September 2, 2010

The Hotel Council of San Francisco  today announced its disappointment in UNITE HERE Local 2’s continued attempts to discourage business from coming to San Francisco to the detriment of its members and the economic recovery of San Francisco.

UNITE HERE Local 2, the labor union representing hotel workers, has dispensed a year of counter-productive activities after its members’ contracts ended in August 2009. Instead of focusing attention on talks at the bargaining table with hotel management to negotiate fair contracts, union leadership has organized protests and strikes that have cost San Francisco millions in lost business. This week, the group has planned two additional protests at the San Francisco Hyatt Regency and Burlingame Regency Hotel on Thursday, September 2.

“San Francisco hotels continue to encourage Local 2 leadership to come to the negotiating table, instead of wasting their members’ precious time at the picket line,” said Patricia Breslin, Executive Director of the Hotel Council of San Francisco. “These illogical protests work against the common objective of finalizing contracts for hotel workers and getting San Francisco out of this economic slowdown.”

Local 2’s leaders have issued calls for convention planners to boycott San Francisco , to cancel their plans to hold large events here, and to prevent the planning of future events. Because major conventions need to plan a year or more in advance – and usually alternate their location between East and West coasts – this boycott could have the effect of costing San Francisco three or four years’ worth of convention business.

“No one can afford more hotel protests – not our employees, our guests, our industry, or our City” continued Breslin.

According to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, 10 conventions and meetings have either canceled or opted not to come to San Francisco this year, citing labor issues as one of the reasons. This loss of events has cost the City more than $8 million in hotel rooms, transportation, retail sales and visitor attractions.

When visitors come to San Francisco, only 30 cents of every tourism dollar is spent in hotels; the other 70 cents supports taxi drivers, servers at restaurants and bars, tour guides, and unionized convention center workers.

The actions orchestrated by Local 2’s leaders have been costly to thousands of San Francisco workers in the tourism industry and they have been a direct drain on the city’s already depleted coffers.

”Now is the time for productive contract talks for the benefit of all parties involved.” Breslin concluded.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Sam Singer
Office: 415.227.9700
Cell:415.336.4949
Email: singer@singersf.com

San Francisco (Aug 25, 2010)—This month marks the first anniversary of the effort by San Francisco’s hotels to get a new contract with the union that represents employees, UNITE HERE Local 2.  The hotels have been unsuccessful because the union is more interested in protesting than negotiating.

This week, instead of trying to solve the contract dispute, Local 2 has scheduled a two-day protest at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, 333 O’Farrell St., on Wednesday Aug. 25 and Thursday Aug. 26.

“San Francisco hotels want their employees on the job, not on the picket lines,” said Patricia Breslin, Executive Director of the Hotel Council of San Francisco. “Our association encourages productive contract talks for the benefit of all parties. The 2-day protests orchestrated by Local 2 have not significantly impacted hotel operations, but what union leaders are doing is harmful to San Francisco’s economy, tourism and international reputation.”

The Hotel Council called upon Local 2 to “end its destructive practice of calling rolling protests at hotels and focus on talks at the negotiation table for the benefit of their members and the city’s hospitality industry.”

Local 2 represents employees in unionized hotels around the City, whose contracts expired Aug. 14, 2009. Since then, the union has engaged in a campaign to undermine the tourism industry in San Francisco, the city’s largest single industry.

“A contract should have been reached by now if Local 2’s leaders truly had been interested in coming to the bargaining table and willing to negotiate,” Breslin said.  “Instead, they have put the livelihood of tens of thousands of workers at risk–including their own members.”

Instead of trying to negotiate a new contract, Local has staged countless walkouts and pickets on the grounds that there was “no progress” in reaching a contract they are unwilling to negotiate.

Local 2’s leaders have issued calls for convention planners to boycott San Francisco, to cancel their plans to hold large events here, and to prevent the planning of future events. Because major conventions need to plan a year or more in advance – and usually alternate their location between East and West coasts – this boycott could have the effect of costing San Francisco three or four years’ worth of convention business.

“Fortunately, Local 2 has largely been unsuccessful in turning business away from San Francisco,” Breslin said. “But their actions are indicative that they will gladly harm the City of San Francisco and every business in it.”

Breslin pointed out that business at hotels represents just 30 cents of every tourism dollar spent in San Francisco. The other 70 cents support taxi drivers, servers at restaurants and bars, tour guides, and unionized convention center workers.

The actions orchestrated by Local 2’s leaders have been costly to tens of thousands of San Francisco workers in the tourism industry and they have been a direct drain on the city’s already depleted coffers.

Every time a convention goes to another city instead of coming to S.F., the hotel tax as well as sales taxes and fees paid for the use of city convention facilities like Moscone Center are lost.

Then there is also the immense cost to the city to provide public safety services around Local 2’s staged media events.

In just the most recent action, Local 2 arranged for about 900 protesters to block all access to Stockton Street and the area around Union Square, at the height of rush hour. The event was so highly staged that the union had negotiated with the police well in advance to decide how many of these “protesters” would be arrested, booked and processed. More than 100 officers were required to handle the event, officers who were either pulled from other duties or paid overtime wages to deal with this event.

“When any other group stages an event – whether it is the San Francisco Marathon or an anti-war march – the organizers must pay the city for the cost of those police services. Yet, incredibly, Local 2 was able to disrupt the city in such a staged manner without being made to pay more than a permit fee.  All the cost was borne by taxpayers – including the very tourism industry workers whose livelihoods are threatened by these shenanigans,” Breslin said.

It has become clear in the past year that securing a fair contract for its members is the last priority for Local 2’s leadership. Everything they have done is for a different agenda, one that may help the political standing of Local 2’s leaders within their national organization but does incredible harm to their San Francisco members and the economy upon which they and their families depend.

Breslin said Local 2 and its leadership should be “held accountable by everyone in the City, as well as its own members. It’s high time for Local 2 to negotiate a contract, and work to restore the vital industry they have tried so hard to destroy.”