Labor disputes in three major meetings markets—Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and San Francisco—have hotels in those cities on the brink of crisis, but the outcomes of these conflicts may have even wider-reaching consequences.
For months, members of the national hospitality union UNITE HERE in those three cities have been locked in disagreements with management and have been working without contracts. At presstime, negotiations were ongoing in Washington, no talks were scheduled in Los Angeles, and San Francisco workers commenced a rowdy two-week strike on September 29.
Unions and hotels are wrangling over wages, benefits, and workloads, but the issue that could have the largest impact on the hospitality industry is UNITE HERE's push to secure unusually short contracts in all three cities, so that they all expire in 2006—the same time as contracts in six other cities. If the union is successful and labor contracts expire in nine cities simultaneously, workers would have considerably more leverage on a national level. "The length of the contract has become the line in the sand, so to speak, for the employers," says David Koff, spokesperson for UNITE HERE Local 11 in Los Angeles.
Those on the hotel side of the dispute may fear the power that simultaneous negotiations could give the union. "That's the most important stumbling block in the negotiations," says Joe McInerney, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based American Hotel & Lodging Association. It's a point the hotels are willing to fight over, even though McInerney says that the labor conflict has already affected dozens of hotels, and picketers assembled at hotel entrances with signs and bullhorns were reported to have harassed guests.
Of course, meetings are not immune from the conflict. Megan Burke, operations manager at San Diego-based Meeting Sites Pro, says that union activity in front of the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco ruined the turnout and service at her one-day event. She says for a usually well-attended meeting, less than a third of confirmed attendees attended, and that striking workers are at least partially to blame. "[The union protest] was really disruptive. Attendees had to go through a picket area to enter the hotel, and there was a lot of distraction and commotion," she says. "Our service was affected. The staff seemed shorthanded and overworked." In the end, Burke said, the interruptions were significant enough for the hotel to reimburse the full cost of the meeting room.
So that planners can prepare for such disruptions, UNITE HERE has launched a monthly newsletter detailing labor issues, and offering sample force-majeure contract clause language to protect groups in case of further strikes.