CHICAGO— Hotel workers here have voted overwhelmingly to strike if contract negotiations aren’t completed— and a settlement between HERE Local 1 and HELRA, which represents 24 of the 29 downtown hotels involved— before midnight on Aug. 31, 2002. Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 1 is representing the more than 7,000 hotel workers in the negotiations, which started on Aug. 5, 2002. HELRA (Hotel Employers Labor Relations Association) is representing 24 of the 29 hotels that employ those workers. They include the Drake Hotel, the Palmer House Hilton, Sheraton Chicago, W Chicago Lake Shore Drive and the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Several hotels— including the Fitzpatrick Hotel and Omni Ambassador East— have broken away from HELRA, choosing instead to try to negotiate separately. The Holiday Inn City Center has already signed a “me-too” agreement, which binds them to whatever terms the contract stipulates and protects them from a possible strike. And the Hyatt Regency McCormick is in discussions with HERE Local 1 to come to a possible “me-too” agreement. According to HERE Local 1 spokesman Lars Negstad, the main issues are higher wages and paid healthcare, as well as the hotels’ desire to reduce reporting pay from eight hours to two and institute unlimited subcontracting, which Negstad claimed would undermine job security. Negstad told HOTEL BUSINESS® “that workers are fed up, especially when they see how far behind they are in wages and benefits compared to the rest of the country.” Chicago housekeepers, for instance, make $8.83 an hour and pay $85 a month for family health insurance, while in New York— which HERE Local 1 is holding up as an example during these negotiations— housekeepers make $18.15 an hour and pay nothing for family healthcare. When asked why such a disparity wasn’t addressed in previous negotiations for the current five-year contract, Negstad simply noted that HERE Local 1 was under different leadership five years ago. When Arnold Karr, COO of HELRA, was asked the same question, he noted, too, there was different union leadership then, but that the union leadership now is focusing much more on wages and healthcare. In the meantime, HERE Local 1 is trying to obtain better pay and paid health benefits for the workers, and, as a result, started with New York numbers in its initial proposals. According to Negstad, HERE Local 1 would like to remedy the differences in healthcare and wages with the new contract, but realistically “doesn’t expect to reach that in the first contract cycle.” According to Karr, the wage and benefit proposals HERE Local 1 put forth may be hard to accommodate, considering the state of the economy, and the effect it’s had on the industry. “The industry is in the tank, and Chicago may be feeling it more, but the business-travel economy is doing poorly. It hasn’t come back… We still have a very rocky road ahead. And that will affect the types of proposals and increases we can offer because, of course, we have to still stay competitive with other cities. We can’t raise rates. Group travel, trade shows and meetings— all price-sensitive groups— will go elsewhere if they see rates get out of control here. “Of course we want to reward our employees, they make the hotels work, but at the same time we can’t get out line, then… everyone loses,” continued Karr, who noted that the hotels HELRA is representing would not be able to offer what he terms is an “over 100% increase in wages. They have to signal to us they are being more realistic about their proposals.” But according to Negstad, that’s a “red herring.” “If labor costs go up, not all of that will be passed on to the customer…. The hotels had banner years starting in 1997, posting incredible increases through 2000, and into the beginning of 2001. Now they’re down slightly in the past two years, but they can clearly afford to come up with a reasonable settlement,” claimed Negstad. Both sides seem to think the other
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