to work after breast cancer treatment and had been employed full-time for six years — experienced both some short-term benefit protections and long-term financial strain during the pandemic. Union representation through Local 23 secured full health benefits through the end of 2020 and recall rights that guarantee pre-COVID jobs for 24 months after March 9, 2020, giving workers a level of job security that Cross contrasts with nonunion hotels that have terminated staff or offered severance. Despite those protections, Cross can no longer afford COBRA premiums, worries about paying for her medical treatments and her son’s college, and fears employers could replace workers with cheaper labor once operations fully resume." - Laura Scholz