When veteran labor organizer Mike Casey addresses a meeting of San Francisco's Unite Here Local 2 union — drawn from the heavily immigrant Latino hotel and hospitality sectors — there aren't a lot of Irish faces looking back at him.
But everyone of them reminds him of Ireland — and of the immigrant Irish fight for fair play in the workplace.
"Yes, the ethnicities have changed from 100 years ago when Irish immigrants dominated the hospitality trades," he explains over Cokes at the Fiddler's Green tavern in Millbrae, CA. "But the struggle to be accepted and respected is exactly the same."
That rights struggle was all too familiar to Casey's forebears, who fled to America in the wake of the Great Hunger but remained true to the cause of Ireland - handing down to the Unite Here organizer convictions — and good old-fashioned Irish stubbornness — which continue to guide him today.
"I come from a strong Democrat, Labor and Irish republican family who knew exactly what their immigrant ancestors endured and who, on that basis, fought for the rights of new generations of immigrants," he says.
Casey's interest in Irish unity was honed on the building sites of Dublin where he worked for a year in the wake of the 1981 hunger strike. "I remember going up North to Derry and a woman who hosted us gave me a rubber bullet to bring back to America to educate Irish Americans about what was going on over there and to raffle it for NORAID," he recalls. "But when stopped at a British Army roadblock on the way back to Dublin, I was searched and the soldiers found the rubber bullet."
In his labor role, Casey has, fortunately, fared a little better when dealing with roadblocks thrown up by employers all too often hostile to workers' rights. He led the 53-day 2004 San Francisco hotel workers strike which was "the longest lockout in the hospitality industry in 100 years". The resulting deal was so resounding a win for the workers that the multi-employer group representing the employers was disbanded shortly afterward. "It was a knockdown, drag-out fight but the workers were never going to give up," he explains. "We have a saying in our union when on strike, 'one day longer'. We have to hold out just one day longer than the bosses. I was amazed at how resilient, tough and creative our members could be in the face of adversity."
(As a footnote, the 93-day 2024 hotel workers' strike was led by another Irish American, and current United Here Local 2 President, Lizzy Keegan Tapia.)
Majority female and about 80 per cent from immigrant stock (including a smattering of Irish immigrants), the 15,000 Local 2 members are emblematic of a changing America. "It's always the new immigrants who staff the hospitality industry," explains Casey. "In the twenties it was the Irish, then followed the waves of Italians and Filipinos before the Chinese came in the seventies. And in more recent years, it's been the Latinos. I've been on the graveyard shift on picket lines with immigrant workers who were accountants or university teachers in their home countries. They are starting out again as hospitality workers and are simply asking for the bare minimum needed to survive in America: healthcare, a pension, fair wages."
Casey is proud of improvements in the wages and conditions of Unite Here Local 2 workers which were "hard‑won in trench warfare" with global hotel chains. In much of the non‑union hospitality sector, workers receive low wages, little protection and no guaranteed healthcare, he says, but. "where unions are strong, the difference is visible."
@FlyingFoodGrou1 workers at @flySFO and @flyLAXairport are standing up for a fair contract, and flight attendants have our back! pic.twitter.com/1ihEhyRUbn
— UNITE HERE Local 2 (@UniteHereL2) December 17, 2025
Casey holds up the successful contract negotiations with the Chase Center in San Francisco, home to the Golden Gate Warriors, as the type of win-win which is possible when employer and workers can come together. "Even a worker who does just five five‑hour shifts a month qualifies for full family health coverage and pension contributions on top of their wages," he says.
"Jobs in the hospitality sector for our members are good jobs because they include a pension and health cover. Sadly in this country too many employers don't want to provide health cover and yet medical debt is the number one reason for bankruptcy. 90 per cent of our fights are over health care. How can any boss expect a worker to live in this country without health cover? For me, it's a f***ing outrage that so many working and middle class people don't have healthcare cover. European trade unionists are incredulous when they hear how much of US organised labor’s energy is consumed by the basic task of keeping members insured."
As President of the San Francisco Labor Council, Casey also has a weather eye on the November mid-terms. "If Democrats can serve their working class and middle class base rather than serving the billionaire class, then the upcoming elections could be huge in the battle to turn this country around," he says. And how might this proud descendant of Irish immigrants advise they do that? Simple. "By returning to the core belief of James Connolly — 'the cause of labor is the cause of Ireland; the cause of Ireland is the cause of Labor' — and applying it to America." GREEN TEAM: Outside Fiddler's Green tavern in Millbrea this week, Mike Casey (right) with teh author
Travelling to San Francisco and wish to stay in a socially responsible hotel, check out fairhotel.org for a full list of unionized accommodation — Editor.
