Make room for negotiation
BOSTON HOTEL workers should share the benefits from the sharp increase in the number of hotel beds downtown and along the waterfront. The outcome of current contract negotiations between Hotel Workers Union Local 26 and hotel managers will set the tone for future labor relations in the hospitality industry as Boston seeks its place in the top tier of convention destinations.
The two sides are not only far apart on wage and benefit issues, but entangled in a thorny dispute about hiring practices. A negotiation session broke down last Thursday after angry exchanges between Local 26 President Janice Loux and attorney Bob Batterman, a negotiator for the industry, over a union proposal to bring more African-Americans into the hotel workforce. Negotiations are scheduled to resume on Nov. 29.
Hotel operators are wary about the cyclical nature of their trade. But this is a healthy industry. Since 2002, 21 new hotels have opened in Boston or will shortly. Boston has climbed its way on to the list of top 10 convention cities. That should translate into better lives for the roughly 6,000 hotel housekeep ers, waiters, bellmen, and others in Local 26, many of whom are reaching for the middle class. That's a hard stretch in an expensive city like Boston, where a hotel room attendant now earns $13.73 per hour.
Loux says that the union is looking for about a 5 percent annual increase on a five-year contract encompassing wages, healthcare, and retirement contributions. Batterman disputes that figure, saying the union is demanding more than 6 percent. Regardless of each side's formula, a fair contract would provide Boston hotel workers with healthcare coverage on a par with hotel workers in other large cities, and pay enough to encourage savings in retirement plans. Loux says that less than a quarter of her members can afford to contribute to a 401k plan.
Until now, a consortium of Boston hotels represented the industry at the collective-bargaining table. This year, that task falls solely to a negotiation team chosen by Starwood Hotels, operator of four large hotels in the city. Things are off to a rough and confusing start. Loux charges that only 32 African-Americans (as opposed to Haitians or other blacks) out of a workforce of 1,308 can be found working at Starwood's Sheraton Copley, Westin Copley, and Park Plaza hotels. Batterman calls that figure "pure nonsense" and says that roughly 200 African-Americans work throughout Starwood's four Boston hotels, which include the new Westin on the waterfront. Minimally, the sides should agree on a new outreach program to African-Americans and then get back to bread-and-butter issues.
Boston doesn't need labor unrest, especially the kind that discourages conventions.
