Hotels brace for possible labor unrest

By Paritosh Bansal

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hotel companies are preparing for possible labor unrest in 2006 as contracts expire in major North American cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

An executive at the Reuters Hotels and Casinos Summit held in Los Angeles said the Unite Here union's bid to grow and increase its influence is likely to be the most contentious issue, eclipsing arguments over wages and benefits.

Unite Here, formed by the merger of two unions in 2004, says more than 200 hotels are affected in seven markets.

"Clearly there is a lot of activity about to get under way," Marriott International Inc. (MAR.N) Chief Financial Officer Arne Sorenson told Reuters.

A contract in Toronto has already ended. New York, with 105 hotels affected, and Hawaii, see contracts expire in June.

The contract in Chicago ends in August, while those in Boston and Los Angeles expire in November. San Francisco has been without a contract for more than a year, spurring periodic clashes between workers and the hotels.

Former Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and actor Danny Glover are due on Wednesday to help launch in San Francisco a national "Hotel Workers Rising" campaign to promote the need for union representation of hotel workers.

UNION ORGANIZING

The union is looking for better wages and benefits for employees. But the sticking points are likely to revolve around its desire to simplify the process used to organize hotels and deal with companies more at a national level.

The current unionization process doesn't work, said John Wilhelm, head of the Unite Here union's hospitality division.

The union wants to poll workers individually, and a hotel would unionize if a simple majority supported it. Employers prefer the current system using secret ballots.

"We want them to be compensated well," said Marriott's Sorenson. "We have absolutely no resistance or hesitation about their ability to choose in the ballot box."

Hilton Hotels Corp. HLT.N Chief Operating Officer Matthew Hart told the summit: "The issue really isn't about conditions for the worker; it's how to expand the influence of the union."

The contract at 14 hotels in San Francisco expired in September 2004. The two sides have yet to hammer out a new deal amid an acrimonious battle that has seen workers go on strike, and then get locked out.

"Strikes are always a possibility," said Unite Here's Wilhelm. "But we are not a strike-happy union. I look at strikes as a failure."