Unite HERE members
outside the Fairmont
San Francisco
After more than a year of worker actions, San
Francisco’s hotel employee union Unite HERE Local 2 still is
battling the Multi-Employer Group, made up of 14 of the city’s
convention hotels. Convention and visitor bureau staffers have
begun pointing fingers at the union, accusing leadership of
sacrificing its members’ best interests. “As a bureau, we try
to remain apolitical,” said Mark Theis, vice president of
conventions for the San Francisco CVB. “But Unite HERE’s tactics
have affected our business, and this whole ordeal clearly leaves a
bruise on our destination’s reputation.”
Since its contract expired in late 2004, Local 2 has been
boycotting the MEG properties in a push for one of two demands:
card-check neutrality, which would allow workers to form unions at
nonunion properties, or a 2006 expiration date on the contract, to
align the city with Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Toronto when
contracts come up for renegotiation next year.
Although Local 2 has not struck since last October, its
boycotts have proven increasingly effective. San Francisco could
lose an estimated
$48 million in hotel revenue from relocated conventions.
At press time, the Washington, D.C.-based American Federation
of Teachers was contemplating moving its July 2006 convention. “We
told them we’d move if the union didn’t get a new contract by Aug.
1,” said Sally Muravchik, director of conventions and meetings for
the AFT, “and then [Local 2 president] Mike Casey asked us to hold
off just a little bit longer. But we can’t wait for long.”
Other groups have reported hostile phone calls from Local 2
representatives demanding their meetings be moved to properties
that are not being boycotted. “I’m being harassed,” said Sandy
Requa, an executive assistant of the New York City-based Audio
Engineering Society.
CVB president and CEO John Marks is fed up with the tactics:
“I’m getting sick and tired of having to make apologies to our
valued clients.”
Those suffering the greatest losses during the union’s boycotts
could be its members. Marks calculates the lost business could cost
workers close to $900,000 in tips.
Union president Casey says his members are willing to weather
short-term hardship for the long-term benefits. “You can’t take on
global corporations like the Starwoods and the Hiltons with
regional strategies,” he said. “For the first time ever, our union
is saying, ‘You are not going
to pick us off one by one.’ And our members get that.”