Union leader leads rally in Santa Monica
With contracts for more than 4,000 workers at stake, leaders of a powerful hotel and restaurant worker union met in a Santa Monica church Wednesday to rally support for what may become yet another drawn-out labor dispute.
Heartened by a Tuesday victory against the non-unionized Wal-Mart chain in Inglewood, officials from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 11 said they are preparing for a possible hotel strike. But organizers said they hope to avoid it.
Labor contracts at 17 luxury hotels in downtown Los Angeles and throughout the Westside expire April 15. The terms of the contracts are especially important because they’re seen as a bellwether for the industry. The contracts also have implications for union and non-union workers throughout Los Angeles, organizers said.
3BB,“This council of hotels sets the standard,” said Maria Elena Durazo, president of HERE Local 11 and the keynote speaker at the event. “And it sets the standard for all the workplaces, frankly, union or non-union.”
“This council of hotels sets the standard... And it sets the standard for all the workplaces, frankly, union or non-union.” — – MARIA ELENA DURAZO President, HERE Local 11
Though continued medical benefits and increased pay will be key union demands, officials said they expect the hotel managers to contest the length of union contracts. Organizers hope to set up labor contracts in major tourist cities across North America so that they all expire at the same time in 2006. The last time labor contracts were negotiated in LA was more than six years ago.
“Each city has had to fight for a different duration of contract, so we could all fight together,” said Durazo, adding hotel managers have promised to oppose the effort.
But Durazo said the union should operate with the same amount of power and unity as employers do.
“You’re a national corporation, we have a right to act as a national union,” she said.
So far, HERE chapters in Hawaii, Chicago, Toronto, New York and Boston have aligned their contracts so they expire in 2006. Durazo said if Washington, D.C., San Francisco and LA could do the same, HERE would be able to bargain more effectively for worker benefits. She anticipated hotel managers may offer better wages and maintain health benefits, but contract lengths would be met with resistance.
A strike reserve fund has been set up — workers are paying an extra $5 each month in union dues in case the two sides aren’t able to reach an agreement.
Durazo said the key union negotiating goals will be to keep family health insurance for workers free, secure a good wage increase, safeguard worker protections and rights, acquire sick days, ease excessive workloads and set contract length.
She said the LA area is behind San Francisco in terms of union density — 31 percent as opposed to 86 percent — but pointed to areas like Santa Monica, were labor organizers have been aggressively fighting for unionization. Currently, the Viceroy, Fairmont Miramar and the Four Points Sheraton are unionized. The Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel has agreed to let labor organizers campaign for presence there.
“Santa Monica used to be maybe 1 percent,” Durazo said.
Local organizers have turned their efforts toward the Doubletree Guest Suites. They said they will continue their campaign until all the luxury hotels in Santa Monica are unionized, including Shutters on the Beach, Casa Del Mar and Le Merigot.
Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism, an organization pushing for an increased minimum wage, helped organize the event — which attracted about 60 people and was held at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church on 18th Street.
To “present a light-hearted look at a heavy subject,” a troupe of church and SMART officials staged a play detailing the fight ahead for hotel workers in the form of a boxing match with “the boss.” Each North American city first fought the boss one-on-one. Then, when it came to 2006, the group issued a group pummeling.
Hotels included in the bargaining are the Bonaventure, Century Plaza, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt West LA, Millennium Biltmore, Regent Beverly Wilshire, Sheraton Universal, St. Regis, Wilshire Grand, Bel Air, Beverly Hilton, Holiday Inn, Luxe Summit, Radisson Wilshire, Renaissance Hollywood, Sportsmen’s Lodge and The W.
Though contracts expire on April 15, officials agreed earlier Wednesday to extend them indefinitely while negotiations are ongoing. Durazo said she hoped to avoid a strike, adding the recent grocery store battle provided a good lesson.
“I think that the lesson that was reaffirmed to us is that you cannot negotiate fairly if the corporations are national and international in scope and the union is local in scope,” said Durazo, who also serves as vice president of HERE International.
Maria Elena Durazo
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 9, 2004. Read the original PDF.