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Media Articles on Law Firm Labor Relations in SF Approaching Flash Points SF Chronicle Forget the cold Fog: This could be a hot summer for labor relations in San Francisco. Two of San Francisco’s biggest and most activist unions -- representing hotel workers and janitors at downtown office buildings -- each have citywide contracts that are set to expire within the next four weeks. Local 87 of the Services Employees International Union, which represents 3,500 janitors at about 300 office buildings, has a contract that will expire on July 31. Local 2 of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union, which represents 4,000 workers at 11 Class A hotels, has a contract that will expire on August 14. In addition, Local 2 represents another 4,000 workers at about a dozen other hotels with separate contracts that will expire shortly after that. Both unions have been holding rallies the past several weeks to mobilize their members and they plan an unusual joint rally next Thursday. Both hope to take advantage of the current booming economy to win significant wage and benefit increases. The janitors, for instance, say their current wages of $9.80 to $14.05 per hour have lagged behind inflation by 9 percent since 1988. They’re seeking "catch-up" raises in addition to cost of living increases. "Like all American unions, in 1999 these unions are asking for more money than three or five years ago when the economy appeared to be in a different place," said Stuart Korshak, a lawyer for the 11 hotels with the joint contract, including the Hilton, Sheraton Palace, Fairmont and Westin St. Francis. However, the issues in both sets of talks go beyond dollars-and-cents issues. One big issue in the janitorial talks is the union hiring hall. The janitorial companies are asking for an end to the decades-old hiring hall practice, where the union dispatches workers to meet employers’ staffing needs. The companies say that the hiring hall process makes staffing unnecessarily complicated and that the union sometimes sends them workers with bad performance records. They want to be free to hire whomever they want. "Janitors have been fired for theft or sexual harassment, but then they go back to the hiring hall and get recycled to a different employer," said Robert Ford, a lawyer representing the half-dozen janitorial firms involved in the talks. But Local 87 officials say the hiring hall protects workers against favoritism. They say the companies are trying to make it easier to lay off senior, highly paid workers and replace them with new lower-paid staff. "Right now, if a senior worker is laid off they can at least get a job through the union,"" said Richard Leung, president of Local 87. "Without the hiring hall, they will have no protection. Employers will be able to fill all the jobs with people who have less seniority, at a lower wage scale." The non-wage issues in the hotel talks include pension improvements and housekeepers’ workload. Local 2 also wants some provisions to help it organize other hotels. For instance, Local 2 wants the companies to allow workers to unionize at any new hotels they may open simply by signing union cards, not by going through the longer process of a National Labor Relations Board election. The hotel owners are seeking changes in some job descriptions and work rules that they say will give them greater flexibility in meeting guests’ needs. At this point, the hotel talks seems to be moving more smoothly than the janitors’ talks. That may be partly due to the fact that Local 2 and the hotel owners launched a labor-management "partnership" five years ago aimed at working together more smoothly. "While we reject a lot of their proposals, the discussions are cordial and respectful," said Local 2 President Mike Casey. Local 87 and the janitorial firms, meanwhile, seem to be finding little common ground on issues such as the hiring hall. "We’ve been bargaining for weeks now and time is running out," said Leung of the janitors’ union. "People don’t want to strike. But they feel they have no choice but to fight back if their job security and standard of living is under attack." |