Talk of Boycott Looms Over Anaheim Convention Center

Business at the Anaheim Convention Center generally slows down during the summer months, but it could get worse this year because of a labor dispute.

The Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 681, which represents 150 workers who serve food and drinks to conventioneers, is threatening a boycott of the meeting facility.

The union is feuding with Aramark Corp., the big managed services company that handles the convention’s food services under a contract with the city of Anaheim. Angela Keefe, president of Local 681, says Aramark just signed a new, much leaner contract with Anaheim, and now is trying to impose a wage freeze and staffing reductions on the workers.

Keefe said her union’s contract with Aramark expired June 1. The two sides haven’t met since May 24, though they are planning to return to the table next week.

Keefe’s Anaheim-based union, whose 5,000 members include workers at Disneyland and surrounding hotels, has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Aramark of not bargaining in good faith. After holding a rally at the convention center last week, union representatives Tuesday voiced their complaints to the Anaheim City Council.

Pamela Adkins, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia-based company, said management has been willing all along to meet with the union. “They just got back to us,” she said Wednesday, adding: “We think we have a very good offer on the table.”

Don Lee covers workplace issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at don.lee@latimes.com