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HERE Local 2 President Mike Casey

October/November 2001 IBEW Journal

Good afternoon, sisters and brothers. It's indeed a pleasure and an honor to be here. Our international convention just concluded in July in Los Angeles. I have to tell you, I haven't felt as good speaking in front of a group as I do here today. I feel very much at home. Welcome to San Francisco.

It's also especially good to be among skilled crafts people. Anybody who watched any football games yesterday got a first-hand view of scab referees and how they can screw up a football game.

San Francisco is a strong union town with a rich tradition. But, like many union cities in America over the years, we have suffered some decline in manufacturing and in retail. Fortunately, the crafts are very strong here, as are the service employees; and, I'm proud to say, the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union represents 80 percent of the Class A hotels, all of which you are staying in. And I hope that our members will make you feel most at home.

We have a huge fight going on here in San Francisco. It's at the Marriott Hotel. It's the longest labor dispute going on probably in all of California. It started in 1980 when the company pledged that they would not resist unionization. At the time, they said they would honor a card check neutrality agreement. When they opened in 1989, they violated their word. And between 1989 and 1996, our union fought them with demonstrations and in a lawsuit and, ultimately, in 1996 we were able to get them to live up to the terms of an enforceable card check agreement.

We organized the 900 workers there in a period of about three months. The actual signing of the authorization cards took eight days with a committee of almost 100 people. We began negotiations in November of 1996, and since then we have been bargaining with this company.

The company launched an antiunion campaign to bust the union in 1997 and committed well over 150 unfair labor practices. The NLRB finally, after an investigation, in April of '99 issued a complaint, a massive complaint against the company. We still have not seen the first day of trial in that, because the company's lawyers, as we all know, can so manipulate the system.

Major issues are still outstanding among our members at the Marriott. In fact, I have just come from bargaining to speak here today. Marriott has just again initiated bargaining because of the pressure that's been applied to them. But major issues such as pensions and retirement benefits which we have throughout the city are still not settled here at the Marriott. Health and welfare eligibility, whereas in a union hotel here 95 percent of the workers will be eligible for health and welfare benefits, at Marriott, less than 70 percent have benefits. All other economic items, including paid time off, vacation and holidays, are outstanding.

And if you happen to be in a tipped position at the Marriott, the chances are that the majority of your gratuities are ripped off by the company. For bell persons, for banquet persons, for room service persons, the company charges a service fee and then keeps a significant portion of it, much more than what would happen in a union hotel.

Finally, the room cleaner workload, where the hardest working people in the hotel, the room cleaners, labor under a much more onerous workload than is found in a union hotel here in San Francisco.

Our campaign has been comprehensive. It's been a 20-year fight to get this company to not resist unionization, to honor their workers' demands. Over the last five years, we have done a number of things. We've waged a strike. We have waged a corporate campaign, trying to drive them, and actually have prevented their developments being awarded to them in different cities. And we have had an ongoing boycott.

When President Hill, who was secretary-treasurer at the time, came to San Francisco a year or two ago and we met with him, it was quite heartening because we hadn't moved a huge convention or entire group out of Marriott as of that time. Everybody said, oh, no, you can't do it because we have already set this thing up and we can't find other spaces.

President Hill said no, there's other rooms in San Francisco, and that's where we're going to stay if this hotel isn't union. A decision had to be made and I'm pleased --

-- and I'm pleased that our sisters and brothers in the Electrical Workers stood up. Just like Art Pulaski said earlier about the leadership that the IBEW has shown, you showed leadership here. Since the IBEW has moved out, we've had over a dozen other major conventions and scores of different business groups and other associations pull out of the Marriott.

The IBEW has been solidly there for us. As I said, we're back at the bargaining table after six months of no bargaining. They have begun to move on some significant areas; however, we need to finish this job. We need to finish this fight.

I'm going to ask you for one more favor. I'm going to ask you to join us this coming Wednesday at the conclusion of your meetings on Wednesday. I know what it's like to be at a convention, sometimes you sit in a chair all day; and we're going to give you an opportunity to get up out of the chairs, to walk outside the door, walk up Fourth Street and join us at the San Francisco Marriott in a demonstration. Will you do that?

We'll have members from the Hotel Workers out there.

About a year ago the Machinists Union were in town. We hit every single traffic report because the streets were completely stopped because of that. And I've got to say as I look out over this group, this is much bigger than the Machinists convention was. So I hope that all of you will join us.

I hope all of you would join us. These kinds of actions have a huge impact. It's these kinds of demonstrations that were responsible for helping us win a six-year strike in Las Vegas at the Frontier. Many trade unionists struck or demonstrated out there during that fight, and we've been doing that here as well.

On Labor Day we had about 400 people out there. We do ongoing demonstrations on a weekly basis and this should be a huge action. So we'll have folks out here as you leave the convention center on Wednesday. Will you join me?

Thank you.

The Electrical Workers have for years been lighting up the schools and the libraries and government offices and all kinds of businesses and homes across America; and I'm looking forward to all of you lighting up the streets of San Francisco in front of Marriott. Thank you very much.