The dispute between 14 large San Francisco hotels and their workers continues to widen into the broader business community, with the union visiting some of the city's largest companies and asking them to withhold business.

The in-person visits are a way of making companies aware their actions can help or harm hotel workers, said hotel union president Mike Casey. For companies that proceed with events at the targeted hotels, union picketers sometimes distribute leaflets to guests noting the company's decision, Casey said.

Asked about reports from hotels that companies, including Wells Fargo, Marsh Inc. and Prudential Investments, had been visited, Casey said he could not comment on which specific companies the union has met with, but confirmed that representatives have met with several large companies to discourage them from using hotels involved in the dispute.

"Whether or not they are conscientiously sympathetic to working peoples' interests, they understand that for their own business, it's not in their interest to have San Francisco be an inhospitable city," Casey said. "There are a great number of local business leaders who think it's shameful that global corporations with billions in profits are unwilling to negotiate a deal" with the hotel workers.

A spokesman for Wells Fargo declined to comment on whether the company had been paid a visit, but the bank did issue a written statement expressing hope for a resolution.

Patricia Breslin, executive director of the Hotel Council, said the continued aggressive boycott push could ultimately harm the city.

"The boycotts are not just about the negotiations. This is an attack on San Francisco when we're starting to rebuild," she said. "We all should work together to ensure the economic recovery of the city."

With a 60-day cooling-off period expiring Jan. 23, the union confirmed two weeks ago it is also contacting convention groups and meeting planners, urging them to avoid the 14 hotels.

The corporate visits come as the two sides remain mired in their labor fracas. With no additional talks scheduled, the two sides remain at odds over health-care costs, health-care eligibility and pension benefits. In the most recent round of negotiations, the hotels offered a four-year deal, covering health-care cost increases up to 10 percent in the first year and 15 percent by the fourth year.

Casey said in recent years health-care increases have been closer to 18 percent, leaving workers to potentially cover the shortfall.

He defended union organizers' visits to local companies, saying everything is above board.

"We don't threaten people," Casey said. "We tell them, if they choose to go there, they are taking a stand against hotel workers.

"Sometimes we'll be out there (at hotels) with a leaflet saying to the guest and the group, 'Just so you know, we tried to talk to the leadership of the organization that scheduled you here, and you should know they were unsympathetic, please put a good word in with your leadership next time there is a meeting that you want to be somewhere else.'"

The hotels have meanwhile suffered leadership losses at the Multi Employer Group, the hotel coalition representing them in the dispute.

Mark Huntley, general manager of the Fairmont and president of the group, has accepted the position of general manager and regional vice president at the Savoy in London. Matt Adams, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero and former lead negotiator for the group, left last month to become vice president of operations at Hyatt's corporate office in Chicago.