UNITE HERE Launches GraduateFails.org About AJ Capital Partners and Graduate by Hilton Hotels

Hotel workers’ union launches new website and digital ads to customers re: the company’s failures in dealing with workers and communities

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE has launched the website GraduateFails.org detailing ways AJ Capital Partners and Graduate by Hilton Hotels have failed workers and communities across the country. The website is accompanied by digital ads to hotel customers and follows the issuing of a travel advisory for the brand. Graduate Hotels are owned by AJ Capital Partners, and their preferred operator is Schulte Hospitality Group.

Graduate by Hilton Hotels are themed around nearby colleges and universities, embracing the nearby community. According to AJ Capital, “Each Graduate Hotel is custom designed and programmed to celebrate the distinct history, traditions and charms of the university and the surrounding community.” The website features a report card covering the subjects of: Respect. Community Impact. The Job. And Legal Trouble. The hotel brand receives a failing grade from the hospitality union on all subjects except for their legal woe.

“Graduate by Hilton Hotels have positioned themselves as a community themed brand, but in their dealings with workers and communities, we see a company that ‘needs improvement’. The report card includes a number of troublesome issues: controversial relationships with local businesses and governments during development, ongoing legal challenges, a mass-firing and a sudden closure, and sending in anti-union consultants, among others. On the labor front, workers in a labor dispute with AJ Capital Partners hotels are asking the company to offer hospitality back to those who welcome guests and ensure comfortable accommodations,” said Gwen Mills, International President of UNITE HERE.

At UNITE HERE’s new website www.GraduateFails.org, visitors can:

• Sign the national pledge in support of workers.
• Hear from workers about what they’ve experienced working at AJ Capital and Graduate hotels including heavy workloads and wages that don’t keep up with the cost of living.
• Learn more details about the “F”s given out; including how a contested lawsuit settled in March 2026 accused them of allegedly weaponizing the building inspections process to evict an immigrant-owned bakery in Miami’s gentrifying Little Haiti neighborhood.

Treatment of workers is one of the report card’s themes. Workers at the soon-to-be Graduate Boulderado Hotel in Boulder, Colorado are demanding a fair process to decide on a union. They went public with their demand July 1 but instead of listening to workers’ fair process demand, the hotel sent anti-union consultants who have been at the hotel on-and-off talking to workers in groups and one-on-one. Workers at the Graduate by Hilton Berkeley fought for and won the union – and now are waiting to negotiate a fair contract.

GraduateFails.org comes out on the heels of Sundance Film Festival announcing the AJ Capital owned Hotel Boulderado as the festival headquarters hotel. Hotel workers are calling on AJ Capital Partners to encourage operator Schulte Hospitality Group to agree to a fair process.

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UNITE HERE is a labor union that represents 300,000 working people across Canada and the United States. UNITE HERE members work in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries.