San Francisco Hotel Dispute Drags On
By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 8/22/2005
As the standoff continues between labor and management at 14 San Francisco hotels, the city's convention and visitors bureau is paying a heavy price in lost bookings.
Over the past year, the contract dispute between more than 4,000 members of Unite Here and the San Francisco Multi-Employer Group has claimed more than a half-dozen meetings whose nearly 28,000 attendees and 61,385 room nights would have generated a $39.1 million economic impact.
On the verge of pulling their meetings from the city are: the American Anthropological Assn. for 2006 and 2009, and the American Sociological Assn. for 2006. Together, the groups' 15,300 attendees and 23,280 room nights would produce a $10.6 million economic impact. One other group, the Natl. Assn. of Letter Carriers, has even canceled its 2010 annual convention.
"This cloud is getting darker," said Mark Theis, vice president of the convention division at the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau. "Six months ago, we were worried about the short-term ramifications. It is getting deeper now. It is starting to cripple our ability to book future business."
CVB officials are trying to stress that the city is open for business and offers many hotels not involved with the contract negotiations. In addition, they are reassuring meeting planners that even at the 14 hotels, the workers are on the job, maintaining service levels.
"We're trying to convey that the workers are still working; they're just working with an expired contract. There's no lockout," Theis said.
Countering that message is the union's long-running boycott campaign, which urges meeting planners to relocate their meetings. Local 2 of Unite Here last month estimated that the campaign had cost the city $47 million in lost business.
The two sides remain far apart despite dozens of negotiating sessions, offers and counteroffers. Unite Here rejected management's last offer, presented July 13.
The hotel management group branded the latest union offer, presented Aug. 10, as "unproductive," demonstrating "a lack of respect for us, employees and the people of San Francisco," and disappointing because the offer didn't cover significant issues.
Nevertheless, spokesman Cornell Fowler said the hotel management group is considering the offer and has requested another date for talks. Local 2 President Mike Casey did not return a call seeking comment.
The most important issue to the union is the contract's expiration date. Unite Here has been trying to line up 2006 contract expirations in as many cities as possible to give the union greater leverage in negotiating with national hotel chains. Among the cities where hotel contracts will expire next year are Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and Monterey and Sacramento, Calif.
Many of the groups that have left San Francisco represent a union membership. The American Anthropological Assn. moved its 4,400-attendee December 2004 meeting to Atlanta. The American Political Science Assn. has relocated its annual conference, which draws 6,800, to the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The Intl. Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans' 12,000-attendee meeting and the 1,000-attendee California Applicant Attorneys Assn. both relocated to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.
The Organization of American Historians moved its meeting a short distance south to the San Jose (Calif.) McEnery Convention Center. The 2005 ApacheCon high-tech conference moved even farther south, to San Diego. And the American Federation of Teachers is still deciding between two alternate venues.
Theis said the bureau has been trying to work with groups to move them to other local hotels not involved in the labor dispute. The tactic was successful with the American Educational Research Assn., whose April 2006 meeting at the San Francisco Hilton — expected to draw 10,000 attendees and produce a $21 million economic impact — was accommodated at the San Francisco Marriott and Moscone Center.
Back in June, the group's governing council had voted to relocate the meeting. Still, Felice Levine, the association's executive director, stated in a letter to members, "We expect to hold a wonderful meeting in San Francisco in April."
A statement on the political scientists' Web site stated that, "the current and future labor disputes compromise the association's ability to do the advanced planning needed for the 2006 meeting. In addition, the prospect of disruptions during the meeting meant the association could not guarantee it would be able to deliver the quality meeting its members expect."
Another group, the Sierra Club, will stay in the city for its inaugural Sierra Summit in September by finding other housing for 1,000 room nights that were canceled.
Theis said as a non-political entity, the bureau doesn't take sides in labor disputes. But, he added, "We're no longer being bashful (about saying) that this is extremely frustrating."
