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Latest Three Day San Francisco Hotel Strike Angers Management Negotiator Created by Brian Shields on 11/10/2009 11:25:00 AM
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- The chief negotiator for one of San Francisco's largest hotels is expressing anger at a decision by the hotel workers' union to stage a three day strike in front of the Palace Hotel.
"At 4:00 this morning the union set up picket lines in front of one of the Starwood hotels, the Palace," Starwood Hotels Chief Negotiator Richard Curiale told KRON 4's Jackie Sissel. "We were surpirsed by it. We knew there were going to be rolling strikes around the city but what particularly surprised me about this is that the union knew last night that all of the owners of the Starwood Hotels were flying into town to consider the proposal that (the union) made and this is the thanks that they get. This is the welcome that they get."
Picketers with drums and bullhorns say they will stay in front of the Palace from now through Friday. The members of Unite Now say they have been working without a contract since August. Last week the same union staged a three-day strike at the Grand Hyatt hotel in San Francisco.
(Copyright 2009, KRON 4, All rights reserved.)
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| 4/11/2010 11:09:14 AM
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Anonymous
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| I was one of the hundres of managers laid off when the recession hit SF. I was unemployed for almost a year while my former employees were still making close to $100,000 a year and paying close to nothing for their healthcare and that of their families.. Union employees have nothing to complain about. The union is the real colprut, SCARING away business for the employees they CLAIM to HELP.. REALLY???? How is reducing their hours and tips (BECAUSE OF LESS BUSINESS YOU ARE DRIVING AWAY) going to help them long term... Makes no sense to me.. GOOD LUCK TO YA Union and hopefully you will be driven out.. FYI there are thousands of people waiting in the wings to work for these well paying hotels who dont give a damn about the union. |
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| 11/13/2009 2:36:28 PM
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Anonymous
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| bottom line: hotel workers, along with management, create all the wealth for the corporation and its shareholders. but why does management have better working terms? |
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| 11/13/2009 10:54:58 AM
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JAM
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| Remember why we're in a financial crisis!
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| We are in a financial crisis because of the deregulation of banking allowing for high risk investments, plus a million other bad choices made by big corporations! But they got the bail out, that did not trickle down to the workers and instead stayed at the top filling the pockets of the wealthy, who still declared bankruptcy after receiving our tax money!!! These workers are asking for fair contracts and healthcare, these are basic human needs! If you read, hotel owners, like starwood, reports to the "market" saying that they are doing better this year with expansion nearing the 1000th hotel internationally! recession to them? I think not! Unions actually help the workers unite on issues and collectively push for fair contracts, they ensure that the needs of the workers are met! Did you ever read history? It's power in numbers, because one voice would not be listened to by the big businesses who care less about one "lowly" worker...and by the way, this comment: "Sometimes silence can speak volumes" does not make sense, poetic, but realistically silence can only perpetuate injustice and assumptions...Our voices must be used in order to get our voices heard! We are in solidarity with the hotel workers! Keep fighting! Make that noise! And people should listen! |
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| 11/13/2009 9:06:49 AM
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Anonymous
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| Laure: I would have frankly been more sympathetic if the strikers would have taken the rest of the area into consideration when they decided to picket. As far as I understand, what is at issue is that the Union workers might have to pay some additional minimal amount ($5-$20) toward their own healthcare, when the rest of us are paying $500+/month? That, I just don't care about. Healthcare and families are important, $5-$20/month more in this market is not. For me, I am actually unemployed and working very hard from my cubicle nearby. I am, as you put it, 'feeling the recession.' The fact that so many people were making noise all day with bullhorns, etc.. impacted me significantly. I am not a CEO, nor a manager at a hotel, I am just a regular guy trying to survive in this market out of a rented cubicle. By the union's complete inconsideration for the rest of the area, it has lost my support. I would have crossed the picket line in a moment, had I had anything that I wanted to buy at the Palace hotel. |
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| 11/12/2009 5:02:02 PM
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laure
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| You don't give a damn about their healthcare?
Well, you frankly don't know what struggles are involved with working in the hotel industry. Healthcare is VERY important, in a job that is physically demanding, and can lead to injuries and pains- healthcare is important! You can sit around in a cubicle all day long and well, frankly there's not much risk to that. In a job setting that is also very easily exposed to germs etc. HEALTHCARE IS IMPORTANT. FAMILIES ARE IMPORTANT. Yes, we should be grateful for jobs but our quality of living should not be affected by those who are not feeling the recession. These CEOs and managers are not hurting, but they want to make those who make the hotel run and function suffer. |
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| 11/12/2009 4:43:27 PM
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Anonymous
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| How many companies have we seen go under do to the Unions pushing to hard. let me remind you of some, airlines, car companies, newspapers and the list goes on and when they destroy the company and all the workers are out of a job the Union walks away. Why doesnt the Union use all the money it gets from dues to help the companies thier members are working for. like the hotels, help pay for advertising and marketing San Francisco as a great destination for tourism and business travel. this helps the 6000 workers they represent keep thier jobs. but they dont spend a penny on anything but thier own agenda. The people need to wake up and relize they relly dont care about you, just your dues! |
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| 11/12/2009 3:59:42 PM
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bystanderer
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| hotel owners life is "tough" too!!
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| that's right! Educate yourself. There's always two sides to coin.
The CEO and hotel Manager may have a multimillion dollar condos and yak that they have to pay mortgage on, they might have kids who go to private school in Europe and wives who would not take anything less than diamond rings for x-mas present..Their lives are tough and they demand to be respected!!
I mean how hard can life be as a hotel worker? How hard can it be to be able to work at a fancy hotel, clean the rooms, scrub the toilets and bus the dishes for the same gracious, kind and rich people that own other big or small business?
Without their conspicuous consumption, their lobbying of our politicians, their profit margins, San Francisco or America really would not have an economy, it would not be what it is.
I agree that all Palace Hotel owners should get their bonuses, AIG got it, all those big banks got it. Why shouldn't they?
We should give them a tax cut too so they will graciously employ us.
We need to remember, if we think like the rich, we'll be rich ourselves too. Like the Nike commercial, we think, therefore we are!! Yayyyyyy |
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| 11/12/2009 3:58:33 PM
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Sunny Angulo
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| It is such a pathetic and repressive argument to make that workers must bite their tongues and put the needs of their families and their health on hold because we are in a recession. We are in a recession because we have failed to value the labor of working class to begin with. We have given cuts and bailouts to the richest people in our society, and yet people want to argue that workers should just be grateful they have jobs?? It's so callous and unproductive. We need to stand strong with the people that actually ARE feeling the recession - and I can guarantee it's not Starwood.
Now they're upset because workers are protesting upon their arrival? As strategic business operatives, I'm sure the point of this maneuver is not lost on them. They need to know that workers are serious, and that means they will need to do more than fly in and "consider" their proposals. They have the luxury of flying home when they are tired of listening to striking workers outside their hotel. C'mon, guys: that's what a strike is. Obviously they're not "thanking" people for deigning to come deal with their responsibilities - I hadn't realized that was required of them. |
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| 11/12/2009 3:57:40 PM
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Eric Smith
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| Palace Hotel Says, “Let Them Eat Cake”
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| Beyond Chron accurately framed the debate.. "This is an important stance uniting all hotel workers even as they bargain separately with each hotel..."
"The Union is negotiating separately with each of the 61 hotels whose contracts covering 9000 workers expired in August 2009. The objective is to get one agreement that can serve as the bench mark for all the other hotels reflecting Local 2’s “one union, one contract” policy which establishes the same standards for all hotels in the city, big or small..."
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| 11/12/2009 2:13:19 PM
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Anonymous
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| Sitting here in my office on Market Street, listening to these animals make so much noise. I don't care about the hotel, and I don't care about the Union workers's healthcare (this is all about increasing monthly healthcare contributions from $10-$15?). Fact is that there is a recession on and these guys should be happy to have jobs. Instead, they feel entitled. I'd like to see the owners lock the workers out and break the union. |
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| 11/11/2009 9:49:40 PM
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Anonymous
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| These people are fighting for fair wages and healthcare. What the hell is wrong with that? Folks have been working there for 30+ years and still make super low wages. They are overworked and underpaid. They don't get any respect because they are in the service industry. Hotel management and the hotel biz is not suffering. And don't even try to say that management makes less than these union workers. Get the facts before you make ignorant comments about something just because it inconveniences you. They have the right to unionize and VOICE their opinion. Hang in there hotel workers! We support you! |
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| 11/11/2009 3:37:50 PM
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Anonymous
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| It crosses the line when other businesses become affected by the noise generated by the picketing. When offices have to close down across and down the street because they are unable to hold a phone conversation because of the noise...it becomes a problem. Perhaps figuring out a more progressive, less invasive way to voice your opinions and fight for your rights is needed. Sometimes silence can speak volumes. |
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| 11/11/2009 1:10:49 PM
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Independent Business owner
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| Get real. It's called negotiations and there should be a compromise. Hotel workers should pay like everyone else who make less than them but have to pay something for their healthcare. Stikes hurt everyone including the city, the industry the employees and the hotels etc. How many people invest their money only to take a loss... If the unions want to dictate profits and loss then they should open their own hotels and run them themselves! In reality their profits will come from their members who have to pay ridiculous union dues, that give them a strike and no voice. There are two sides to every story... only one side is ever shared with the employees. Some hotels can't make their mortgages and are suffering. Ultimately the tourists of San Francisco suffer. Why doesn't our city government see this, oh because they need votes! Has anyone really figured out what these people make... you might be surprised they make more than you think then add all the costs of their benefits and you would be really shocked! Again be careful what you hear. Educate yourselves. |
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| 11/11/2009 10:08:47 AM
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Anonymous
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| Anyone who knows anythinig about hotels, how they are financed, operated, their liability to bogus lawsuits, how regulated and governed they are clearly knows that hotel owners and operators know they have to keep the "staff" happy. They also know that unions are responsible for more hotel closings than the above mentioned combined. So hopefully SF hotels can replace these unappreciative staff and ones who are uneducated to the ways of the unions, and replace with people who are willing to work for a fair wage. Full benefits? (a thing of the past in the real world). Get the union out of the middle and work together. neither of you can survive with out the other, except the union will move on to another hotel. Most management can as well. Owners may get hurt financially but will survive, but there are only a certain number of hotel jobs in SF...
maybe the Union should buy some hotels and provide jobs to the union employees - Love to here a union reps answer to that! |
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| 11/11/2009 9:18:03 AM
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Anonymous
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| Can I ask you what your co-pay is for healthcare? If it is zero, then you are correct. I believe the hotels are asking the union folks to pay a nominal fee to keep the same care.
Hotels would like a long term contract, just like we have had for the last 3-4 contracts, why 1 year now? |
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| 11/11/2009 8:44:33 AM
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Anonymous
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| Stop union corruption, how much does union management make? Time to focus on the workers, and not the wealth and power of the union. |
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| 11/11/2009 8:19:42 AM
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Anonymous
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| These Hotel workers deserve nothing ... hire some of the thousands of unemployed willing to take these good jobs ... the Union will be their ultimate downfall ... |
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| 11/11/2009 7:45:14 AM
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Anonymous
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| You have the best deal in the country. At a time when people are losing jobs you continue to squabble. The hotels haven't been profitable in SF for years because of the contracts. You think the managers at those hotels are multi-millionaires? Many of them make less than you. I will never bring business to SF because of the union. |
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| 11/10/2009 6:04:28 PM
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Anonymous
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| Stand strong hotel workers! Don't let those multimillionaires make you pay more for your healthcare. They just want to open the door to increase their own already bloated profits. These guys aren't feeling the recession - don't let them use it as an excuse to make cuts to your benefits. You work hard and deserve everything you have and more. Keep fighting - for yourselves and for all working folks. |
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