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2004 was a tumultuous year for labor relations in the Hospitality Industry, particularly in the hotel sector, with H.E.R.E.-U.N.I.T.E. squaring off against multi-employer groups in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlantic City. Most published reports cite the rising cost of health insurance as the principal issue in dispute, but that is misleading. The question of how much, if any, of the rising cost of insurance should be paid by employees, is certainly an issue for the industry, but it is the union's insistence on having all major contracts expire at or about the same date in 2006 that has led to the impasse in bargaining.
Whether the 2006 expiration date issue is as important to the union as it claims, remains to be seen. There have been some contract settlements in recent months that have not incorporated the 2006 expiration date and it is possible that the issue was created by the union as a bargaining chip to be traded away for employer concessions on the health insurance issue. With negotiations currently stalled in Los Angeles and San Francisco, it may be several months before these issues are resolved.
Meanwhile, H.E.R.E.-U.N.I.T.E. has turned to boycott as a means of bringing pressure on the hotels to accept the union's proposals. Its website and that of the AFL-CIO contains the names of hotels which the union has targeted. The fact that such boycotts actually hurt those hotel employees who are the union's members seems to have escaped the union's notice, as has the fact that false statements made by the union to the public concerning the targeted hotels may expose them to substantial civil liability. We can expect to see more litigation in this area in the coming year.
Finally, the legality of "neutrality/card-check" agreements, discussed in the previous edition of this Newsletter, continues to be an issue. The National Labor Relations Board currently has several neutrality cases pending at both the national and regional level and it is expected that new bills on both sides of the issue will be introduced during the current session of Congress. If 2005 proves to be the end of the road for "neutrality deals, hospitality industry unions will have to return to traditional organizing methods which have been largely unsuccessful for them in the past. More importantly, municipalities and other governmental entities which have insisted on neutrality agreements as a condition of all development and management agreements involving hotels, and have used neutrality as a means of rewarding the unions for their political support may have to find news ways to express their gratitude.
2005 should be a very interesting year on the labor front.
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