777 global mile hound
Mar 18, 06, 8:14 pm
The country's largest hotel union has targeted the Hilton Hotels Corp. for what could be the first-ever nationwide hotel strike this summer.
"We've decided to isolate Hilton because they are the most recalcitrant and belligerent employer in the industry," said Peter Ward, president of the New York Hotel Trades Council.
A major labor battle is not good news for this city's hotel owners, who enjoyed sky-high room prices and record occupancy rates in 2005.
And it's certainly not good news for Hilton, which currently owns the two biggest hotels in town, the New York Hilton and the Waldorf-Astoria, and manages four others, the Times Square and Millenium Hiltons, the Embassy Suites and the Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square.
Labor agreements with the city's 25,000 hotel workers expire July 1. But bargaining starts later this month, and Ward has already made it clear to the hotel owners association that he will insist on two separate sets of talks - one with Hilton and one with everybody else.
And New York is not the only place the Hilton chain is facing the isolation treatment.
Other locals of UNITE-HERE, the national hotel workers union, are pursuing the same strategy in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Boston, Chicago and Washington.
For the first time in its history, the national union has timed its contracts so they all expire within a few months of each other, starting with Los Angeles in April.
That means the union will be in a position to exert maximum pressure on the entire industry - with multiple walkouts, if necessary, leaders say - by early summer.
New York is the key to the strategy because it has the biggest number of union members and the best-paid ones in the industry.
Ward, meanwhile, has made meticulous preparations for what is shaping up to be mother of all hotel battles.
In 2004, he persuaded his membership to overwhelmingly approve a special $10-per-week dues checkoff to create a giant strike fund. The fund has amassed $20 million and is expected to top $25 million by July.
"We've decided to isolate Hilton because they are the most recalcitrant and belligerent employer in the industry," said Peter Ward, president of the New York Hotel Trades Council.
A major labor battle is not good news for this city's hotel owners, who enjoyed sky-high room prices and record occupancy rates in 2005.
And it's certainly not good news for Hilton, which currently owns the two biggest hotels in town, the New York Hilton and the Waldorf-Astoria, and manages four others, the Times Square and Millenium Hiltons, the Embassy Suites and the Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square.
Labor agreements with the city's 25,000 hotel workers expire July 1. But bargaining starts later this month, and Ward has already made it clear to the hotel owners association that he will insist on two separate sets of talks - one with Hilton and one with everybody else.
And New York is not the only place the Hilton chain is facing the isolation treatment.
Other locals of UNITE-HERE, the national hotel workers union, are pursuing the same strategy in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Boston, Chicago and Washington.
For the first time in its history, the national union has timed its contracts so they all expire within a few months of each other, starting with Los Angeles in April.
That means the union will be in a position to exert maximum pressure on the entire industry - with multiple walkouts, if necessary, leaders say - by early summer.
New York is the key to the strategy because it has the biggest number of union members and the best-paid ones in the industry.
Ward, meanwhile, has made meticulous preparations for what is shaping up to be mother of all hotel battles.
In 2004, he persuaded his membership to overwhelmingly approve a special $10-per-week dues checkoff to create a giant strike fund. The fund has amassed $20 million and is expected to top $25 million by July.