Unionized workers at the Hyatt West Hollywood walked off the job on Thursday in a dispute over health care payments that are part of a larger labor dispute that has dragged on for more than a year.

The Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council, which is bargaining for the Hyatt and six other large hotels, was scheduled to meet this afternoon to devise a response to the strike.

Under the council's bylaws, the owner of a hotel that is struck can request that all other council members lock out their workers.

"If the request is made, it will be honored," said Fred Muir, consultant to the council.

Tensions have been high since a contract between Unite HERE Local 11 and nine large hotels expired last April. The union has been seeking to align contract expiration dates throughout the country in 2006, while the hotels want a longer contract.

To put pressure on the union, the hotels began deducting $40 in monthly health care premiums last July, until dropping the tactic in January. Since then, two hotels have dropped out of the bargaining group. Talks with the remaining seven are ongoing to determine whether they must reimburse the workers for the premiums paid in the interim.

The strike at Hyatt involves 120 workers. David Koff, research analyst for Unite HERE Local 11, said he anticipates a two-week strike. If there is no lockout, workers at the six other hotels might follow suit in the coming days, Koff said.

He said the local's 2,500 workers were forced to pay more than $650,000 in health care premiums.

"This has been an issue that agitated the workers from the beginning," said Koff. "We started at this hotel but it could expand."

The strike came on the same day that the union vowed to let the 5 p.m. deadline expire on what the hotels called their best and final offer - a four year contract with wage and benefit increases, as well as continuation of full employer-paid health benefits.

The council, which is bargaining for the hotels, made the offer on May 16 and modified June 3 it to reflect a deadline.

"We made it clear to them that this is a one-time-only offer and that if is not accepted, it will be off the table and it won't come back," said Muir.

The union is looking for a two-year agreement that would be retroactive to April 15, 2004, when the previous contract expired. That would line Local 11's agreement with those in several other cities, giving the union more bargaining power.

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