Strike authorization vote set for some hotel workers
(Crain's) — With contract talks dragging on, the union that represents city hotel workers plans a strike authorization vote next week for employees at four downtown hotels, including the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers.
Negotiators for the hotels and Unite Here Local 1 have yet to agree on new contracts to replace pacts that expired Aug. 31. Health care has emerged as a major sticking point, with the union objecting to hotel proposals to reduce medical benefits and tighten eligibility rules for workers who receive them.
"We feel like they're using the economy as an excuse to take away people's health benefits," says a spokeswoman for Local 1, which represents about 6,000 workers at downtown hotels.
Local 1 will hold a vote Oct. 27 and 28 to authorize union leaders to call a strike. Such votes are often held during contract talks to put pressure on management to reach a deal, but a strike doesn't automatically follow a positive vote.
Though employees at all major downtown hotels have been working without a contract since Aug. 31, the union is holding the vote only for its 1,000 or so members who work at four hotels run by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. Local 1 negotiates separate labor contracts with each hotel chain, but the pacts tend to share many elements.
The Starwood hotels are the 1,209-room Sheraton, at 301 E. Water St.; the 752-room Westin Michigan Avenue, at 909 N. Michigan Ave.; the W Chicago-Lakeshore, a 520-room hotel at 644 N. Lake Shore Drive, and the W Chicago-City Center, a 368-room hotel at 172 W. Adams St.
"We continue to work with the union to reach an agreement," Jim Franczek, chief negotiator for Starwood, says in a statement. "We want a new contract that works for both parties, and that's what we are trying diligently to conclude."
The White Plains, N.Y.-based company declines to discuss its contract proposals.
A negotiator for about a dozen other downtown hotels says he's "not surprised" by the union's decision to hold a strike vote.
"They normally would hold a strike vote during negotiations just to speed things up," says Arnold Karr, chief operating officer of the Hotel Employers Labor Relations Assn.
Aside from the continuing six-year contract dispute at the Congress Plaza Hotel, the Unite Here spokeswoman says she isn't aware of any other strikes that have involved downtown hotels.
Mr. Karr, who has negotiated downtown hotel contracts for about three decades, says the current talks have lasted longer than any he's been involved with in the past.
"It's a slow pace because of the economic environment," he says. "I wouldn't say a contract was imminent, but we're moving along."
Mr. Karr argues that hotel employees already have more generous health care benefits than most U.S. workers. The hotels aren't asking workers to make major sacrifices, but the hotels want to make "adjustments" to current medical benefits to help bring rising medical costs under control, he says.
Though Local 1 negotiated big wage increases for its members back in 2006, when the economy was strong, hotels are struggling today, making it harder for the union to argue its case.
But the Local 1 spokeswoman contends that the industry is expected to bounce back faster than the hotels will admit, undermining their claim that they need to continue to cut costs.
Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Arnold Karr of the Hotel Employers Labor Relations Assn. represents non-Starwood hotels. A comment from a Starwood representative has also been included.
