PRINCETON STUDENTS MIC CHECK TOUR GROUP: We call on the Board of Trustees to reconsider HEI investment

Students affiliated with Occupy Princeton and Princeton Workers’ Rights mic checked the 1 PM & 3:30PM tours for prospective students.

According to HEI Workers Rising:

HEI takes extreme measures to maximize profits after acquiring a hotel. This includes cutting back on staffing levels, reducing hours of some workers, laying off others, and even eliminating entire job functions. Workers report shortages in the basic materials needed to do their jobs—including struggling to find enough towels and linens, and encountering shortages of basic cleaning supplies like sponges and vacuum cleaners. HEI has allegedly intimidated workers who have spoken out about these issues and has created the impression that it has surveilled workers, along with settling charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

As the tour began outside of Clio Hall, the group mic checked the prospective students with the following statement:

Parents and prospective students

Princeton may use your tuition dollars

to fund sweatshop hotels

that abuse their workers

Princeton’s investment in HEI Hospitality

Allows it to profit off of the 

exploitation of workers

Yale and Brown have decided not to reinvest

in HEI Hospitality

Princeton should do the same

Princeton’s motto is

In the nation’s service

Princeton’s trustees are not in the nation’s service

They are in the service of sweatshops

In whose service will you be?

Students were also holding a banner and leafleting outside of Nassau Hall, where the Board of Trustees is meeting today. Members of the tour group also took leaflets about HEI upon reaching Nassau Hall at the end of the tour, and many were supportive of the students’ efforts to “stop investing in sweatshop hotels.”

Occupy Princeton against Princeton Investment in HEI Hospitality: Dec. 16, 2011 (Banner outside Nassau Hall)

Occupy Princeton against Princeton Investment in HEI Hospitality: Dec. 16, 2011 (Banner outside Nassau Hall)

Occupy Princeton against Princeton Investment in HEI Hospitality: Dec. 16, 2011 (Mic-checking outside Clio Hall)