Hotel workers vote on strike

By Ben Fox
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Housekeepers, bellmen and other workers at nine prominent hotels in Los Angeles cast ballots yesterday on whether to authorize a strike to pressure their employers into signing a contract that could significantly boost union clout.

The nearly 3,000 workers were expected to vote in favor of a strike, but no date has been set for a walkout. The results were expected to be released today.

Besides the usual issues of wages, benefits and work load, the key demand of the union is a contract that would expire at the same time as those for hotel workers in six cities and Hawai'i — an expiration that employees said would give them more leverage at bargaining time.

"That would level the playing field," said Donald Wilson, a banquet chef and shop steward at the Century Plaza. "Our goal is to get into the middle class, to break in."

A test of the multi-city bargaining clout will emerge as hotel workers cast strike-authorization votes in other major cities. Other locals also are seeking a contract that expires in April 2006, though the agreements are separate and details vary.

Yesterday, about 94 percent of 2,100 workers in Washington voted to strike, said John Boardman, executive secretary and treasurer for the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C.

In San Francisco, about 4,000 hotel workers are expected to vote today in favor of authorizing a strike, said union spokeswoman Valerie Lapin.

Hotel operators in Los Angeles have been in testy negotiations with the union, Unite Here Local 11, for months and oppose a contract that would require them to start over so soon.

"We don't want to do this again in 18 months," because of the expense and difficulty of the negotiations, said Fred Muir, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Hotel Employers Council.

The hotels — which also include the Wilshire Grand Hotel, the Millennium Biltmore, the Sheraton Universal and Regent Beverly Wilshire — are prepared to operate if there is a strike, Muir said.

Union members, meanwhile, will get $200 a week in picket pay if there's a strike, said Local 11 President Maria Elena Durazo.

"There's too much at stake for them to lose and they see how much money these hotels make, how much they charge for rooms, how much they charge for meals," Durazo said.

The council's spokesman said the hotels have offered a "really good" five-year package that includes raises in each year, free healthcare and an increase in pension benefits, but housekeepers, who earn $11 an hour, and other union members say they barely make enough to survive on their wages and need bigger increases.