With Hotel Labor Contract Ratified, Villaraigosa Moves to Revive Tourism

Los Angeles Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa and other officials Thursday used the ratification of a new hotel labor contract to jump-start the city’s convention and visitors business, which had been hurt by a union-led boycott and fears of a disruptive work stoppage.

Flanked by union, hotel and tourism leaders at a news conference, Villaraigosa announced the contract ratification and said he would personally urge groups to bring their events to L.A.

The union said dozens of groups canceled events here during the 14-month conflict, costing millions of dollars in tourism revenue for an industry recovering from terrorism fears and economic problems abroad.

“Nobody likes to book a convention in a city that’s in the middle of a labor dispute,” said Mark Liberman, president of LA Inc., the city’s convention and visitors bureau. “Now, we will exploit this agreement to its fullest worth.”

Although the two sides didn’t agree on what the actual losses were, two cancellations illustrate the dispute’s effect. The pullout of the National Council of La Raza, which had been planned for Los Angeles in July 2006, meant the loss of 5,500 hotel room nights and $2.8 million in convention income. The cancellation of the Modern Language Assn.’s December 2006 event was an even bigger blow, with its 19,945 room nights and $10 million in convention spending, tourism officials said.

Villaraigosa said he would tackle the National Council of La Raza event, hoping to lure the Latino civil rights group back to Los Angeles.

“This marks an end and a beginning,” said Villaraigosa, who does not become mayor until July 1. “It’s a new day in L.A., and we are open for business.”

Slightly more than half of Unite Here Local 11’s 2,500 members voted, 98% to 2%, Wednesday to ratify the agreement that guaranteed free healthcare and gave hourly hotel employees a 65-cents-an-hour raise over the life of the contract, which expires Nov. 30, 2006.

That brought an end to a labor fight that recently began to escalate, long after similar negotiations in other cities had either simmered down or been settled.

On June 9, 120 union members launched a two-week strike against the Hyatt hotel on the Sunset Strip, one of seven prominent hotels negotiating to replace a labor contract that expired in 2004. In response, hotel executives said they would lock out union employees at all seven hotels Saturday.

To head off the showdown, Villaraigosa on Saturday brought together Local 11 President Maria Elena Durazo and Westin Bonaventure Hotel General Manager Brian Fitzgerald, president of the Los Angeles Hotel Employer’s Council. At the news conference Thursday, Durazo and Fitzgerald said the break came when they eased their stances on the central dispute: the length of the contract.

The union had wanted the additional clout of an early 2006 expiration to line itself up with contract negotiations in other cities; the hotels wanted to avoid that. The new contract will still end in 2006 but after contracts in other cities.

“Now, Los Angeles won’t be at the front end of what could be a major job action” in several cities, Fitzgerald said. Durazo said the contract’s length still hit their 2006 goal while “allowing a longer agreement for the hotels.”