Hotels, Union Meet With U.S. Mediator

The top federal mediator met Monday with directors of nine upscale hotels and senior union officials as he kicked off efforts to defuse increasingly tense contract talks between the two.

Peter J. Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, met separately with the two groups to sort out the issues, according to both sides.

Talks were expected to resume today. However, neither the hotels, bargaining as the Los Angeles Hotel Employers Council, nor the union, Unite Here, showed any sign of backing away from the toughest issue on the table – the length of the contract.

The union wants a two-year deal, part of a plan to line up contracts across the country to expire simultaneously in 2006. The hotels are insisting on a five-year contract and have said the talks are at an impasse until the union agrees.

The hotels came close to locking out their union workers Friday in retaliation for a wildcat strike but later agreed to return to the bargaining table. Late Friday afternoon, hundreds of workers demonstrated in downtown Los Angeles, blocking an intersection for two hours during the evening commute. Several dozen workers and union officials were arrested.

A Los Angeles City Council committee Monday approved a resolution that supported Unite Here officials’ efforts to “equalize the playing field on which they negotiate” with the hotel companies.

The resolution now goes to the full council for a vote.

“We can’t completely take sides here, although many of us wish we could,” City Council President Alex Padilla said. He and Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Martin Ludlow said the city wanted to encourage good-faith negotiations.