Industry Plans for Contract Expirations

Hotel workers' contracts have already expired in Toronto and Cincinnati. But before tradeshow organizers and meeting planners can breathe a sigh of relief, they must still weather expirations in 10 other cities before the end of 2006.

Industry veterans say never before have so many hotel contracts expired in one year. But it's no accident. Hotel workers union Unite Here has been trying to line up expirations to increase its negotiating leverage with national hotel chains.

Groups representing meeting and tradeshow planners stress that they don't want to take sides between hotel workers and management. But at the same time, they don't want to see labor strife disrupt meetings planned years in advance.

"I think everybody is concerned," said Leigh Wintz, chairwoman of the Professional Convention Management Assn. "None of us want to see any stoppage."

Hoteliers in cities where contracts will expire have reportedly started meeting to come up with contingency plans. And the American Hotel & Lodging Assn. has worked hard to keep communication lines open with groups like PCMA, the Convention Industry Council and the American Society of Assn. Executives & the Center.

"We are committed to providing the service levels if, God forbid, anything should happen in a given city," said Joseph McInerney, AHLA president and CEO. "We just want to make sure everybody understands the issues and is on the same page."

Unite Here last month kicked off a series of rallies in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston as part of a campaign called Hotel Workers Rising! Designed to draw attention to workers' push for improved wages, benefits and working conditions, the rallies featured U.S. Sen. John Edwards and actor Danny Glover.

"The goal of the campaign is to improve conditions for hotel workers and create an expectation that these are good jobs that can support a family," said Amanda Cooper, a Unite Here spokeswoman, adding that contracts will expire this year for 60,000 workers in 400 hotels.

McInerney said a national contract would be unworkable due to wage and cost-of-living differences in various cities. But Cooper said the union isn't seeking a national contract, rather, national bargaining power. Among the hotel housekeepers' complaints are large, unwieldy beds that strain backs and take longer to make up.

John Graham, president and CEO of ASAE & the Center, said members are worried. But cities where contracts are due to expire should be worried too. "There's certainly a heightened level of anxiety in the community, both with the union and the hotels. That's coming to a head. The unfortunate part about it for the hotels and the cities is, if people have a bad experience in that city, they are probably unlikely to go back to that city."

Industry members have San Francisco's four-week hotel strike and resulting lockout last year to draw on for clues to what might happen if disputes break out in other cities this year. In San Francisco, groups with pro-union memberships quickly canceled, while meetings went on for groups whose members didn't mind crossing a picket line. In some instances, hotel chains transferred meetings to properties in other cities. And in others, meetings were canceled or relocated to neighboring cities.

The American Anthropological Assn. ended up moving two of its 5,000-attendee annual meetings, the first to Atlanta and the second to neighboring San Jose, Calif. As of late last year, the long-running dispute had cost San Francisco eight meetings that together would have drawn 43,300 attendees and generated a $49.7 million economic impact.

Although 4,000 unionized workers in 14 San Francisco hotels remain without a contract, the wave of meeting cancellations has apparently stopped. "It's not something that's being brought up in negotiations lately," said Lysa Lewin, director of convention sales for the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Wintz, for one, just booked Soroptimist Intl. of the Americas' 2010 meeting in San Francisco. "I'm certainly aware of the ramifications. In this particular case, I'm dealing with a big convention hotel and I've done a meeting with them before. I have confidence that we will all muddle through," she said.

Graham said ASAE & the Center is urging members to honor their hotel contracts, no matter what. Still, he doesn't want to see meeting planners caught in the crossfire.

"We really hope that the hotels and the unions will recognize that at the end of the day the people who are conducting and attending the meetings are negatively impacted by whatever disruptions occur, be they disruptions in service or picketing," he said.

Graham added that planners might be able to relocate smaller meetings in the event of a strike, but would have a tough time finding new homes for meetings that draw thousands of attendees.

Wintz pointed out that labor disputes won't only hurt meeting planners, but attendees, audiovisual providers and other service providers too. PCMA has been using its Web site to advise and update members about the situation.

Although planners signed most contracts for this year's events years ago, PCMA suggests that they protect future meetings by including labor disputes in contract cancellation clauses or requiring minimum service levels and noise limits in the event of a labor dispute. Planners should also know if their group's members will attend a meeting held at a hotel where there is a labor dispute, and if their hotel can be counted on to find an alternate date in the event of a labor problem.