April 5, 2010: The Hospitality Strike and San Francisco Tourism

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Since Fall of 2009, Local 2's 9000 hospitality workers and 60 hotels in San Francisco have been without contracts. The ongoing labor dispute between hotel owners and striking workers is said to center on disagreements on health care costs and wages. However, this labor dispute is set in a difficult time for San Francisco's tourism industry as people are traveling less for pleasure and for work. But the longer term story reveals long seated differences between management and workers of the mainly corporate owned hotels that dominate San Francisco accommodation options. Over the course of several decades the building of non-union hotels, role of card check neutrality, and drawn out contract negotiations have made for a complex web of relationships and recent history.The polarized climate has also been playing out in the media as both sides use different figures to indicate how hospitality workers are paid. The Hotel council claims workers receive $60,000 a year in benefits, while the Union says that number is far less. But in the end the real questions of how do workers in jobs like room cleaners, bell hops, and laundry washers get a fair contract that takes into account the challenges of the current economy as well as the cost of living in the Bay Area. Who are hospitality workers? What jobs do they have? What functions do they perform that make what amounts to a small city in a building run?

The boycott of 7 hotels in San Francisco have been a new wrinkle, with Local 2 actively calling for convention holders and others to avoid these hotel, but also advocating that conventions be held elsewhere while the boycott is in effect. The San Francisco Visitor's board as well the Hotel Council have said the boycott and strike have cost San Francisco millions in tax revenue as well as economic benefits to businesses. Although San Francisco's tourism business is recovering, the tax and revenue will be missed. With tourism options plentiful in the world, do increasing wages for workers cause San Francisco to be less competitive as a destination due to accommodation prices? Does the turmoil drive tour operators to suggest other locations for the clients? The boycott and animosity could play out for years.

But how is the pain of the recession spread throughout a company when tourism and travel revenues fall? Are the two sides closer to getting to a deal, or getting farther away?

How have the strikes effected you? What role do you think hospitality workers play in San Francisco's tourism economy?

• Ian Lewis, Research Director, Unite Here Local 2.
• Connie Hibbard, Banquet Server, Westin San Francis Hotel