On May 9 the members of Local 510 ratified a new contract and declared victory.
Most of the 1000 members of this union work in the convention service industry as installers. Local 510 has contracts with over 50 employers and worksites all over the San Francisco Bay Area, and Monterey.
Conventions and trade shows are an essential component of the tourism industry, which according to the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, generated $7.3 billion—that is $20.2 million a day—in 2005.
After an alliance of employers hired the infamous union-busting firm Littler Mendelson, Local 510 committed itself to fight the attempt to weaken or destroy the union. On March 14, union members authorized their negotiating team to call a strike if necessary. The workers organized and prepared for a strike or lock out.
The union also gathered support from other unions and grassroots community organizations. Local 510 gained the support of Local 2 Hotel and Restaurant Employees, Teamster Joint Council 7, the Building Trades Councils, and all of the Labor Councils of the Bay Area and Monterey. Local 510 is affiliated with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 36, which also provided backing.
With the contract set to expire March 31, the employers put an outrageous proposal on the table on March 26. They called for sweeping changes in the established rules of hiring and overtime pay. Had the employers got their way the unions hiring hall and dispatch system would have been virtually destroyed.
Publicly the employers said they were offering a raise of 75-cents per hour. But their proposed changes in overtime rules would have resulted in a pay cut of about a third, and would have made the work hours more irregular, unpredictable, stressful and exhausting—and thereby the work more dangerous.
The union prepared its members for the picket line in the event of a lockout or strike. Organizers carried out informative mobilizing events and orientations at worksites during breaks and before shifts. The union provided food and beverages so workers could join together on lunch breaks. Hundreds of workers gathered for large meetings near Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.
The union produced t-shirts with the union logo, which read, “Live better. Work union,” and buttons which read, “510 UNION POWER.” The workers began to wear the shirts and buttons on the job. Meanwhile, the union’s frequently updated website, www.local510.org, was a great source of information for community members and union members, providing contract updates as well as information about union busting, and the verses of “Solidarity Forever.” The rank-and-file newsletter “The Wing Nut” circulated around work sites, with articles on the lessons of the union’s 1981 strike and agitating for the current struggle.
Ann Worth, Local 510 President, told pslweb.org, “The veterans of the 1981 Strike reached out to the newer members, took what we already knew and developed it further than it had ever been done before. If we had to go on strike, we were ready.”
Local 510 endorsed and supported community and political events to bring awareness to their struggle. Local 510 contingents marched with their banners in both the March 17 St. Patricks Day Parade alongside a contingent of mostly immigrant hotel workers, an immigrants rights contingent and the Irish against the War. The following day, on March 18, they marched in the mass anti-war march in San Francisco, initiated by the ANSWER Coalition.
Just before the March 31 contract expiration date, the bosses agreed to a one-month extension of the contract to prolong negotiations. After one-and-a-half days of negotiations in mid-April, the bosses walked out. They scheduled further negotiations for April 30 and May 1, setting up a negotiating showdown on the day of the contract’s expiration.
The workers continued to organize. On April 30 the union encouraged members to join in the May 1 immigrant rights marches on international workers day. That night Local 510 fully mobilized and hundreds of workers prepared to picket in the morning.
On the night of May 2—the move in day for two big conventions at Moscone Center—the bosses crumbled, and withdrew their egregious demands. The negotiators reached a tentative agreement, which the union’s leaders immediately announced to the members.
The union mailed out the details to all the members: no changes in the hiring or overtime rules, no give-backs, and a significant increase in the wage and benefit package spread over the three year contract. For all the big bucks the big companies paid Littler Mendelson to break the union, they got nothing.
“Often a contract is judged by what was gained, but with this contract it’s also important to look at what didn’t get added or changed,” John Kyle, Local 510 member and webmaster, told pslweb.org. “The challenge that Local 510 faced was not only to secure a better deal, but also to resist any erosion of what we’ve built over the years,” Kyle continued. “Our employers brought a series of proposals to make their operations more ‘efficient.’ They wanted to lower their cost of doing business; and they brought the muscle—the law firm of Littler Mendelson—to make that happen.”
At a May 9 union meeting, hundreds of Local 510 members discussed the contract, their struggle for it, and voted in favor of ratification. Members congratulated each other and joked about their only concession: to not wear tank tops at work.
What factors contributed to this victory?
First, the convention industry is a service sector industry. This means that unlike in manufacturing or telecommunications, the corporations cannot threaten to pick up their operation, and transport it to an oppressed country where they can pay cheaper wages.
Second, because of the importance of the conventions and related tourism in San Francisco’s overall economy, Mayor Newsom and the city government, expressed concerned that a lock out or strike might scare the trade show associations away to other cities. Possibly City Hall viewed the employers as going too far with their union busting demands and tactics, thus jeopardizing the tourism industry.
Third, organized labor throughout the region became outraged over the bosses’ hiring of union busting firm Littler Mendelson, and expressed tremendous solidarity to Local 510 throughout the struggle. All the workers in the convention industry, the hotel and restaurant workers, the teamsters who handle the freights, the electricians, the stagehands and others committed themselves to stand with Local 510.
The bosses knew that support for the union ran broad and deep. Picket team leader Jeff Bruton put it simply: “Solidarity equals victory—boom!”
Fourth, the union membership and leadership showed confidence. Many Local 510 members had engaged in strike support for the Local 2 hotel workers and drew from this valuable experience in their own struggle. Union leaders made clear the need to prepare for a strike or lockout from the beginning, and kept members informed throughout the negotiations. Unity, strength, solidarity and organization became the watchwords of the local.
At the end of the day, John Kyle explained, “It was the membership, the rank and file, the individual workers who all stood ready and willing to strike, that’s who made this contract happen.”
