Coalition Postpones Great Lakes Restoration Conference Due to Strike

Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition: ‘Every person deserves the right to clean, reliable, and affordable water—and that goes hand-in-hand with supporting a livable wage for workers.’ANN ARBOR, MICH. (October 15, 2018)—The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is postponing its annual Great Lakes conference, which had been slated to take place Oct. 17-18 in Detroit, Mich. The Coalition made the decision because of an ongoing strike by hotel workers at the Westin Book Cadillac. Todd Ambs, director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, said: “The annual Great Lakes conference is one of the marquee annual events of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, and we did not enter into this decision lightly. While we strive to hold an informative, inspiring, and forward-thinking conference every year, we also want to respect the dignity of workers asking for a living wage and to not put our attendees in a situation where they have to decide whether to cross a picket line. The Coalition staff believes it is important to support the hotel workers because water affordability is an increasingly important issue for the Coalition. Every person deserves the right to clean, reliable, and affordable water—and that goes hand-in-hand with supporting a livable wage for workers. “We realize that this decision carries ramifications for the more than 300 conference attendees who had planned on being in Detroit for the conference. We apologize for the inconvenience, and we ask for people’s patience, flexibility, and understanding. We will be available to help if they have questions. “We look forward to convening in Detroit next year and continuing our work to protect and restore the Great Lakes for the people and communities that depend on them for their drinking water, jobs, and way of life.” The Coalition will be hosting its annual restoration conference in the spring of 2019 in Detroit. Date and location have not been determined.