Hotel
Labor Talks to Resume in Los Angeles
Pacific Business News - January 30, 2005
The
Unite-Here union, which represents hotel workers in Waikiki
and most other top 25 hotel markets, confirms it is scheduled
to resume negotiations with Los Angeles hoteliers a week from
Monday.
The
announcement confirms predictions by both sides that a National
Labor Relations Board ruling against management could actually
get talks rolling again.
The
general counsel for the NLRB, a Bush appointee whom labor
has called pro-business, nonetheless ruled last week that
the hotels illegally declared an impasse in the negotiations
since, although they were far apart, they were still talking.
In collective bargaining, the term "impasse" has
specific legal meaning including the right of management to
impose work rules and conditions that may have been proscribed
by the previous collective bargaining agreement.
Hotels
began deducting money from wages for medical benefits, but
already have a proposal on the table which includes refunding
the money, and a spokesman for management said at the time
of the NLRB ruling that it was possible an agreement could
make the whole impasse matter moot.
The
big push by Unite-Here this year, especially in Los Angeles,
San Francisco and Washington, D.C., has been to get contracts
to expire in 2006, the same time that contracts in Waikiki
and several other markets are already set to expire, believing
that the threat of simultaneous strikes will increase their
bargaining power. Management, reading the situation the same
way, has been resisting this.
Where
that issue stands now:
- In
Washington, D.C., satisfied with wages and conditions offered
by management, the union dropped its demand and accepted
a longer contract.
- In
San Francisco, the union offered to take a longer contract
for double raises. The local leader said there was no need
to wield a bigger strike threat in 2006 if management would
commit now to the concessions the union would have sought
then.
- In
Los Angeles, the issue is still hanging fire.
A
labor strike or management lockout in other cities can affect
Waikiki. It happened last fall, when Sheraton flew Waikiki-based
managers to San Francisco to help handle the work while union
employees were locked out, and the union responded by flying
members to Waikiki to set up a one-day picket line at the Sheraton
Waikiki.
More
News About the Los Angeles Hotel Workers' Struggle for a Fair
Contract >>
|
