10 Hotels in S.F. Lock Out Union Workers

Ten San Francisco hotels locked out their union workers Friday, retaliating after the union struck four other hotels in their bargaining group two days earlier.

The 14 mostly upscale hotels, accounting for nearly one-fourth of the city’s guest accommodations, quickly replaced locked-out employees with new hires, managers and other employees in an attempt to operate as normally as possible. Some offered free meals to stem cancellations and early checkouts.

“A strike against one of our hotels is a strike against all of our hotels,” said Mark Huntley, president of the San Francisco Multi-Employer Group, which handles labor negotiations for the 14 hotels. “The union leadership knew their action would trigger a lockout.”

Valerie Lapin, a spokeswoman for Local 2 of the Unite Here union, said the hotels overreacted. “We’re very disappointed that the employers chose to escalate the situation here. We went out on strike at four hotels for two weeks. It was very measured. We intended to go back to work on Oct. 13.”

Maria Elena Durazo, president of Unite Here Local 11, which represents workers in Los Angeles, said the expanded lockout “exposes the hotels as being irresponsible. They have triggered a deeper labor dispute.”

The situation remained stable in Los Angeles and Washington, where union locals also have been in contract talks, with little progress. Talks are set to resume in Washington next week, but no new sessions are scheduled in Los Angeles.

Fred Muir, a spokesman for the nine Los Angeles hotels involved in the dispute, said no lockout had been scheduled.

The San Francisco lockout sharply raised the stakes in the contract dispute, because it could leave workers out of their jobs for longer than the two-week strike period set by the union.

That’s because the hotels said Friday that they would end the lockout only when the union dropped its demand for a two-year contract.

The union wants two-year pacts in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington so that it can synchronize contract expirations in nine cities, giving it greater national bargaining clout. The San Francisco hotels want a five-year deal while the Washington hotels want a three-year accord and the ones in Los Angeles want a six-year pact.

“It’s looks like it’s going to be a long, drawn-out thing” with no easy way out, said Brenda Cochrane, director of the labor studies program at San Francisco State University.

The lockout also could hurt the city’s tourism sector, its largest industry, still recovering from the dot-com crash, the 2001 recession and fallout from the 9/11 terrorist attacks and other problems. Total visitor spending rose above $6 billion in 2003, but was still well below the $7.6 billion recorded in 2000.

In the meantime, hotel guests in San Francisco were caught in the lurch, and some hastily changed plans. Guests requesting room service were told that free food was available, but only in the lobby.

Harley Shaiken, a UC Berkeley professor specializing in labor issues, moved a lunch with a former president of Ireland from one of the lockout hotels, at her request. “The lockout may send a strong message to the union, but it might boomerang on the hotel chains,” he said. “They may lose business not just over the next two weeks, but over the long term.”

But some conducted business as usual.

“The food was warm, the coffee was hot and the service was nice,” said Mary Huss, publisher of the San Francisco Business Times and chair of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. “A woman who had been flown in from Minneapolis was serving us. Everything went smoothly.”

Hotels locking out employees included the Westin St. Francis, the Fairmont, Omni Hotel and Four Seasons. The four hotels struck on Wednesday are the Argent, Hilton San Francisco, Crowne Plaza Union Square and Mark Hopkins San Francisco.