Los Angeles: Labor Protests Hurt Conscious Life Expo

Rachel Wimberly -- Tradeshow Week, 4/9/2007

No tradeshow held in a hotel is immune to the potential labor protest. Just ask Stephen McCrory, spokesman for the Conscious Life Expo, held Feb. 9–12 at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport.

McCrory said, however, things would have gone much more smoothly for the spiritually-focused exhibition if its managers could have been better prepared.

The first clue he had that something was up, he said, was when speakers told him that officials of UNITE HERE Local 11, a Los Angeles union that supports hotel workers' rights, were calling to ask the speakers not to participate in the event.

"(The union) was phoning all the speakers," McCrory said. "We had Dennis Kucinich (a U.S. congressman and potential Democratic presidential candidate from Ohio) pull out because of it. We just said (to the union), 'Look, this has nothing to do with us. We can't pull out of our contracts and just go to another hotel.'"

McCrory said Conscious Life Expo had been held at the Hilton L.A. Airport for the previous 10 years. The picket line that was eventually erected outside the hotel during the show was the most recent in a series of labor actions involving hotels near the Los Angeles Intl. Airport over the last year.

"The hotel wasn't completely honest," McCrory added. "We signed the contract before we knew there was a protest. It was a little bit painful, but we had to try and work through it."

Attendees found their way into the event, but they had to cross a picket line on the sidewalk in front of the hotel with protestors waving signs and shouting through bullhorns, "If you have a conscience, don't go to the Conscious Life Expo."

McCrory said the attendance of approximately 10,000 was down appreciably from previous years.

"I felt (the protest) was very aggressive," he added. "We had a few people who bought tickets beforehand and wanted their money back."

Paulina Gonzalez, spokesperson for UNITE HERE, said the tradeshow was targeted because union officials know how lucrative such events are to the hotel.

"(Tradeshows) bring in a lot of money, so it sends a message to the hotel," she said. "We would protest really against any client that comes into the hotel."

The issue of unionizing workers at hotels near the L.A. airport has been a sensitive local issue for much of the last year. The Los Angeles City Council at one point voted to raise the minimum wage for workers at only the hotels (but not at those in other parts of the city), a move the council rescinded when hoteliers threatened to take the issue to voters.

Gonzalez said protests at the hotels have been provoked by hotels threatening workers who have tried to organize themselves into unions.

"Workers were subjected to meetings (by the hotel) with anti-union consultants and told why the union is bad," she added.

According to Alan Tate, director of sales and marketing at the Hilton, UNITE HERE uses "strong-arm" tactics. He said a majority of the employees at the hotel aren't interested in unionizing, with only 30 out of a workforce of 700 favoring union representation.

"They have the right to vote to be in a union, and they're trying to make them be in a union," Tate said.

Gonzalez refused to say how many workers had told the union they wanted to organize. She said an authorization vote would be useless at this point because the hotel would likely tie the process up in the courts for as long as 6 years.

Tate said the hotel offers higher wages and benefits than any other hotel on Century Boulevard, the main corridor leading to the Los Angeles Airport.

"We're not going to unionize," he added.

Tate also disputed Conscious Life Expo's statement that show organizers knew nothing about the impending protests.

"They knew about the situation," Tate said. "They have been here for 10 years."

At the end of the day, the show still went on. McCrory said he even offered the union a forum at the show to speak about its issues, an offer that was rejected.

"(The union) has their job to do and we have ours," he added. "They didn't want to work with us."