North Bay Progressive, January 2006
Union Contract Negotiations to Begin at the Petaluma Sheraton
By Eileen Morris
After a long and hard-fought battle, workers at the Petaluma Sheraton voted to join the UNITEHERE Local 2850 (a merger of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union) last month-a first for the Sonoma County hotel industry.
But will the 95 employees get a contract? Nationally, some 30 percent of successful union elections never result in a contract because negotiations break down.
Those in the know say that the Sheraton employees have a greater chance than most.
"You aren't alone in this," Stephanie Ruby, Organizing Director for HERE, told workers as they sat down Dec. 15 for their first discussion of contract negotiations. "You've got yourselves-the strong bonds and the great relationships you developed in this campaign. You've got the strength of this great union structure. And you've got the support of the community.
That's a lot of people who have your back."
Community support for a union work force at the Sheraton first took shape in late 1999 when the hotel's developers approached the city of Petaluma for financial assistance to help them meet construction and on-going operating expenses. Petaluma's City Council was interested in working with the hotel because it looked like the Sheraton would bring much needed revenue to city coffers in the form of increased property taxes and bed taxes. Additionally, local businesses would benefit from the hotel's conference facilities and the money that guests would spend at local businesses during their stays.
It was Marty Bennett, Co-Chair of the Sonoma County Living Wage Coalition and Executive Director of the North Bay think tank New Economy Working Solutions who first pointed out to the Council that a Sheraton could also result in additional and unintended public sector subsidies to the hotel owners. He described the low wages workers could expect to receive and those wages' inevitable corollary in expensive Sonoma County: Sheraton workers would have to access a variety of assistance programs-a truth since born out. In the three years' they've been working without a union contract, many Sheraton employees have been forced to use the Healthy Families Program, affordable housing programs, food stamps and other programs for the poor said Ruby. "This hotel's on welfare. We want to stop that. And that's not outrageous," Ruby told workers.
Numerous voices from labor and the religious community-most notably, parishioners from St. Vincent's Catholic Church in Petaluma-joined the Living Wage Coalition's initial call for accountable development.
The council in 2000 agreed that it was unfair to support low-wage employment with public funds. They agreed (6-1) to loan the hotel up to
$2.75 million, but a condition of the loan was that union labor would play an important role in the hotel's construction, and that the hotel management would remain neutral in any election among hotel employees.
Some $750,000 of the loan paid for parking lot construction. The rest of the money was to be borrowed monthly over a number of years, to offset operating expenses.
Workers' advocates in the community and in city government remained firm supportive throughout the last three years. When the hotel changed hands and management in 2003, continuation of the financial agreement with the city, loan repayment and labor neutrality seemed in peril, with the new owners declaring they didn't have to abide by provisions worked out by the previous owners. Dropping the labor neutrality provision might make eventual loan repayments more likely, the new owners suggested to the city, and, in that case, hotel owners would be happy to keep borrowing money every month. But after public outcry and negotiations with the city, new management agreed to both abide by the labor neutrality provision and shoulder the financial agreement.
However, in 2004, an arbitrator determined that the hotel had not remained neutral in an election campaign and ordered a new election. (Workers in the first election voted for the union, but many ballots were challenged, prompting the arbitrator to call for the new election).
By all accounts management did remain neutral for the current election.
"This time around the process was as good as it could have been," said Ruby.
Petaluma City Councilmember Mike Healy, the only remaining Councilmember who voted for the Sheraton deal, concurs: "This was about as positive as we could have hoped for," he said about the election this week. "It could very well set a precedent for the rest of the county. I've told the union folks this is their opportunity to show that a union can be a benefit to management. If they do that, others in the future might not be so resistant."
Bennett agrees. "Our preferred alternative is to make this a win-win situation for everyone. Arriving at a contract and having a union workforce is going to make the Sheraton a very attractive venue for large labor and progressive organizations. We really want to make that happen." At the same time, he said, "Our base is stronger than ever now, and our infrastructure is much more developed. We are willing to bring moral suasion to bear to make sure the hotel does the right thing and negotiates a fair contract."
Union structure and worker strength. Workers meeting with Ruby asked her what protections the union could extend to them if management attempted to punish them for their stand.
"What's different in your situation today is this," she said. "Before the election, you could have been fired at any time. Now, they can still fire you, but if they violate your rights, it will be exposed." One of those rights is to be free from discrimination no matter what your stand on the union had been, Ruby said.
A cook and a restaurant hostess both mentioned that their supervisors had been miffed about the election. "It's like they're trying to guilt us out," the hostess said.
"Management's job is to make you nervous, to make you afraid," said Ruby.
"But with this election, you've moved beyond a patriarchal relationship.
You're now equals, and we're going to negotiate from a position of strength."
Throughout the last six weeks of the election campaign, HERE flooded the area with unionized workers from hotels all over the state to inform Sheraton workers of the benefits of union contracts. One such worker, Anna Gutierrez, is a housekeeper at the Holiday Inn in Emeryville-a hotel which is managed by the same group that manages the Petaluma Sheraton.
"There were a lot of fears [among the Sheraton employees]," Gutierrez said, "but they were very excited to hear about my contract, and they are very excited to make their own."
Healthcare and higher wages are top priorities among Sheraton workers, but there was also a call for English as a Second Language course.
Interestingly, the Sheraton's first owners had been eager to create partnerships with the junior college and the Petaluma Adult School to offer basic skills, ESL and hospitality industry training. "Those partnerships could come back quickly," said Bennett. "There are already models in place that could enable workers to go from the back of the house to the front.
That's a huge benefit to everyone."
The union provides a structure that individual workers have to inhabit, Ruby said. "You've taken the first step. Now, the second step is to stay involved. This contract has to be about things you want for yourselves and your co-workers. That's going to give you the strength to stand up not just for yourself, but for them."
Ruby expects negotiations with hotel management to begin in mid-January.
Eileen Morris is a member of the Sonoma County Living Wage Coalition.
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