Ten SF Hotels Lock out Workers

Every gain working people have made in this country was wrested through hard struggle. To hold onto and expand these gains means politically combating the current pro-capitalist union leadership, which in a thousand ways impedes class struggle by tying the working masses to the capitalist order, primarily through support to the Democrats. It will be through the struggles of working people that a new class-struggle leadership will be forged in the unions. From the militant strike waged by UFCW grocery workers earlier this year to the potential strike by hotel workers on the West Coast and Washington, D.C., there is a palpable sense among workers and the oppressed that they have to fight to defend their livelihoods and better their conditions of life. The question is one of educating the working class that it must not only fight against expressions of its exploitation, but to overthrow the very capitalist system that breeds its exploitation.

http://www.icl-fi.org/ENGLISH/2004/Elections-832.html

Seeing that a lot of readers ( myself included ) do not understand what the term "locked out" refers to in the context of the current Unite Here contract dispute, would somebody who's in the know please explain for the rest of us?

In solidarity with the Local 2 members, Kim Rohrbach

Hi Kim,

Please read the first photo in this thread:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/10/1697496_comment.php

A "lockout" is when management doesn't let employees go to work during an industrial dispute.

So I understand that the locked out workers won't be allowed to work until the contract dispute is resolved. But does anyone know if there will be Board charges? Are the original strikers also now locked out indefinitely? And are the workers as whole working without a contract, or has an extension been granted?

Solidarity, Kim

A group of 14 San Francisco hotels that are engaged in a bitter labor dispute said Tuesday that a lockout of union workers will continue next week, beyond the scheduled end of a two-week strike against four of the hotels.

The hotels and the union representing 4,000 striking and locked-out workers on Tuesday both called for a return to negotiations. But they did so separately and without an agreed-upon time or location.

The hotels said in a statement Tuesday evening that they are proposing that "around-the-clock negotiations begin immediately." In the same statement, the hotels said that the lockout by 10 hotels that started Friday will continue next week and will grow to include some 1,400 workers at four hotels who have been on strike for a week.

The statement answered a looming question about whether workers at any or all of the 14 hotels -- including the Fairmont, Hyatt Regency, Westin St. Francis and Argent -- would be returning to their jobs Wednesday morning, after the original strike deadline is to expire.

Earlier Tuesday, a letter was delivered to the hotels by the Unite Here Local 2 union calling for renewed negotiations. The letter said that union members intend to go back to their jobs a week from today after a limited two- week strike, according to union President Mike Casey.

Talks between the union and the hotels broke down Sept. 15. The dispute centers on traditional issues such as wages, pensions and health premiums. The duration of the next contract has also become a central issue, with the union seeking to synchronize the expiration of hotel contracts nationwide in 2006.

Hotel spokeswoman Barbara French at first declined to comment on the union's letter, but later said that the hotels' bargaining group had agreed unanimously to continue the lockout to "ensure that it protects the business of its member hotels."

Casey, in response, said that the hotels had escalated the dispute by extending the lockout, but he also said that talks potentially could resume before the end of the week.

On Tuesday, the union and the hotels both said that they support the participation of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which has been involved largely on an informal basis until now.

The hotels in Tuesday's statement said they "are committed to negotiating with Local 2 on all outstanding issues" and did not address the length-of- contract issue.