After two years of determined struggle, San Francisco hotel workers achieved a significant labor victory over big hotel chains. Unite Here Local 2 reached a tentative agreement on a labor contract on Sept. 12. Union members approved the contract on Sept. 22.
 Labor Day immigrant rights march, San Francisco, Sept. 4. Photo: Bill Hackwell |
“We’re ecstatic,” said Local 2 union organizer Bruce Patterson. It is a “magnificent outcome.”
The tentative agreement granted nearly every single union demand and forced the Multi-Employer Group—the bargaining group that represents the management of 13 luxury hotels—to give up its most odious anti-worker demands. The agreement includes equal healthcare benefits for all employees, instead of the two-tier system sought by the MEG, and maintains the current, employer-paid health benefits, among other important things.
During the 2004 negotiations, the hotel owners had demanded that the workers—who earn around $12 per hour on average and make $10 co-payments for medical visits—start making monthly premium payments of $273. On wages, the MEG proposed an insulting increase of 20 cents an hour for un-tipped workers and 5 cents an hour for tipped workers.
Instead, the workers forced the MEG to grant a higher wage increase and prevented any increase in their co-pay. Non-tipped workers will receive an increase of $3 per hour over the term of the contract, as well as 60 cents for each hour worked between August 2004 and August 2006. Tipped workers will receive $1.50 per hour increase, plus 50 cents for all hours worked between August 2004 and August 2006.
The MEG was also pushing for a larger workload for already overextended room attendants. The room attendants had been forced to take on an increased workload when the tourism industry rebounded after the lull that followed Sept. 11, 2001. The labor required of the room attendants was taking a serious toll on their health. Some 91 percent had experienced workplace pain and 67 percent said the pain was so severe that they had sought medical treatment.
The large and heavy beds, now standard in most luxury hotels, have caused many workers to suffer back problems. Yet the MEG owners were demanding an even higher workload.
But the workers stopped that horrendous demand. Room attendants now have a reduced workload.
A long list of other union demands was met, including improved vision and dental plans and increased pension funds.
In a significant blow to the MEG’s anti-union program, the hotels agreed to allow card-check to determine whether or not workers at new hotels choose to be represented by Local 2. Card-check allows union recognition to take place without the time-consuming and bureaucratic National Labor Relations Board election process. The NLRB elections are inevitably accompanied by employer-sponsored anti-union campaigns. Threats and intimidation are routine in these elections. Card-check recognition gives workers the right to bargain without the election process if a majority of workers sign cards to join the union.
Following the announcement of the tentative agreement, Steve Trent, president of the MEG, issued a smarmy statement expressing the employers’ satisfaction with the results. “There is no better way to recognize our outstanding employees than with one of the best contracts in the industry,” said Trent.
He is right that it is one of the best contracts in the industry. But to claim that the hotels somehow wanted to “recognize” the workers with a decent labor contract is an outright lie. The hotel workers were forced to labor for two years without any contract at all.
Throughout the two-year struggle, the MEG was confident that it could force the union to submit to its anti-worker terms. But much to the MEG’s dismay, this never happened. The union pushed back the MEG’s demands and was able to make essential gains.
The keys to victory
The agreement left many asking how it was that Local 2 was able to accomplish this victory when labor around the country is under attack. There were several major factors that led to the victory.
 Mass civil disobedience on Sept. 28 in Los Angeles brings together hotel workers and immigrant rights activists. Photo: Travis Wilkerson |
For one thing, unlike manufacturing jobs such as in the auto industry, hotel maintenance and food service jobs cannot be off-shored or transferred to another city or country. The hotel capitalists have to do battle with the workforce they have, where they are. This greatly strengthens the power of the organized hotel workers.
An additional factor contributing to their victory was the strategy they employed. Local 2 was fighting for contract alignment. The MEG represents a pact of hotel conglomerates. Sixty percent of San Francisco hotels are owned by just five companies, and another 35 percent by other national or international companies. So a total of 95 percent of San Francisco hotels are owned by national or international chains employing hundreds of thousands of workers. These chains have hotels in many cities—some of which are unionized and many of which are not.
An important aim of Local 2 was to align its contract expiration date with those of Unite Here local unions in five other major cities: Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, Monterey, Calif. and Waikiki, Hawaii. That will increase the number of workers who would be challenging the big chains from about 4,000 to 80,000. It was this demand that began the dispute in fall 2004.
Both sides understood the importance of the alignment. Local 2 refused to compromise on this demand, and the MEG responded by refusing to negotiate at all unless the demand of contract alignment was taken off the table. Local 2’s leadership decided that if the hotel bosses would not negotiate any further on that demand, they would wait them out.
The union worked without a contract for two years, waiting for other Unite Here-MEG contracts to expire and then made its move. Local 2’s members overwhelmingly authorized a strike last August, around the same time as several other negotiations were taking place. This was too high a cost for the bosses, and they folded. Local 2’s contract is now synchronized with Chicago, Monterey, Montreal, Toronto and Waikiki.
A third key factor was the consciousness and organization of the workers. When the dispute began in the fall of 2004, union organizers and workers understood that to achieve their goals they would have to be prepared to fight the MEG, even if it meant years of intense struggle. Autumn is usually San Francisco’s most profitable convention season. Hotel rooms are booked in advance in blocks of thousands at a time.
But in the fall of 2004, the union called a two-week strike, which was followed by an employer lockout. During the lockout, the workers picketed around the clock. It would be weeks before they would qualify for health insurance and unemployment insurance. That strike showed their level of consciousness. They were willing to strike even when it was uncertain from where their livelihood would come.
When the employers refused to bargain in good faith, many organizations and politicians, including the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, joined the call for a boycott of the MEG hotels. Dozens of conventions canceled, even after the lockout ended, costing the hotels at least $52 million.
Another critical factor in the union’s victory was the broad and deep support that it was able to mobilize across the labor movement and from many communities and religious and political organizations. Hundreds of non-Local 2 union members joined picket lines, marches and civil disobedience actions in solidarity with the hotel workers.
A hard-won victory
Kelly Dugan, Local 2’s community organizer said, “I see this as a huge victory for all of San Francisco.”
Dugan told Socialism and Liberation, “We and many other unions are in similar situations. Hotels have now become global corporations. So, we realized that we can’t bargain with them on a local basis. We decided to create a strategy that would line up contracts to expire at about the same time. This would leverage our power. The hotels saw the power in this and they made a business decision that it would cost too much if the workers called a boycott or a strike, or if they called a coordinated action.”
Dugan praised the Unite Here membership’s incredible resolve. “It has taken a long time. Over many years of organizing, our members have been through struggle after struggle. The workers understand that the hotels don’t just give things away. Hotel workers have health care and pensions because they fought for them, and they’ve been willing to do what it takes to get what they need.”
While engaged in intense negotiations with the MEG, Local 2 came out in force for the Labor Day immigrant rights march in San Francisco, marking an important step to tie the organized labor movement to the struggle for immigrant rights. Dugan noted, “Ninety percent of our workers are immigrants, so it was an issue that was important to us.”
On March 18, the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, an anti-war march of 25,000 people marched to the Hilton, one of the MEG hotels, in solidarity with Local 2. The ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) organized the march. As the protest passed by, union organizers and workers—inside and outside the hotel—held a spirited demonstration.
The Local 2 victory in San Francisco comes amidst a wave of hotel worker advances.
On Sept. 9, the members of Chicago’s Unite Here local ratified a three-year contract between the union and Hilton. The contract included wage increases, reduced workloads, improved vision and dental plans, increased pay for workers on disability leave, and card-check neutrality.
In Monterey on Sept. 14, Unite Here, Local 483 agreed to a four-year contract with similar terms. The contract’s wage increase is the largest annual pay raise in Local 483’s history.
Also on Sept. 14, San Jose Doubletree hotel workers voted to form a union.
The San Francisco hotel workers have shown that a prolonged, militant struggle still can defeat the mega-rich, capitalist bosses. Their fight has made clear that, even as unions are under attack, workers can take collective action to maintain existing contract benefits and achieve major gains.
