Hyatt Regency Los Angeles
Hyatt West Hollywood
The Westin Century Plaza
St. Regis Hotel
Sheraton Universal Hotel
Wilshire Grand Hotel & Centre
Millennium Biltmore Hotel
Regent Beverly Wilshire
Westin Bonaventure Hotel

LOS ANGELES � April 14, 2005 � Union tactics have made thousands of Los Angeles hotel workers work without a contract for a full year, causing them to miss three pay raises, paid time off and other benefits.

UNITE HERE Local 11�s boycott of area hotels is compounding the loss of pay raises by driving business away from Los Angeles hotels, costing employees untold thousands of dollars in lost work hours and tips.

�Our employees are suffering because of Local 11 leadership�s scheme,� said Brian Fitzgerald, president of the Los Angeles Hotel Employer�s Council, a group of eight prominent areas hotels that are trying to sign union contracts. �The national ambitions of union leadership are being paid for out of the pockets of our employees. This has got to stop.�

The Los Angeles Hotel Employer�s Council has been negotiating with Local 11 since March of 2004. The contract ran out a month later on April 15, 2004. The union leadership�s strategy to link its contract talks with those in cities such as New York and Chicago has unnecessarily prolonged negotiations in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, it appears that Local 11 wants hotel employees here in Los Angeles to sacrifice solely for issues that are important in cities elsewhere.

Respected community leaders including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Archbishop of the Archidiocese of Los Angeles, have called for settlement talks to begin again in earnest, and a resolution to be achieved within weeks.  The Hotel Council agrees with Cardinal Mahony, and has pledged to do all it can to bring about a contract.  But Local 11 has so far refused to change its adversarial and confrontational tactics.

The hotels in the Council already offer the highest wages and best benefits of hotels in Los Angeles, and exceed those at hotels in many American cities. In these negotiations the Council has consistently proposed adding substantially to wages and benefits.

The Hotel Council has made a series of offers to the union that have included pay raises in excess of 20% over the term of a five-year contract. Under the original Hotel Council proposal made nearly a year ago, employees such as room attendants, cooks, dishwashing stewards, and other non-tipped employees would have received a retroactive increase for April 15, 2004, another pay hike in October 2004 and another raise this Friday, April 15 � the one-year anniversary of the contract expiration.  The increases for these employees would have totaled 70¢ an hour.

The Hotel Council proposals have also consistently offered free healthcare over a long-term contract of five or six years � with no co-pays, deductibles or employee contributions of any kind, an extremely rare employee benefit in America.

The Hotel Council�s original proposal also included:

• Paid vacation, paid holidays, paid bereavement leave and a new paid time off program. Employees also enjoy free meals in hotel cafeterias.
• Increases in the pension fund and continued hotel contributions to educational and other employee benefit funds.
• Retroactive pay increase.

Local 11�s bargaining stance is way out of the mainstream of its sister locals around the country. In the year since Local 11�s contract expired, UNITE HERE locals across the country have settled multi-year contracts, often with terms that are not as good as those offered here in Los Angeles. During the past 12 months, UNITE HERE has settled three-year contracts in Washington, Atlantic City, and Philadelphia and Local 11 itself has even settled a five-year contract with the Pasadena Hilton.

The Wilshire Grand Hotel and Centre and the Millennium Biltmore Hotel  in Downtown Los Angeles recently signed new six-year contracts with UNITE HERE Local 52 that guarantee union jobs in their hotel laundry operations for years to come. Last year the Service Employees International Union settled five-year contracts with Los Angles area hotels in just five bargaining sessions and with terms similar to those that the Hotel Council has offered to Local 11.

But Local 11 continues to insist on a short-term contract that would require the parties to start this process all over again in early 2006. The union also continues to push its boycott � a strategy not used by responsible union locals in other cities. The boycott is an irresponsible tactic that reduces work, wages and tips for employees, and saps the life out of the general economy. The ripple effect of tourist dollars in the Los Angeles economy is significant.

The loss of business due to the boycott is costing the City of Los Angeles potentially millions of dollars in lost hotel bed taxes, and that�s the same as taking cops and fire fighters off our streets.

�Now we need Local 11 leadership to return to the bargaining table in a serious manner, in good faith and with the intent of settling this contract now in the best interests of our employees here in Los Angeles,� said Fitzgerald.

�There are steps that could be taken right now,� he added. �Local 11 could end its reckless boycott campaign. The boycott is taking a toll on employees, damaging the regional economy and having a severe impact on local tax revenues. If Local 11 is serious about reaching a contract in a timely manner it should end this practice as an acknowledgment that it is working hard to reach a contract settlement.�

Local 11 is instead passing out information on its strike plans and calling for a contract that would expire in April 2006, just 12 months away, when this entire process would have to begin again.