Chicago Hotel Strike Averted
By Rachel Wimberly -- Tradeshow Week, 9/18/2006
Show managers expect the usual worries before the start of a show, but a possible strike by 7,000 hotel employees in the host city would test even the heartiest of souls. Luckily, the biennial Intl. Manufacturing Technology Show, which expected almost 100,000 attendees at Chicago's McCormick Place Sept. 6–13, didn't have to face this worst-case scenario.
By the time the show kicked off, two major hotel chains, Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, had reached tentative agreements with hospitality workers union UNITE HERE Local 1. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide didn't have an agreement by press time, but IMTS seemed to be in the clear.
"I'm happy with the way it's gone," said Peter Eelman, IMTS show director. "There was certainly some trepidation, but also some optimism that everything was moving in a positive direction."
UNITE HERE represents more than 60 percent of the workers at Chicago's downtown and O'Hare Intl. Airport hotels. The strike would have affected 26 hotels with nearly 17,000 rooms, many of which were listed on the IMTS Web site as part of its room block.
Eelman said some members e-mailed him with their concerns when things had seemed uncertain, but he addressed all of them and kept in close contact with show committees throughout the process.
No one knows what the actual effect on a guest's stay would have been, but Eelman insisted that, if "guests needed to be relocated, they would have done it."
It's the third time in recent months, and the second time for IMTS in particular, that Chicago labor union activities have had an impact on the tradeshow industry.
In May, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, operator of McCormick Place, facilitated an agreement between the Riggers Union Local 136 and two of the venue's general service contractors (GES Exposition Services and Freeman). The agreement, which redefined work rules at the venue, was reached just before the start of the Natl. Restaurant Assn. Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show.
In August, just weeks before IMTS, ranked No. 3 on the 2005 Tradeshow Week 200, the contractors signed another agreement, this one with the United Steelworkers Local 17 Decorators Union. The agreement reduced overtime and crew sizes, but upped wages and benefits.
Before the new agreements were in place, Natl. Restaurant Assn. officials had considered moving the restaurant show, No. 29 on the 2006 TSW 200, out of Chicago, most likely to Las Vegas.
Eelman said the situation didn't turn out to be a doomsday scenario in either case, because "people here (in Chicago) understand that tradeshows are important. They put their nose to the grindstone and got to work," he added. "There were contingency plans in place. You have a disaster scenario for a lot of situations, like a strike, and we planned for them. I'm just glad we didn't have to use them."
But it was a close call.
Two weeks before the start of IMTS, more than 90 percent of Hilton and Hyatt workers had voted to strike. Hilton negotiated its tentative agreement just before the Aug. 31 deadline; Hyatt extended negotiations and finally reached a tentative agreement over the Labor Day weekend.
Starwood, which has five hotels in Chicago, was also expected to sign an agreement, along with 11 other hotels, that have "me-too" agreements, meaning they would go along with what Starwood negotiated.
Only Hilton's contract officially had been concluded by press time, but Lars Negstad, UNITE HERE's research director, said the Hyatt contract was expected to be completed and negotiations with Starwood were going well.
The three-year Hilton contract increases wages of non-tipped employees by $1.10 an hour in the first year and by $1.40 in the second and third years. Health benefits also increased, and limits were set on workload requirements for room attendants. Negstad said the Hyatt contract was "substantially the same as Hilton's," but he could not elaborate until it was finalized.
