March 01, 2006 - Successful Meetings
Successful Meetings: Unite HERE has gained a lot of strength in the last year or two. What is that attributable to?
John Wilhelm: Our members realized it was unwise to bargain on a city-by-city basis with local owners and operators when it came time to renew contracts. Those days are long gone. Now, members realize they are dealing with billion-dollar, multinational corporations, and negotiating city by city was akin to fighting a heavyweight boxer with one arm tied behind your back.
The fact that we have contracts expiring in seven of the largest convention markets in the U.S. and Canada this year is the result of a strategic decision by our membership.
So it only made sense to our members that if firms like Starwood, Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt were pouring millions of dollars into every negotiation, and could prolong or instigate a dispute, the unions had better start approaching these global corporations more comprehensively, or risk their pay, health care, and pensions.
SM: How does that change hotel relations for the union?
Wilhelm: Our members are hopeful that these multinational corporations will start dealing with union issues like they deal with the rest of their corporations' business: comprehensively instead of locally. When a hotel company like Hilton, Starwood, or Marriott releases an earnings report, they do not release it on a hotel-by-hotel or city-by-city basis. When they're calculating their revenues or operating income, they do not include line items for individual hotels or markets.
A customer of the Westin San Francisco expects the same level of service as he'd receive at the Westin New York. Given that, Westin housekeepers around the country all deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. The hotel companies can't have it both ways.
SM: If contracts aren't renewed before their expiration date in the "2006 cities," do you think the labor-management situation will be more or less contentious than it was in L.A. and Washington D.C., and continues to be in San Francisco?
Wilhelm: We are hopeful that negotiations will go more smoothly this year, but given that there is significant overlap in hotel employers in all of the 2006 cities and in San Francisco, our members have prepared themselves for the possibility that the hoteliers will behave the same way in 2006 as they have in San Francisco [where there was a lockout of workers].
SM: If the situation in some or all of those cities does get heated, what impact do you think it will have on meetings and on hotels' ability to attract and successfully host them?
Wilhelm: In a little over a year of contract negotiations in L.A., 113 groups that represented over $15 million in economic activity moved their conventions because of the labor dispute. In San Francisco, we estimate that in the last 18 months the labor dispute has cost the Hilton San Francisco over $10 million in lost revenue. Prolonged contract negotiations cause long-term damage to a city's reputation as a convention destination.