'Possibility of major fight' in talks between hotels, union

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=35302

By: Eddie Baeb Aug. 31, 2009

(Crain’s) — With the contract for about 6,000 downtown hotel workers set to expire at midnight Monday, negotiations are still in the early stages and a union spokeswoman says things are becoming contentious.

“It’s been a fight to even just get to the table,” says a spokeswoman for the hotel workers’ union, Unite Here Local 1. “We’re not close, and I think we’re looking at the possibility of a major fight.”

The union, whose workers had a three-year contract, is seeking to protect hard-fought gains won since its present leadership took over early this decade. Hotel owners are struggling against a recession and sharp drop in business travel that has emptied out their rooms and depressed nightly room rates.

The union plans a press conference Tuesday morning outside the Hyatt Regency Chicago, 151 E. Wacker Drive. Local 1 President Henry Tamarin and union members are to discuss the issues that have led to the “standoff,” according to a statement.

One major concern has been the practice of hotels during this recession to lay off workers while remaining employees work overtime and take on multiple jobs, the union spokeswoman says. The union sees that as a “misuse and abuse” of overtime work rules and wants to alter those rules in the new contract, she says.

According to Unite Here, the Hyatt Regency cut 19% of its staff late last year and early this year. During roughly the same four to five months, almost half of the hotel’s unionized staff worked at least some overtime.

FULL story at link.