Students from a North Hollywood private school announced Thursday they won't hold their prom at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel because of an ongoing labor dispute.

Oakwood School has held the dance at the downtown hotel for the past 15 years, but the junior and senior classes voted this year to move it.

The conflict concerns contract negotiations for hotel workers at several luxury hotels, including the Biltmore. The workers have been without a contract since last April.

Members of Unite Here Local 11 voted in November to ask the public to boycott the hotels.

Fred Muir of the Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council, which represents the hotels, said the action by the school will just hurt the workers there.

"The unfortunate part is that the one sure consequence of canceling this prom at the Biltmore is that the banquet chefs won't be called to work that night, and as a result they'll make nothing," Muir said.

The Oakwood prom will now be held Saturday at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, a union-recommended hotel that has agreed to negotiate its union contract next year.

"I believe that the success of this boycott is a huge step toward raising the standard of living for workers across the country, a chance to improve greatly the plight of working class people in Los Angeles," said senior student Elizabeth Landesberg.

The students are encouraging other schools to pull their proms from the hotels involved in the labor dispute. The other hotels are the Westin Century Plaza, Sheraton Universal, Hyatt Regency Los Angeles, Hyatt Regency West Hollywood, Regent Beverly Wilshire, Westin Bonaventure and Wilshire Grand.

Muir said the hotels on Monday presented a new contract proposal to the union that includes free health care, a $1,000 signing bonus for full-time, non-tipped workers and a 22 percent wage hike over four years.

Negotiations are scheduled to resume June 3.

The union is seeking better health care and pension benefits and want a contract that would end at the same time as contracts with hotels in other major cities, giving unions the possibility of threatening a nationwide strike, increasing their bargaining power with hotel owners.

More News About the Los Angeles Hotel Workers' Struggle for a Fair Contract >>