City
News Service - September 3, 2004
A cardboard "wall of support" for
almost 3,000 hotel workers was unveiled at Olvera Street today
to draw attention to their ongoing contract dispute with nine
of Los Angeles' premier hotels. Ramona Ripston, executive director
of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California,
stood before the wall, which bears the names of hotel workers
and community members who support them. "Hotel workers
in Los Angeles are being denied one of the most precious rights
--the right to a life of dignity in return for hard work,"
she said. "We should all care about their plight regardless
of our background or income. When the rights of society's most
vulnerable members are denied, everybody's rights are imperiled."
The
nine inns include the Westin Century Plaza Hotel and Spa,
Millennium Biltmore and Sheraton Universal. The Los Angeles
Hotel Employer's Council and UNITE H.E.R.E. Local 11 are at
an impasse. Last month, union officials accepted management's
proposal that they meet with Peter Hurtgen, director of the
Federal and Mediation Conciliation Service. Both sides have
been meeting regularly under the auspices of Hurtgen, who
helped settle last year's grocery workers strike and lockout,
as well as the dockworkers strike of 2002.
"This
contract's going to be negotiated at the bargaining table,"
said Fred Muir, who represents the hotels. "It's not
going to be resolved on the sidewalk, or on the street corner
with a bullhorn. It's going to be resolved at the bargaining
table, where it should be." The union is demanding a
two-year contract that would end at the same time as those
in seven cities, including New York, Boston and Chicago. Aligning
the contracts would give the union extra bargaining leverage,
which the hotels oppose.
More
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