Union Aims to Build Momentum as It Prepares for National Hotel Talks

Los Angeles area hotel workers rallied with celebrities and politicians Thursday to set the stage for potentially contentious contract negotiations across the country later this year.

The negotiations will be a test of the Unite Here union’s aggressive strategy that got local contracts in Los Angeles and several other cities to expire this year. That gave the union leverage with national chains such as Hilton Hotels Corp. and Marriott International.

The potential for a nationwide strike could disrupt business and tourism just as the hotel industry is rebounding from a deep slump that persisted long after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Negotiations could turn bitter, given a lockout, strike and harsh rhetoric last year.

In addition to Los Angeles, hotel labor contracts expire this year in Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, New York and Toronto. Unite Here made 2006 expirations a key demand in previous contract talks.

Negotiations will cover more than 50,000 employees at 400 hotels, according to Unite Here. That includes 5,000 workers at more than 25 hotels in Los Angeles, including the Renaissance Hollywood, Hotel Bel-Air and the Sheraton Downtown Los Angeles, where the rally was held.

The focus of the union campaign, which also includes stops by former senator and Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards and actor Danny Glover at rallies in San Francisco, Chicago and Boston this week, is to highlight the working and living conditions of hotel employees such as housekeepers, bell staff and restaurant workers. Union officials said they hoped to lift workers, who often make little more than minimum wage, into the middle class. According to Unite Here, the average hourly wage in nonunion hotels is $7 to $8 versus $15 where workers are unionized.

Edwards, Glover and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa lent their clout to Thursday’s Unite Here rally.

The bulk of the union’s contracts with major Los Angeles hotels expire in November, though some expire as soon as April.

Union leaders contend that hotel workers deserve a better share of industry profits, which are up strongly along with hotel company stock prices. The union also is seeking to boost its membership within the industry.

Industry analysts say hoteliers are willing to offer better pay up to a point, but say they must avoid the high pension and benefit costs that have plagued the airline and auto industries. Hotel companies contend that the union is trying to coerce nonunion workers to join the union, without giving them the option of voting through a secret ballot.

A newly formed anti-union organization already has targeted Unite Here’s general president, Bruce Raynor, in full-page newspaper ads. The ads equate Raynor with reviled dictators for not letting workers vote with secret ballots.

Raynor responded at a news conference Thursday that “the method is unimportant” when it comes to organizing.

Hotel workers also said they sometimes faced intimidation from managers who wanted to keep the union out.

Lining up early support from celebrities and government representatives is an innovative tactic for union organizers, UC Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken said.

“They’re getting their message across before bargaining begins in earnest,” said Shaiken, who specializes in labor issues. “Showing a lot of visibility and political clout means bargaining will be influenced by not just what happens at the table but what happens in the community.”

Joseph McInerney, president of the American Hotel and Lodging Assn., the industry’s chief trade group, said employees had the right to join unions and that hotel operators respected employees as front-line representatives of their companies.

But pay issues should be settled locally, and not be subject to national standards as some union leaders have called for, McInerney said. He acknowledged that 2005 was a strong year for the industry and predicted that 2006 would be profitable too.

Hotel companies are investing heavily in improvements, he said, and must continue to do so to meet guests’ expectations. “You have to stay ahead of the curve,” he said. “The customer wants more.”

The average room rate in Los Angeles and Long Beach rose to $104 last year from $97 in 2004, said lodging industry consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality. Santa Monica and Marina del Rey have the highest average rates in the state at $186, compared with $168 the year before. Room occupancy was up across the state.

Reay predicted that hoteliers would give ground on hourly wages but try to hold the line on health and especially pension benefits.

“I think the hoteliers are going to stick their heels in,” Reay said. “Wall Street is concerned” about the potential long-term costs of such benefits, he said. But the industry, he said, “is very, very healthy.”

Barbara Moore, a phone operator at the Four Points by Sheraton near Los Angeles International Airport, said she was ready to fight for union representation. She said she handled more than 120 calls a day and needed help. “They should put on more than two people per shift,” she said. “And we want better wages.”

Hilton Los Angeles Airport lobby attendant Isabel Brentner, who makes $9.74 an hour, said her co-workers sometimes were forced to choose between paying for medicine or rent.

Hotel operators will have to choose how much of their profits to share at a time when the cyclical industry is in the black and union clout is growing, Shaiken said. Strikes or lockouts could hurt both sides.

“You don’t want to cut off that faucet right when it’s pouring,” he said.