Hotels, Union Agree on Contract

[Desperadoe]

Major D.C. hotels and the union representing their employees agreed on a new contract last night, a compromise deal that would avert a work stoppage during the presidential inauguration.

The deal, if ratified by the members of Unite Here Local 25, would end a four-month series of sometimes bitter negotiations that included repeated threats of a strike.

According to both workers and management representatives who were in the room for yesterday's talks, the 14 hotels involved in the negotiations backed off their demand that newly hired employees pay a portion of their health insurance premiums. The union backed away from its demand that a new contract last for only two years, instead of the customary three, which had been part of a bid to improve negotiating leverage next time around.

Workers' wages, which now start at $13 per hour, will rise 50 cents in the first year of the contract, and workers will receive the raise retroactive to Sept. 15, when the old contract expired. The sides also resolved a series of issues involving working conditions and union staffers' access to hotels.<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10440-2005Jan14.html

[fasttense]

1. Too bad

I was hoping the rich B*sh* supporters would have to make their own beds after paying over a half million to stay at the hotel for four days. Too bad that money ain't going to the Tsunami victims.