“The
hotel that is a work of art in itself.” On
a sunny Thursday afternoon, the Marriott Hotel on 4th
Street is quiet. Visitors come and go, often unaware of the turmoil
that has surrounded this site for the past five years.
But on the weekend of June 15-16, the joint was
jumping, as a noisy picket line greeted often-astonished guests. The
focus of the demonstration was the annual meeting of the American
Library Association. The reason for the demonstration was a lot of
unfinished business between the hotel and the Hotel Employees and
Restaurant Employees Union, Local 2. In today’s euphemistic
parlance, they’ve got issues.
Yes, that’s right. Even though it hasn’t made
the news recently, the disagreement between the union and the hotel
is still unresolved. It’s rapidly becoming the Harold Stassen of
labor disputes.
It all started back in 1980, when the
Redevelopment Agency was once again spiffing up the area south of
Market and the Marriott proposed the construction of a downtown
hotel. After much wrangling, the hotel signed a “card check”
agreement, in effect promising not to oppose efforts to organize its
employees into a union. In 1989 the glass-and-chrome giant jukebox
shape joined San Francisco’s skyline, but from the getgo the hotel
tried to renege on its initial promise, which it said was obtained
“under duress.” In 1996 most of the 1,100 employees voted Local
2 their representative.
Contract negotiations began in November 1996 —
that’s five years ago. The two sides are still at it. In November
1998, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney was arrested along with 150
other civilly disobedient demonstrators. In September 2000 Our Mayor
addressed the picketers, calling for a boycott, “I hope management
comes to its senses and gives you a union contract. Until they do, I
or anyone else will not set foot into the Marriott!”
But the union and the hotel still can’t agree on
a contract. Over the years, the tactics and countertactics have
escalated. The union presented the National Labor Relations Board
with a “consolidated” complaint, charging that the hotel engaged
in some 100 “unfair labor practices.” These include, among a
host of other fun activities, creating an impression among employees
“that their union activities were under surveillance”;
prohibiting employees “from distributing pro-union leaflets at the
door into the Bistro 3 employee cafeteria, while permitting the
distribution of anti-union leaflets at the same location”;
threatening employees “with discipline for talking to other
employees about the union”; and telling certain employees that
they would not receive a withheld wage increase “until the union
goes away.”
Meanwhile, the union has put together a website
to “inform potential customers that the San Francisco Marriott
Hotel is involved in a 5-year labor dispute, and a boycott of the
hotel has been underway since September 2000. Because hotel
accommodations can make or break travel and meeting arrangements, it
is crucial that you know that this fight, and specifically the
boycott, has been extremely
disruptive for the hotel’s guests.” For those who
doubt, the boldfaced link offers vivid videotaped evidence of the
disruption.
And the librarians? A number of them took one look
at the chanting marchers outside the entrance to the hotel and
joined the picket line.
B.C.
