Recent News Articles

• Court orders hotel to pay workers
  6/14/2007. Oakland Tribune
  Woodfin Suites Hotels was ordered to pay at least $125,000 in back pay to its housekeepers and a hefty fine to the city of Emeryville for its failure to comply with a living wage law, but the company has vowed to appeal the ruling. Company officials are also defending efforts to seek political help in the form of Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-San Diego, to request that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigate the immigration status of workers at the Woodfin in Emeryville and three other Emeryville hotels as well.



• Emeryville Hotel Workers Withdraw Complaint, Management Furious
  6/11/2007. East Bay Express
  In mid-December of last year, Woodfin Suites fired twenty-one housekeepers at its Emeryville hotel for having invalid Social Security numbers. In response, the hotel workers and the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) filed two complaints with the City of Emeryville against Woodfin Suites. The first claimed that housekeepers were not being paid the living wage assured by the city’s Measure C, which voters passed in a 2005 resolution. The second alleged that the hotel company fired housekeepers in retaliation for the workers’ insistence on the enforcement of Measure C.



• Hotel evicts family after 3-year stay
  4/23/2007. Oakland Tribune
  A family displaced by faulty construction problems at an Emeryville condominium complex is being evicted from their temporary home at the Woodfin Suites Hotel because the mother disrupted the hotel's business, according to management. Hotel management said Friday they had no choice but to oust Young because she was waging an active campaign to contact their clients and tell them not to patronize the hotel, which is having a negative impact on business.



• $29 million makeover for the Argent
  2/7/2007. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco's Argent Hotel will change its name, spend $29 million on a top-to-bottom renovation and premiere April 12 as the Westin San Francisco Market Street



• Living-Wage Victory in LA
  2/5/2007. The Nation
  Last September 28, more than 2,000 people marched down Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and more than 300 people, including two LA City Council members and other elected officials, clergy, union leaders and students, were arrested as part of a well-orchestrated civil disobedience sit-in--to protest the mistreatment of low-wage hotel workers by thirteen hotels in the airport area.



• The Fairmont's still towering
  2/4/2007. SF Chronicle
  It's all in 100 years' work for the Fairmont Hotel, a Nob Hill landmark celebrating its centennial this year. Although the Fairmont's birthday isn't until April 18, the hotel isn't waiting for formalities. It's rolling out a yearlong series of events: public tours, special teas and centennial cocktails, and a penthouse centennial package that goes for a mere $100,000 to mark the hotel's first century in business.



• Christmas at Woodfin Suites
  1/24/2007. East Bay Express
  When Woodfin Suites fired its immigrant workers, was it obeying the law or dodging a living-wage ordinance?



• Suit Maker Goes 'Lean' to Keep Jobs in U.S.
  1/24/2007. National Public Radio
  If you check the tag on a men's suit these days, chances are it says "made in China" or Mexico — maybe even Hungary. But if the suit is a Joseph Abboud, it still says "Made in America." In fact, the company is one of the few that continues to produce suits in the United States. And instead of sending jobs overseas, Abboud is hiring more people here at home.



• Case of the tour-bus kickbacks
  1/3/2007. SF Bay Guardian
  Two messages had arrived at the Maxwell Hotel by noon on April 18, 2003, both announcing the same news: two of the largest sightseeing companies in San Francisco had slashed their commissions for bellhops and concierges down to 10 bucks.



• Hotel union leader emerges as tough advocate
  12/29/2006. San Francisco Business Times
  In 2006, at least 11 hotels changed hands in deals worth close to $1.3 billion. But by far the most important deal in the hospitality sector in 2006 was orchestrated not by a pension fund or private equity firm but by Mike Casey, president of Local 2 of the UNITE HERE hotel union.



• Union calls strike vote at W Hotel
  12/5/2006. SFBT
  Hotel union UNITE HERE is taking a strike vote among workers at the San Francisco W Hotel today, hoping to push the property to accept a deal largely identical to the one the union reached with 14 other large city hotels earlier this year.



• Crowne Plaza, Palomar hit sales block
  12/1/2006. SFBT
  San Francisco's Crowne Plaza and Palomar hotels are up for sale, leading a new wave of Bay Area lodges that have gone on the market in recent weeks.



• Hotel union contract is sign of prosperous future
  10/11/2006. Honolulu Star Bulletin
  [Editorial] A NATIONAL strategy that was years in the making is producing worthwhile labor contracts in hotels from New York to Waikiki. Hotel companies have averted what was feared to be a nationwide strike, Hawaii's vital tourism industry appears secure and hotel workers should begin their rise to the middle class.



• Restaurant must pay $1 million to workers
  10/7/2006. Chronicle
  The Golden Dragon, a Chinatown restaurant that was closed because of health violations in January, must pay more than $1 million in back wages and penalties to 37 workers for violating the city's minimum wage law, an administrative hearing officer has ruled.



• Pickets Call For Emeryville Hotel to Honor Minimum Wage
  10/3/2006. Berkeley Daily Planet
  While housekeepers waved white sheets from the Emeryville Woodfin Suite Hotel balconies early Friday morning, some 80 people—Emeryville residents, religious leaders, trade unionists, and immigrant rights activists—circled the sidewalk in front of the hotel calling on management to implement Measure C, Emeryville’s minimum wage law for hotel workers.



• Labor Protest Targets Airport-Area Hotels
  9/29/2006. LA Times
  About 300 people protesting the treatment of immigrant workers by hotels near Los Angeles International Airport were arrested Thursday night during two coordinated sit-ins in the middle of Century Boulevard east of the airport.



• Hyatt Regency on the market
  9/29/2006. SFBT
  The Hyatt Regency, San Francisco's fifth-largest hotel, is up for sale and is expected to fetch between $200 million and $320 million.



• SF hotels finally approaching recovery
  9/25/2006. Business Travel News
  San Francisco hoteliers finally are experiencing a reversal of fortune after some very tough years.



• Union hotel workers ratify new contact
  9/23/2006. San Francisco Chronicle
  Union workers at 13 San Francisco hotels orverwhelmingly ratified a new contract Friday to end a two-year dispute with their employers.



• Hotel workers win
  9/20/2006. Bay Guardian
  San Francisco hotel workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 2 will vote Sept. 22 whether to accept a new contract offer and end their long battle with 13 hotels in the city -- and by all accounts, it's a major victory for labor



• Agreement between hotels, workers relieves SF. tourism officials
  9/14/2006. The Examiner San Francisco
  With San Francisco's busiest convention season on the horizon, 13 major hotels struck a deal with a labor union Tuesday that gives 4,200 workers an increase in benefits and wages and the right to organize new hotels.



• San Francisco Hotel Workers Make a Deal
  9/14/2006. Los Angeles Times
  After nearly two weeks of intense negotiations marked by picket lines and marches, San Francisco hotel workers unveiled a tentative agreement Wednesday with 13 hotels, averting a second strike in two years.



• Union hails contract
  9/14/2006. SF Chronicle
  The union representing San Francisco hospitality workers achieved several key goals in a contract agreement tentatively reached with 13 hotels late Tuesday.



• Labor peace for city's hotels
  9/14/2006. San Francisco Chronicle
  For two years, San Francisco's biggest industry -- tourism -- has lived with a huge what-if. A possible strike by more than 4,000 hotel workers could paralyze much of the city's economy. Now that prospect has dropped to near zero. A pact that apparently gives the union much of what it wants was reached after two weeks of intense talks.



• SF: Amber Lee Reports on 2-year long battle between hotels and workers coming to an end
  9/13/2006. KTVU TV
  Late details about a major breakthrough in a bitter Bay Area labor dispute.



• City hotels, workers reach deal
  9/13/2006. Examiner
  A two-year standoff between San Francisco's hotel workers and 13 of The City's hotels came to an end Tuesday, with the two sides reaching a tentative agreement.



• Tentative accord in hotel labor dispute
  9/13/2006. San Francisco Chronicle
  Negotiators reached a tentative settlement Tuesday night in the tumultous two-year San Francisco hotel workers dispute, sources said.



• Strike Threatens Rebound in San Francisco Tourism
  9/8/2006. LA Times
  Tourists have been flocking here all summer, plunking down credit cards to cover rising room prices and filling hotels at the highest rate since 9/11 and the dot-com bust. But for the second time in two years, the city is bracing for a potential strike at 13 of its largest hotels that could cost millions in tourism dollars.



• SF: Jade Hernandez Reports on Hotel Picket Lines
  9/7/2006. KTVU TV
  Hotel workers are picketing in San Francisco.



• Immigrants, Labor Walk on Common Ground
  9/5/2006. The Examiner San Francisco
  Thousands of minority workers and labor activits took to the streets of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose on Monday to rally for immigratiojn law reform in the first major demonstrations on the issue since May, and the first to take advantage of a new alliance between labor groups and Latino organizations



• Workers, hotels make a plan for Labor Day talks
  9/4/2006. The Examiner San Francisco
  Negotiations among 13 of The City's hotels and the union representing 4,300 of their employees are scheduled to continue today as the two sides attempt to hammer out a labor agreement.



• Hotel workers march for contract with S.F.
  9/1/2006. San Francisco Chronicle
  Frustrated by stalled labor negotiations, membrers of the hotel workers union take to the streets Thursday and protest in front of Palace Hotel in San Francisco.



• Hotel workers march for contract with S.
  9/1/2006. San Francisco Chronicle
  Frustrated by stalled labor negotiations, members of the hotel workers union take to the streets Thursday and protest in front of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.... Police said 62 people, including Supervisor Daly, were cited for trespassing and released after they held a sit-in at the hotel's entrance.



• Employees at 13 hotels vote to authorize strike
  8/25/2006. San Francisco Chronicle
  Union-represented workers at 13 San Francisco hotels, dissatisfied with prolonged and fruitless contract negotations, voted Thursday to authorize a strke.



• Hotel workers resoundingly back strike
  8/25/2006. The Examiner San Francisco
  San Francisco hotel workers voted Thursday to authorize their union leaders to call a strike if current negotiations do not result in a contract agreement.



• SF Hotel Workers Vote To Authorize Strike
  8/24/2006. KTVU TV
  SAN FRANCISCO -- Housekeepers, line cooks, food servers and other staff at 13 San Francisco hotels voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if necessary.



• Hotels union voting on strike
  8/24/2006. San Francisco Chronicle
  More than 4,000 San Francisco union hotel workers vote today whether to authorize a second strike within two years against 13 hotels.



• Hotel workers union schedules strike vote Contracts expired nearly 2 years ago; talks continue
  8/12/2006. San Francisco Chronicle
  The union representing workers at 13 San Francisco hotels has scheduled a strike authorization vote Aug. 24.



• Hotels propose fewer benefits for new workers
  7/20/2006. San Francisco Chronicle
  Negotiators for 13 hotels in San Francisco have offered workers a contract proposal in which new hires will have to work five years to be eligible for the level of health care current workers have -- a two-tier system union officials predict will be rejected.



• Hotel contract talks resuming After a strike, a lockout and nearly 2 years without a pack, 2 sides try again to negotiate
  7/18/2006. San Francisco Chronicle
  Contract negotiators for 13 San Francisco hotels and the union that represents their workers are scheduled to resume talks today about wages and other economic matters that they have been unable to reach agreement on for nearly two years.



• Firebrand organizer takes key political role
  7/18/2006. Sacramento Bee
  LOS ANGELES -- The widow of political kingmaker Miguel Contreras, the most dynamic labor leader in recent California history, now inhabits his office and, friends say, his spirit. A powerhouse in her own right, Maria Elena Durazo, the new chief of the 800,000-member Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, is a union organizer with few peers and heroine to busboys, cooks and maids.



• Bigger beds a pain, hotel staffs complain
  4/26/2006. SF Chronicle
  The health and safety of hotel housekeepers -- who are wrestling with bigger beds and increased in-room amenities -- is emerging as one of the key issues when union contract talks resume in San Francisco and other major cities later this year.



• Hotel Rooms Get Plusher, Adding to Maids' Injuries
  4/21/2006. NYT
  Some call it the "amenities arms race," some "the battle of the beds." It is a competition in which the nation's premier hotels are trying to have their accommodations resemble royal bedrooms. Superthick mattresses, plush duvets and decorative bed skirts have been added, and five pillows rather than the pedestrian three now rest on a king-size bed. Hilton markets these rooms as Suite Dreams, while Westin boasts of its Heavenly Beds. The beds may mean sweet dreams to hotel guests, but they mean pain to many of the nation's 350,000 hotel housekeepers. Several new studies have found that thousands of housekeepers are suffering arm, shoulder and lower-back injuries.



• LGBTs Must Stand with Hotel Workers
  4/6/2006. Bay Area Reporter
  Last Friday night, the Bay Area Reporter held a 35th anniversary celebration for its advertisers and members of the National Gay Newspaper Guild.



• A high-stakes labor card game
  3/28/2006. SF Chronicle
  In contract negotiations this year covering union hotel workers in San Francisco and other major cities, a major theme will not be wages and benefits, but labor's strategy for organizing new members without elections, a move employers resist vigorously.



• Hotel Campaign Signals Labor's Ascent in L.A.
  3/27/2006. LA Times
  Four hotel workers — a cook from the Radisson, a housekeeper from the Sheraton, a telephone operator from the Westin and a laundry worker from the Hilton — gathered on a recent afternoon in a small Lennox apartment near LAX. Together, they make $409 a day, less than a single decent City Hall lobbyist can earn in an hour.



• Black Hotel Workers Replaced by Immigrants
  3/27/2006. NPR
  In the last 20 years, the number of African Americans in the hotel industry has declined, as more immigrant workers were hired. Robin Urevitch reports on efforts by union leaders to increase the number of black workers in hotels and ease tensions between racial groups in the hospitality industry.



• Hotel boom fuels union hopes
  2/26/2006. Chicago Tribune
  Knowing that business is on the upswing for Chicago-area hotels lifts Henry Tamarin's spirits. Good times for them, as he sees it, mean good times for their workers. And Tamarin, president of Local 1 of Unite Here, the union for about 7,000 Chicago-area hotel workers, expects to make this point in contract talks this summer.



• S.F. hotels are filling up
  2/24/2006. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco hotels are in the early stages of a strong recovery from their slump early in the decade and can anticipate sustained growth for years to come, a leading hotel consultant said Thursday morning.



• Union Aims to Build Momentum as It Prepares for National Hotel Talks
  2/17/2006. LA Times
  Los Angeles area hotel workers rallied with celebrities and politicians Thursday to set the stage for potentially contentious contract negotiations across the country later this year.



• Making America work for the working poor
  2/17/2006. Boston Globe
  IT USED TO BE that poverty was invisible in America. When Michael Harrington published ''The Other America" in 1960, he wrote about the unseen millions living in inner-city housing projects, in Appalachia, in rural America. The poor were stuck in isolated ghettos, dying towns, and industries that Harrington called the economic underworld of American life. As the rest of the country went to work and prospered, the poor were bypassed.



• Over 2000 Rally in SF Kickoff for National Hotel Workers Rising Campaign
  2/16/2006. BeyondChron
  Chanting “Si Se Puede” (Yes We Can) and harkening back to the historic labor struggles of the United Farmworkers and Southern textile workers, a crowd of over 2000 union members and community supporters at San Francisco’s Parc 55 Hotel launched a national campaign yesterday to improve wages, benefits and working conditions in the North American hotel industry.



• Hotel workers kick off campaign in S.F.
  2/16/2006. SF Chronicle
  Hotel workers kicked off a nationwide campaign to recruit members and improve wages and benefits with a rally in San Francisco on Wednesday.



• Eye on Presidency and Ear on Hotel Workers' Grievances
  2/16/2006. NY Times
  The nation's largest hotel union opened a nationwide campaign on Wednesday to improve workers' wages with an unusual strategy — it had John Edwards, the former Democratic candidate for vice president, sit with hotel workers to hear their complaints.



• Hotel workers union plans rallies (Chicago)
  2/14/2006. Chicago Sun-Times
  In what's billed as the biggest single year ever for collective bargaining in the hotel industry, the union representing thousands of workers at hotels in downtown Chicago and nationally said it is kicking off a campaign this week to boost pay and benefits and spotlight safety issues.



• Four Seasons, 2 other S.F. inns find buyers
  2/5/2006. San Francisco Business Times
  The Four Seasons and two other hotels have been acquired in separate deals worth more than $300 million. Prices for the two largest properties came in at the low end of sellers' expectations, reflecting uncertainty over the San Francisco market, which has seen a modest upswing in business but which has been racked by labor woes.



• Fancy hotel bedding opens door for unions
  2/5/2006. Sacramento Business Journal
  A good night's sleep for hotel guests can turn into a hard day's work for the hotel staff that has to handle the hefty new mattresses and multiple sheets and pillowcases of a modern hotel suite.



• Activists converge to support hotel worker uprising
  2/3/2006. Beyond Chron
  A diverse crowd of over 100 community leaders, labor officials, and politicians crowded the historic SEIU hall yesterday to learn of plans for a soon to be launched “uprising” by UNITE HERE Local 2.



• Hotel workers take up arms in 'bed wars'
  2/2/2006. Toronto Globe and Mail
  Housekeepers from two dozen Toronto hotels are organizing to press for better working conditions, saying their health has been a casualty of hotel-chain luxury wars.



• Taking on the hotels
  1/18/2006. Washington Post
  Company by company, in quickening succession, the social contract in America implodes. Verizon and IBM scrap their pensions; Delphi floats a tidy two-thirds cut in pay; profits surge while wages sag and benefits vanish in broad daylight.



• Working with union will benefit hotels, industry, employees
  1/9/2006. Hotel & Motel Management
  2006 will be a historic year for the North American hotel industry. In addition to being among the most profitable in the history of our industry, it will be the largest single year ever for collective bargaining in the hotel sector.



• Battle of the beds
  12/19/2005. San Francisco Chronicle
  Travelers are raving about the enormous, fluffy new beds that the nation's biggest hotel chains are spending millions on as they one-up each other in an escalating mattress war. Like any war, this one is not without casualties.



• Hotels rebuff union
  12/10/2005. SF Chronicle
  Contract negotiators for 14 San Francisco hotels this week rejected a proposal from the union representing more than 4,000 workers, leaving the labor dispute unresolved after nearly 16 months.



• Argent backs key demand by union
  9/20/2005. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco's Argent Hotel says it is willing to support a key union demand in order to end a protracted labor dispute that has hampered the city's lodging industry.



• Another loss for AFL-CIO
  9/15/2005. SF Chronicle
  In the latest split from the AFL-CIO, the executive board of Unite Here has voted unanimously to sever its affiliation with the giant labor federation.



• 2 hotels give in to union
  9/13/2005. SF Chronicle
  A major hotel operator now says it is willing to accept a key union demand if that would lead to an end of the protracted labor dispute that has plagued the San Francisco lodging industry, adding to recent momentum toward a settlement.



• Union suspends St. Francis boycott
  9/4/2005. SF Chronicle
  The union representing San Francisco hotel workers announced an end Saturday to their boycott of the Westin St. Francis, one of 14 major hotels involved in a lengthy labor dispute with the union.



• St. Francis Ready to Compromise
  9/1/2005. SF Chronicle
  The owners of the Westin St. Francis, one of the 14 San Francisco hotels locked in a protracted labor dispute, now say they are prepared to accept a key union demand, a potentially significant breakthrough in the yearlong standoff.



• The hotel boycott matters
  8/10/2005. SF Bay Guardian
  ONCE UPON A time, San Francisco's landmark hotels were owned by local families with roots in the city. Today, most San Francisco hotels are owned and managed by multinational corporations with little knowledge of our communities and less concern for their well-being.



• Political Scientists and Education Researchers Move Meetings to Avoid Labor Dispute in San Francisco
  8/8/2005. Chronicle of Higher Education
  The American Political Science Association has announced that it will relocate its 2006 meeting to Philadelphia to avoid a labor dispute affecting hotels in San Francisco. The same labor problem has prompted other scholarly groups -- including the American Educational Research Association just last week -- to move their meetings as well.



• Tourism bureau steps in to save major convention
  8/3/2005. SF Examiner
  A major education convention expected to pull out of San Francisco because of the hotel labor dispute has decided to come to town after all, following a deal worked out with the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau to find alternative accommodations in a nonboycotted hotel.



• Playwright asks for change of venue to support San Francisco hotel workers
  7/28/2005. Monterey County Herald
  Actor-playwright Anna Deveare Smith asked to have the keynote speech she was scheduled to deliver to a group of college theater professors and students Thursday night moved from the Westin St. Francis Hotel to honor a boycott called by the hotel's labor union.



• Hotel union says no to new offer
  7/14/2005. SF Chronicle
  A contract proposal that San Francisco hotel owners hoped would end an 11-month labor dispute was rejected Wednesday by the hotel workers union, whose president dismissed it as "cynical and disingenuous.''



• Mayor stymied by labor dispute at major hotels
  7/10/2005. SF Chronicle
  After almost a year...there's still no contract and the union has asked patrons to boycott the 14 hotels until a settlement is reached...



• Hotel standoff imperils some conventions
  7/8/2005. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco could lose as many as five major conventions next year because of the lingering hotel labor dispute here, according to the workers' union and the groups involved.



• Academic conferences reconsider S.F. conventions during boycott
  6/22/2005. SF Examiner
  With no end in sight for San Francisco's year-old hotel labor dispute, three large academic conferences expected to generate millions in revenue for the city economy are weighing relocating their 2006 conventions, apparently at the urging of labor unions.



• With Hotel Labor Contract Ratified, Villaraigosa Moves to Revive Tourism
  6/17/2005. LA Times
  Los Angeles Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa and other officials Thursday used the ratification of a new hotel labor contract to jump-start the city's convention and visitors business, which had been hurt by a union-led boycott and fears of a disruptive work stoppage.



• L.A. hotel pact bolsters hopes for S.F. dispute
  6/14/2005. SF Chronicle
  Tentative approval of a contract for hotel workers in Los Angeles might be a prelude to resolution of a 10-month labor dispute involving 14 major San Francisco hotels and their 4,000 union employees, a labor official said Monday.



• L.A. Hotels Reach Tentative Labor Pact
  6/11/2005. LA Times (AP)
  Workers at seven hotels engaged in a 14-month labor contract dispute reached a tentative agreement early Saturday, averting a planned lockout, city and union officials announced.



• ON STRIKE! Hyatt West Hollywood Workers Demand Hotels Return Healthcare Money
  6/9/2005. UNITE HERE
  Hundreds of workers at the Hyatt West Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles went on strike today in protest of the hotel’s refusal to return the thousands of dollars in healthcare co-pays the hotel collected from the workers over a period of eight months after their contract expired in April.



• Frosty reception for hotels' offer
  6/8/2005. SF Chronicle
  The union representing workers at 14 San Francisco hotels won't formally reject the employers' most recent offer until they resume talks today, but the response has already been telegraphed.



• Biltmore Strikes Deal With Union
  6/7/2005. LA Business Journal
  In another blow to the local hotel coalition whose members have been boycotted for months, downtown’s Millennium Biltmore Hotel will no longer oppose the efforts of a union to line up a contract with cities across the country.



• Is your meeting Picket-Proof?
  6/1/2005. Association Meetings
  The executive director of the American Anthropological Association moved his group's 2004 annual meeting to Atlanta just a month before it was to take place in San Francisco.



• Is your meeting Picket-Proof?
  6/1/2005. Association Meetings
  The executive director of the American Anthropological Association moved his group's 2004 annual meeting to Atlanta just a month before it was to take place in San Francisco.



• Is your meeting Picket-Proof?
  6/1/2005. Association Meetings
  The executive director of the American Anthropological Association moved his group's 2004 annual meeting to Atlanta just a month before it was to take place in San Francisco.



• Groups avoid hotels in dispute
  5/26/2005. SF Chronicle
  Democrats, gays find new venues; teachers union may skip S.F.



• Union, hotels to talk in S.F. Boycott hurting bookings: labor seeks '06 expiration
  5/25/2005. SF Chronicle
  Negotiators for 14 major San Francisco hotels and the union representing their workers have agreed to resume bargaining on a new contract Tuesday, the first joint session since Feb. 14.



• Laborers, leaders mourn the 'real Miguel Contreras'
  5/13/2005. LA Times
  California's most powerful politicians and some of its least empowered laborers crowded elbow to elbow in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Thursday to bid farewell to Miguel Contreras, the son of migrant farmworkers who grew up to be one of the nation's strongest labor leaders and a dominant force in Los Angeles politics.



• UNITE HERE settles with Beverly Hilton
  5/6/2005. LA Business Journal
  Unite HERE has reached a settlement on a new two-year contract with the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the last of the six Los Angeles area hotels that signed “me-too” agreements with the union to avoid being targeted for picket lines and possible strikes.



• SF Hotel Workers' Protest Results In 37 Arrests
  5/4/2005. KTVU Channel 2
  Dozens of hotel workers were arrested Tuesday after staging a sit-in at the Hilton San Francisco as part of a protest by the employees who have been working without a contract since August. [video]



• Arrests in hotel union march
  5/4/2005. SF Chronicle
  Several dozen people -- most of them hotel workers -- were arrested Tuesday after staging a sit-in at the Hilton San Francisco during a rally and march by unionized hotel workers through the city.



• Hotel dispute flares up again
  5/4/2005. SF Examiner
  The long-simmering standoff between hotel workers and management boiled over Tuesday as unionized employees marched through downtown and staged a sit-in in the lobby of the San Francisco Hilton.



• Sierra Club Cancels Bookings at Hilton
  4/20/2005. SF Chronicle
  The Sierra Club, acting in support of union hotel workers in a labor dispute, has canceled reservations for about 1,000 rooms over three nights in September at the San Francisco Hilton that it was holding to accommodate people attending a major gathering.



• Hotel dispute sending meetings out of town
  3/29/2005. SF Chronicle
  A lawyers association that expected 1,000 members to attend its June convention at the San Francisco Hyatt Regency said Monday it will move the event to another city, most likely in Southern California, because of the hotel labor dispute here that is nowhere near resolution.



• S.F. hotels suffer more cancellations
  3/27/2005. MSNBC/SFBT
  The union-led boycott against 14 large San Francisco hotels has sapped another 1,500 room nights from the city, with an additional potential cancellation threatening hundreds more.



• Members object to group's meeting at the St. Francis
  3/23/2005. SF Chronicle
  A philosophers' convention begins today at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, despite the objections of some members because the hotel is involved in a labor dispute with its union employees.



• Mayor keeps his pledge and boycotts Hilton
  3/8/2005. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom kept his word -- that he would not attend functions in any of 14 hotels involved in a labor dispute -- when he skipped the Chamber of Commerce's annual luncheon Monday at the San Francisco Hilton.



• Hotel Vitale strives for natural luxury
  3/8/2005. SF Examiner
  The newest hotel of the Joie de Vivre Hospitality family sits along the Embarcadero, overlooking the Bay and the newly renovated Ferry Building.



• No progress in hotel dispute talks
  3/7/2005. SF Examiner
  For six months, 14 of The City's biggest and most prominent hotels have been at odds with 4,300 unionized members of Local 2 UNITE HERE. The dispute over health care, wages and pensions led to a two-week strike in the fall, which prompted management to lock workers out of their jobs for five weeks. Both sides agreed to return to the negotiating table in November, but little progress has been made.



• Mayor calls on hotels
  2/26/2005. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said Friday he expects the hotel labor dispute in the city to be over in a matter of weeks, not months, but not unless the hotel operators show a willingness to negotiate in earnest with the union representing workers.



• U.S. city hotels hit by labor strife
  2/23/2005. CNN (Reuters)
  Protracted hotel labor disputes in San Francisco and Los Angeles could be a preview of troubles for other chains nationwide as unions grow more determined and organized in pressing wage and benefit demands.



• S.F. hotel labor dispute taking its toll
  2/18/2005. SF Chronicle
  The drawn-out labor dispute hanging over San Francisco's hotel industry is starting to have a serious economic impact, with more than 2,000 convention visitors this week canceling their visits and business interests blaming Mayor Gavin Newsom for the mess.



• LA Hotels to Drop Weekly $10 Insurance Premiums
  2/17/2005. LA Times
  Eight Los Angeles hotels said Wednesday that they would stop charging union workers $10 weekly for health insurance premiums. The payments were imposed in July in an attempt to pressure the Unite Here union to accept a long-term labor contract.



• SF Hotel Workers Picket Outside Westin St. Francis
  2/15/2005. Bay City News / KPIX
  San Francisco hotel workers today picketed outside the Westin St. Francisco hotel in Union Square as part of a boycott campaign over a contract dispute.



• Both sides return to bargaining table in hotel dispute
  2/15/2005. SF Chronicle
  The union representing workers at 14 San Francisco hotels returned to the bargaining table with management Monday, but the two sides remain at loggerheads in a labor dispute that has dragged on since the last contract expired Aug. 14.



• Smaller Hotels, Union Aligned
  2/10/2005. LA Times
  While eight prominent Los Angeles-area hotels dig in their heels in a protracted contract fight with union workers, others are quietly making labor peace.



• Union wants companies out of inns
  2/4/2005. SF Business Times
  The dispute between 14 large San Francisco hotels and their workers continues to widen into the broader business community, with the union visiting some of the city's largest companies and asking them to withhold business.



• Hotels to face complaint by NLRB
  1/27/2005. LA Times
  The National Labor Relations Board's top attorney has found that nine upscale Los Angeles-area hotels acted illegally in declaring an impasse last July in their talks with the hotel workers' union, according to union and hotel officials.



• Union protests at hotel offices
  1/26/2005. Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  About 120 members and supporters of UNITE HERE, a recently merged union representing 450,000 hospitality, restaurant apparel, laundry and gaming workers, protested outside the American headquarters of InterContinentals Hotels Group in Dunwoody on Tuesday. The group, which also met with company executives for about 45 minutes during the rally, want the hotel company to settle a dispute in San Francisco over employee health care. The rally also called attention to working conditions for hotel employees in Atlanta. Hotel workers in San Francisco have been in a 53-day lockout in the dispute with hotel officials. The InterContinental is parent to the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Staybridge and InterContinental brands.



• Hotel union to visitors: Stay away
  1/24/2005. SF Business Times
  As a cooling-off period between 14 large San Francisco hotels and their biggest labor union nears its end, hoteliers are irritated that the union has resumed efforts to persuade guests and conventions to avoid hotels involved in the dispute.



• Hotel Workers Union Alerts SFO Travelers of Potential Problems
  1/24/2005. UNITE HERE Local 2
  UNITE HERE Local 2 launched a website (www.ParkSleepFlyWatch.info) to alert the traveling public of the potential problems of using an internet reservations website called ParkSleepFly for SFO accommodations.



• Cool-off expires at hotels
  1/22/2005. SF Chronicle
  The cooling-off period in the San Francisco hotel workers' labor dispute will expire Sunday uneventfully, as both union and employer representatives on Friday assured Mayor Gavin Newsom there will be no strike or lockout, at least in the short term.



• Hotel dispute still hot
  1/21/2005. SF Examiner
  Sunday marks the end of a 60-day cooling-off period in The City's ongoing hotel labor dispute with both sides saying there is little chance for any agreement.



• No progress in hotel talks
  1/15/2005. SF Chronicle
  Negotiations resumed Friday with little movement in San Francisco's hotel labor dispute, with employers offering their latest contract proposal for 4,300 workers represented by Local 2 of the hotel employees union.



• Hotel union backs off bid for 2-year contract
  1/11/2005. SF Chronicle
  For the first time since bargaining began in April, the union representing San Francisco hotel workers has made a proposal for a contract that would last longer than two years, signaling a key concession that has stalled negotiations.



• Hotel talks resume
  1/6/2005. SF Chronicle
  Contract negotiations between the union representing 4,300 hotel workers in San Francisco and the 14 hotels that employ them resume today in the hope of reaching a contract agreement before a cooling-off period expires Jan. 23.



• Hotels, Union to Resume Talks in SF
  1/3/2005. KRON 4 News
  San Francisco hotel managers and union representatives say they will be back at the bargaining table this week after a holiday hiatus.



• Union: Lockout hurt hotels
  12/30/2004. SF Chronicle
  The union representing 4,300 workers locked out of their jobs at 14 San Francisco hotels this fall estimates that hotel owners lost $25 million while publicly claiming all was well at their facilities.



• Hotel workers rally in Union Square
  12/22/2004. SF Examiner
  Hundreds of hotel workers filled Union Square on Tuesday to draw attention to the fact that they still don't have a contract. he rally, organized by religious leaders, came a month after the owners at 14 top city hotels agreed to a 60-day "cooling off period" during which they promised not to lock out hotel workers and the union vowed not to strike. The agreement followed a six-week lockout that kept some 4,300 workers from their jobs.



• Lockout KO’d
  12/22/2004. In These Times
  The five-week San Francisco hotel lockout was fought by workers who wanted to “level the playing field,” in the words of Elena Duran, a room cleaner at the city’s Hilton. Inspired by the idea of unions in many cities around the country sitting down at the same time with the giant hotel operators, they demanded a common contract expiration date in 2006. And although those operators had agreed to that date in eight cities, in San Francisco they drew the line.



• Hotel workers union rejects latest proposal
  12/17/2004. SF Chronicle
  Labor negotiators for 14 San Francisco hotels offered Thursday to keep employee contributions for health care at $10 a month but left open the possibility that workers would be responsibl`e if costs increased beyond 10 or 12 percent a year. Union officials said the refusal to guarantee a cap was unacceptable, ensuring that the prolonged dispute would drag on. Mike Casey, president of Unite Here Local 2, representing 4,300 members who have returned to work for a 60-day cooling-off period after a strike and lockout at the 14 hotels, acknowledged that the employers' proposal represented "some movement on their part, but it is not enough to get us close to an agreement."



• Hotel workers return, hoping for agreement
  11/27/2004. SF Chronicle
  Doorman Peter Lee was all smiles as he watched crowds of shoppers file past the Grand Hyatt Union Square on Friday. He was happy to be back to work after the 38-day lockout.



• S.F. Lockout Backfired on Hotel Operators
  11/24/2004. David Bacon
  Sometimes the fate of a single battle foretells the outcome of a war, long before it's over. The eventual end of the San Francisco hotel lockout promises to be this kind of watershed moment.



• Return to work for hotel workers
  11/24/2004. SF Chronicle
  Some 4,300 hotel workers were expected to return to their jobs beginning Tuesday night, ending -- for now -- 38 days of clangorous picketing outside 14 San Francisco hotels that locked out their union employees.



• Hotel workers' lockout off for now
  11/20/2004. SF Chronicle
  Thirty-eight raucous days of picket lines, tough talk and the angst of 4,300 San Francisco hotel workers locked out of their jobs with the holidays nigh were put aside Saturday when negotiators for the hotels and the workers' union agreed to a 60-day cooling-off period and ended, for now, the lockout.



• Chinese Community Health to help S.F. hotel workers
  11/18/2004. SF Chronicle
  The Chinese Community Health Plan of San Francisco said Wednesday it will extend health care coverage for two months to hotel workers who are locked out of their jobs, if the labor dispute is not resolved before benefits expire Dec. 1.



• Health-care benefits extended for locked-out hotel workers
  11/16/2004. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced an agreement between the UNITE HERE Local 2 union and Kaiser Permanente to extend health care benefits for about 3,500 locked-out hotel employees and their families until the end of January.



• Lockout a bitter pill for owner of acclaimed new restaurant
  11/12/2004. SF Chronicle
  The day after chef Michael Mina landed in San Francisco in 1989 to help open Aqua, the Financial District landmark where he made his mark, the powerful Loma Prieta earthquake rumbled through town.



• Union workers face loss of benefits
  11/12/2004. SF Chronicle
  Health care coverage for 4,000 union hotel workers locked out of their jobs in San Francisco expires Dec. 1, and a fight between employers and the employees' union over extending it for two months has complicated a bitter labor dispute.



• L.A. hotel union calls for boycott of 9 hotels
  11/11/2004. USA Today
  Los Angeles hotel workers Wednesday called for a boycott of nine luxury hotels as contentious labor contract talks continue.



• Newsom threatens action if workers not let back on the job
  11/10/2004. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom threatened to take unspecified city action against the 14 hotels embroiled in a labor dispute if they don't allow their locked-out unionized employees to return to work.



• Police arrest 18 protesters downtown during rally
  11/10/2004. Baltimore Sun (reg. required)
  Eighteen protesters were arrested yesterday evening when they ran into a downtown intersection to stop rush-hour traffic during a union rally supporting San Francisco hotel workers who have been locked out of their jobs.



• Raising a ruckus
  11/10/2004. SF Chronicle
  The workers, embroiled since Sept. 29 in a struggle with managers over a new contract, are making as much noise as they can to attract attention to their cause. The same scenario is playing out near 12 other San Francisco hotels, fraying workers' and residents' nerves.



• Hotel workers protest in Monterey
  11/8/2004. Monterey County Herald
  More than 20 locked-out hotel employees from San Francisco picketed outside the Monterey Hyatt Regency on Sunday morning to draw attention to the San Francisco lockout of thousands of hotel workers.



• Solidarity is not enough
  11/3/2004. SF Bay Guardian
  Mayor Gavin Newsom's walk on the picket line Oct. 26 caught much of this city off guard, not least of all the locked-out hotel workers at the Westin St. Francis.



• Atlantic City settlement
  11/3/2004. SF Chronicle
  In an agreement that could have significant implications for locked- out San Francisco hotel workers, striking casino workers in Atlantic City today are expected to ratify a deal that offers lucrative benefits but abandons the union's strategy to synchronize the expiration of labor contracts across the nation.



• Lockout puts Mina on hold
  11/3/2004. SF Chronicle
  When Michael Mina opened his signature restaurant in the Westin St. Francis hotel in July, he never anticipated the more than month-long strike and lockout that has gripped the hotel industry in San Francisco.



• Lockout at Top Hotels Mars Tourism in San Francisco
  11/2/2004. New York Times
  The drumbeats and chanted slogans begin at dawn and echo through downtown streets well after dark, as bellhops, barkeeps, maids and cooks - locked out of their jobs by 14 of this city's most prominent hotels - picket to protest stalled contract talks that have set this popular tourist destination on edge.



• Locked-out workers learn they will get unemployment pay
  10/29/2004. SF Chronicle
  More than 4,000 union hotel workers locked out of their jobs in San Francisco got a significant psychological and financial boost Thursday when the state concluded that they are eligible for unemployment insurance.



• San Francisco hotel workers set up a picket line in Waikiki
  10/29/2004. Pacific Business News
  With thousands of hotel workers locked out by 14 hotels in San Francisco, some of them have flown to Waikiki to set up picket lines, and the local hotel union says it expects most of its members will decline to cross them.



• Hotel dispute reaches City Hall
  10/28/2004. SF Chronicle
  Mayor Gavin Newsom -- a day after joining bellmen, room cleaners and other locked-out hotel workers on a picket line -- tried his hand at mediation in the city's bitter hotel labor dispute on Wednesday. But by day's end, there was little progress.



• Newsom joins picket line, vows boycott of hotels
  10/27/2004. SF Chronicle
  Mayor Gavin Newsom made good on his promise to join locked-out union members on the picket line Tuesday after a group of San Francisco hotels rejected his proposed 90-day cooling off period, extending a bitter labor dispute that has left 4,000 workers locked out of their jobs.



• Editorial: Back to the hotels
  10/26/2004. SF Chronicle
  IT'S PAST TIME for a break in the hotel dispute that is threatening San Francisco's tourism trade. Both the union and hotel owners should stop fighting and go back to work for a 90-day cooling-off period.



• Newsom threatens to picket hotels
  10/26/2004. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom threatened Monday to join hotel workers on their picket lines today unless hotel owners end a four-week lockout and allow employees to return to their jobs for a 90-day cooling-off period.



• SF mayor vows to join picket lines if hotels don't end lockout
  10/26/2004. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom warned Monday that if the hotels at the center of a nearly monthlong labor dispute don't agree to end a union lockout by Tuesday afternoon, he will join workers on the picket line, call for a boycott of the 14 facilities and urge other mayors to play hardball with the properties' corporate owners.



• Mayor gets tough on hotel dispute
  10/25/2004. SF Chronicle
  Mayor Gavin Newsom stepped up the pressure on hotel owners in the San Francisco hotel labor dispute Sunday, issuing a formal letter asking the two sides to adopt a 90-day cooling-off period that would bring workers back to their jobs while negotiations continue.



• Locked-out workers vent to supervisors
  10/23/2004. SF Chronicle
  The union representing workers locked out of their jobs at 14 San Francisco hotels put a face -- well, dozens of them -- on their plight Friday at a marathon hearing at City Hall.



• Questions on pay probed at hotel
  10/22/2004. SF Chronicle
  A San Francisco official who monitors minimum wage compliance said Thursday that the Omni San Francisco Hotel, which has locked out its union employees in a labor dispute, may not be paying the city's required minimum wage of $8.50 an hour to at least two replacement workers.



• Supes join lockout fray
  10/22/2004. SF Examiner
  The fight between locked-out workers and hotel owners will shift to City Hall on Friday when the Board of Supervisors holds a hearing to examine the damage the dispute is exacting on The City's economy.



• 6 arrested in Boston protest backing locked-out hotel workers in San Francisco
  10/21/2004. Boston Globe
  They clean hotel rooms, tend bars, cook meals, and wait tables at many of Boston's prestigious hotels and universities, an army of mostly immigrant and low-wage workers that labors behind the scenes. But yesterday, after learning that 4,000 hotel workers in San Francisco are locked out of jobs at 14 hotels, about 85 members of this largely hidden workforce walked into the sedate lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown Crossing and, seated on the floor, demonstrated until police officers arrived and arrested six protesters on trespassing charges.



• Union Set to Begin Boycott of L.A. Hotels
  10/21/2004. LA Times
  The union representing hotel housekeepers, bellmen, waiters and other hourly workers is moving toward an official boycott of nine upscale Los Angeles-area hotels, after six months of negotiations have failed to move either side on key contract issues.



• Gonzalez resolution urges end to lockout
  10/20/2004. SF Chronicle
  San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez introduced a resolution Tuesday urging 14 city hotels to stop the lockout of 4,000 union workers.



• As the hotel workers' lockout grinds on, Mike Casey keeps the respect of both union members and their bosses
  10/19/2004. SF Chronicle
  On the eve of new contract talks with hotel managers, union leader Mike Casey corralled several dozen picketing employees outside the Westin St. Francis luxury hotel in San Francisco with a sour warning...



• Lockout effect
  10/19/2004. SF Examiner
  A dose of high fashion injected the ongoing hotel labor dispute Monday as workers and owners clashed over the cancellation of The City's first-ever San Francisco International Fashion Week.



• Can both worker rights and civil rights win in hotel talks?
  10/19/2004. SF Chronicle
  In the current hotel conflict, most attention has focused on the proposed contract length and the dispute over who pays health-care benefits. But another issue also separates the two sides -- civil rights and the relationship between African American and immigrant workers.



• Battle for survival pits S.F. hotels against workers
  10/14/2004. SF Chronicle
  For their role as the low-paid labor that keeps the hotel industry chugging along, they're often called invisible workers. But in San Francisco, a strike and lockout at 14 of the city's largest hotels have displaced 4,000 employees and made those workers anything but invisible -- displaying a slice of working-class Bay Area.



• Mayor urges end to lockout
  10/13/2004. SF Examiner
  Mayor Gavin Newsom urged hotel operators to end the lockout of thousands of workers Tuesday as civil rights leader Jesse Jackson led a rousing, foot-stomping labor rally in Union Square.



• Striking hotel workers look to return, but face lockout
  10/13/2004. USA Today
  Organized labor in San Francisco flexed its collective muscle Tuesday on behalf of striking and locked out hotel workers in the city, as they prepared to end their two-week strike.



• Unions think strategically
  10/13/2004. SF Bay Guardian
  Actor Danny Glover visited the picket lines in front of the Four Seasons and St. Francis hotels Oct. 7, the day after San Francisco hotel owners threatened to continue their lockout there indefinitely. These were just the latest episodes in a labor struggle that affects not only the 14 hotels involved in the contract fight, but potentially also the future of the labor movement in the United States.



• Cleaning hotel rooms takes its toll
  10/10/2004. SF Chronicle
  Talk to Angelina, the ladies said. She speaks better English. The women were maids at the Holiday Inn at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Some had worked there more than 20 years, some five or 10. They came from China, El Salvador, Guatemala, Cambodia, Thailand, happy to find jobs that required strong bodies and minimal English.



• Hotel action worries mayor
  10/9/2004. SF Chronicle
  On the day negotiators for 14 San Francisco hotels and their union employees returned to the table to seek compromise, Mayor Gavin Newsom said he understands the disparate positions of the two sides but worries about possible long-term consequences for the city in the absence of a quick resolution.



• Federal mediator to help as union and owners negotiate major issues
  10/8/2004. SF Chronicle
  When contract negotiators in San Francisco's hotel dispute return to the table this morning, the usual issues will be discussed: pensions, wages and, of course, health care. And while those items will all play an integral part in any resolution, it's the length of the contract that may be the highest hurdle to clear.



• Talks to resume Friday in SF hotel dispute
  10/7/2004. SF Chronicle
  Negotiations between union leaders and the owners of 14 San Francisco hotels will resume Friday at 10 a.m., the two parties said Wednesday, in an effort to settle the labor dispute that has left 4,000 workers on strike or locked out.



• UNITE HERE issues report on FelCor Lodging Trust & InterContinental Hotels
  10/7/2004. Business Wire
  UNITE HERE Local 2 today issued a report examining the performance of hotels owned by FelCor Lodging Trust (FCH) and operated by InterContinental Hotels & Resorts (IHG). The report studies two aspects of the relationship between these two companies and questions whether this relationship has been in the best interests of FelCor investors.



• Striking workers to be locked out
  10/6/2004. SF Chronicle
  A group of 14 San Francisco hotels that are engaged in a bitter labor dispute said Tuesday that a lockout of union workers will continue next week, beyond the scheduled end of a two-week strike against four of the hotels.



• Hotel strike and lockout goes strong
  10/5/2004. KPIX Channel 5
  The war of words continued Monday as San Francisco hotel workers entered their sixth day of drum banging in a strike and lockout affecting some 4,000 workers at 14 hotels.



• Hotel workers continue noisy strike
  10/4/2004. NBC Channel 11
  In downtown San Francisco it sounds like one of the city's famous parades is happening -- but the whistles, drumbeats and chanting voices are anything but a tourist draw as a hotel strike and lockout continues.



• 10 hotels expected to lock out workers
  10/1/2004. SF Chronicle
  Ten of San Francisco's largest hotels are expected to lock out an estimated 2,600 workers this morning, sources told The Chronicle Thursday, escalating an already tense labor dispute that triggered a strike against four hotels earlier this week.



• Strife mirrors earlier strike
  10/1/2004. SF Chronicle
  It has been 24 years since San Francisco experienced a major hotel dispute like the one that seemed to be shaping up Thursday, as the owners of 1