Hotel strike threatened at Disney World

By Mike Schneider
Associated Press

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Workers at two Walt Disney World hotels voted unanimously yesterday to strike if hotel management doesn't resume negotiations on a new contract.

A strike would be the first in years in Orlando's tourism industry.

Teamsters-affiliated housekeepers, laundry workers, seamstresses and public area attendants at the Swan and Dolphin hotels voted to strike after rejecting a three-year contract offer, which covers more than 400 of the hotels' 2,000 workers.

Although the hotels are on Disney property, they are owned by Tishman Hotel Corp. and managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.

Donna-Lynne Dalton, recording secretary for Teamsters Local 385, said the vote doesn't mean there will be a strike, but the union's leaders could call one if management refuses to return to the bargaining table.

Treva Marshall, a hotel representative, said management was disappointed by the vote, but has no intention of revising its last offer:

"We believe the proposal was fare and competitive. At this point we are standing by our proposal and haven't planned any other measures."

The sticking points have little to do with wages and more to do with how managers treat workers at the Swan and Dolphin hotels, Dalton said. Employees are demanding a guaranteed 40-hour workweek and job assignments based on seniority, Dalton said.

The threat of the strike comes as the theme park resort only now is beginning to recover from the tourism slowdown following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Strikes in Orlando's tourism industry are rare. In the past decade, there have been only two that area labor leaders can recall: a musicians' strike at Walt Disney World and one by hotel workers at the Grosvenor Resort near Walt Disney World.

In addition, hundreds of hotel workers were laid off last year during the tourism slowdown and many won't hesitate to cross a picket line.

"Orlando isn't what you consider a real union-friendly town," said Margie Engels, president of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union Local 737.