While the labor issues that plagued Washington D.C. and Los Angeles were settled, the continued strife in San Francisco may indicate what lies ahead in 2006.
Hotel labor contracts expire next year in seven key meeting cities: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Honolulu, New York, Toronto, and, again, Los Angeles, where the new agreements are two-year contracts retroactive to 2004.
In addition, agreements will end in Monterey, CA, and at the San Francisco Marriott, the second-largest convention hotel in a city where the largest, the Hilton, already has drawn-out labor woes. The Westin Seattle, an 877-room convention property, also faces the expiration of its labor contract in 2006.
Given that there could be picketing, boycotts, or strikes, the situation is volatile. "There's a train wreck up ahead," says a spokesman for hospitality workers' union UNITE HERE.
"It's going to be devastating," says Mark Theis, vice president of conventions at the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau. "The powerlessness that customers will have is unfathomable."
The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), Meeting Professionals International (MPI), and the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) are all gearing up. "As we get closer to the contracts expiring, our plan would be to put together a what-if scenario for associations that may have meetings in cities that would be impacted," says John Graham, president and CEO of ASAE. "We'd cover how to modify contracts and issues around event cancellation insurance."
The labor issue was an agenda item at MPI's Chairwoman's Advisory Council, a select group of top industry leaders, during the group's World Education Congress, held this summer in Miami.
PCMA has recruited several members who have booked meetings at venues facing labor troubles to offer their expertise to other members, according to PCMA chairman Gregg Talley, president of Talley Management Group in Mount Royal, NJ.
Industry attorneys have differing views of planner liability concerning strikes. Says Atlanta-based John Foster, who typically represents association planners, "It's unreasonable for hotels to expect meeting sponsors to become involved in the hotel's labor problems."
But Phoenix-based Lisa Sommer Devlin, who represents hotels, says, "I have not found any case in which a third party has been excused from a contract with another party involved in a labor dispute or strike. Third parties can refuse to cross a picket line, but that is not a legal excuse from a contract. The possibility of labor problems is something the group should have considered before entering into the contract."