WASHINGTON, DC—In his comments opening the 14th Annual Legislative Action Summit, here, American Hotel & Lodging Association president & CEO Joseph McInerney underscored the importance of this political year on issues critical to the industry’s future.
McInerney posed three key questions to the roughly 250 participants assembled at the JW Marriott Hotel, located a few blocks from The White House. “Will the economy continue to recover? Will Congress allow businesses to create jobs? And lastly, what impact will the presidential election have on the outlook for the lodging industry?”Among the specific issues up for scrutiny during the two-day Summit were recent rules issued by the U.S. Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board. The administrative rules and regulations seem designed to bolster employees’ right to unionize.
“Hotel owners and operators need to be concerned about the government’s looking to a regulatory agency to achieve pro-labor goals the government wasn’t able to achieve through legislation,” cautioned AH&LA executive VP for public policy Marlene Colucci, noting that the government only undertook this strategy in earnest after Congress failed to enact the Employee Free Choice Act, known as EFCA. “The ultimate goal is the same,” Colucci said.
One NLRB rule that came under special criticism concerns ambush elections. Under the rule, union elections could take place in as few as 20 days after a union demands one. “In effect, the rule prevents employees from making a fully informed decision about their workplace representation,” Colucci noted.
Similarly, the NLRB has ruled that unions can cherry pick employees sympathetic to the union cause and designate them as a bargaining unit within a larger workforce. Colucci and her public policy team describe them as “micro-unions,” claiming they disenfranchise workers not included.
Summit speakers Kyle Hicks, labor policy director for the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Andria Lure Ryan, a partner in the law firm of Fisher & Phillips, LLP, said they encourage AH&LA members to support the Workplace Democracy and Fairness Act, which has already passed the House of Representatives, but has made little progress in the Senate.
Online travel agencies’ efforts to limit the amount of occupancy tax they pay to local communities for booking rooms were discussed last year and warranted additional analysis this year. The OTAs are seeking a special tax break, which the lodging industry considers inappropriate.
“We fought such proposed legislation on the Federal level last year and were successful in stopping it,” noted Shawn McBurney, AH&LA SVP for governmental affairs, told the Summit. “Now a year later, we see it popping up on the state level, so we must remain proactive in stopping it again.”
“Hotels pay the occupancy tax as required by their local jurisdiction. It’s essentially unfair for the OTAs to think they should be treated otherwise,” said Mark Carrier, president of the hotel division of B.F. Saul & Co., on a panel entitled “Online Room Booking Legislation: Highly Taxing.”
“It was never the intent of the local jurisdictions to give one booking channel an advantage over another,” noted Marriott International VP of government affairs Melissa Froehlich-Flood on the same panel.
The occupancy tax goes, in part, towards local jurisdictions’ paying for programs to promote their destinations to visitors, added VP & general counsel for the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association Richard Turner, a panelist as well. “The OTAs not paying their fair share hurts these efforts. Convention & Visitors Bureaus are already feeling a shortfall in revenues because of the poor economy. These schemes only make it worse,” Turner argued.
A milestone in the struggle to get the Federal government to support increased funding to promote travel and tourism to the U.S. occurred in January when President Obama spoke of the link between such efforts and job creation, the nation’s number one challenge. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), speaking at the Summit, have both joined with AH&LA to support legislation that would streamline the visa application process. They want to see the State Department extend the period a visa is valid and expand the existing visa waiver program to include a number of the nation’s allies, including Poland, Brazil, Chile, Taiwan, and Argentina.
“Law-abiding citizens in these countries want to come to the U.S., but we’re making the process much more difficult than it needs to be,” explained Klobuchar.
In a highly fractured Congress, additional support for travel and tourism is one issue both parties can agree on, Blunt added. “It’s truly bipartisan,” he said.
A regular feature of each year’s LAS is the visits that attendees make to their government officials. “The doors are open for us. Legislators tend to like our industry. The hotels in their communities are very visible and welcoming,” noted Hilton Worldwide SVP of government affairs Jonas Neihardt.
“Take advantage that we work for a wonderful industry,” advised Marriott International manager of government affairs Thomas Maloney.
In concluding his opening remarks, McInerney put the matter more bluntly. “Our lawmakers are here to listen to you,” he said.