Associations Reject Hotel Workers' Tactics
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 2/28/2005
Three industry associations have issued a statement condemning union leaders calling meeting planners to encourage them to boycott hotels in which they are planning events.
Meeting Professionals Intl., the American Society of Assn. Executives and its Center for Assn. Leadership, and the Professional Convention Management Assn. said they do not condone Unite Here contacting meeting planners and asking them to boycott hotels involved in labor negotiations or affiliated with certain chains. They said the boycott "may cause great injury to the economic stability of the targeted cities as well as the economic livelihood of the hotel employees at the targeted properties."
In San Francisco, a Unite Here boycott of hotels continued as members of the Local 2 union remained without a contract in a dispute over health care benefits. In Los Angeles, Local 11 and the Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council continue to negotiate wage and benefit provisions of a new contract.
Amanda Cooper, Unite Here press secretary, said that in contacting meeting planners the union is providing a service to the industry, so groups do not arrive at a hotel to find it embroiled in a labor dispute. She agreed the union's actions are drastic, but said they're a response to a serious situation.
"With good contracts, hotels get long-term, professional employees, and meeting planners like that level of professionalism," she said.
Kelly Schulz, MPI director of communications, said the topic arose during a meeting of the MPI Chairman's Advisory Council, which includes hoteliers and suppliers, at the MPI annual meeting in San Diego last month.
Schulz and ASAE spokesman Chris Vest said there was not a specific incident that spurred the statement. Both said the associations had been discussing the need for a unified position on labor disputes.
