7 L.A. hotels, workers reach tentative accord

By Alex Veiga
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Workers engaged in a 14-month labor contract dispute reached a tentative agreement yesterday with seven hotels, averting a planned lockout, city and union officials announced.

The deal was struck minutes before the lockout was to begin at 5 a.m., said Maria Elena Durazo, president of Unite Here Local 11, the union that represents 2,500 employees of the seven hotels.

About 120 employees at one of the seven hotels went on strike Thursday, hours before the contract had been set to expire.

The strike prompted a vote by operators to lock out employees at all the hotels.

Striking workers included bellmen and desk workers at the Hyatt hotel on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, known as the "Rock and Roll Hotel" for its high-profile music bookings and glitzy location.

The union and the hotels have been trying to negotiate a new contract on and off since June 2004, when the employees' last contract expired. They disagreed on a key issue — the length of the new pact.

Employees sought a deal that would align their next contract's expiration date with the 2006 end of agreements for workers at several other regional hotels. The tactic was seen as a way to gain leverage in future contract talks.

The tentative contract would expire in November 2006, Durazo said.

She said the new contract also would include health insurance, a 65-cent hourly wage hike for nontip workers, and permission for workers to use sick hours to tend to family matters.

Hourly wages also would be doubled for tipped workers on vacation, Durazo said.

The contract must still be ratified by union members, who are scheduled to vote on the deal today.