[PEN-L:6104] (Fwd) US: FEDS CHARGE MARRIOTT WITH MASSIVE VIOLATIONS OF WORK

["Paul Phillips" <phillp2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Tue, 27 Apr 1999 11:59:34 -0700
To:            ccpa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From:          Sid Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>
Subject:       US: FEDS CHARGE MARRIOTT WITH MASSIVE VIOLATIONS OF WORKERS'
               RIGHTS

FEDS CHARGE MARRIOTT WITH MASSIVE VIOLATIONS OF WORKERS' RIGHTS

	By David Bacon

SAN FRANCISCO (4/26/99) -- Last week, after 18 months of exhaustive
investigation, the National Labor Relations Board finally issued a massive
complaint against the downtown Marriott Hotel, accusing management of
having waged an extensive and illegal campaign against Hotel and Restaurant
Employees Local 2.
	The nine separate charges include allegations that Marriott
illegally fired several workers, and discriminating against
union-represented workers in granting wage and benefit increases.
	Many of the charges have their origin in the effort by a shadowy
group, Associates for a United Marriott, to decertify Local 2 as union
bargaining agent in the fall and winter of 1997.  While decertification
petitions were circulating in the hotel, the NLRB accuses Marriott of
raising wages by 4% for non-union represented employees, while telling
union-represented workers that they would only be able to get wage
increases if Local 2 was no longer negotiating a contract.
	"The message was, if you make the union go away, you can get these
benefits too," room server Ramon Guevara, a Local 2 activist, told the Bay
Guardian at the time.
	A May 17 hearing has been set on the complaint.  If Marriott is
found guilty by an administrative law judge, it will be required to
reinstate the terminated employees with back wages, and repay employees for
health premiums they were forced to pay themselves for 16 months.  Marriott
would also have to post a public notice agreeing not to violate workers'
labor rights in the future.
	Contract negotiations at the hotel have been stalled for over a year.
	In possible anticipation of the recent complaint, last October
Marriott suddenly decided to give union-represented employees the same wage
increases it had offered to non-union employees, and pay the difference in
health insurance premiums.  Before the complaint was issued last week, it
also settled 63 other unfair labor practice charges.  As part of this
settlement, the NLRB has ordered Marriott to resume bargaining.
	Marriott first proposed building the hotel in 1980, and won a city
permit by agreeing to hire community residents to work in there.  It also
promised it would not oppose efforts by Local 2 to organize its employees.
	But after welcoming its first guests in 1989, it fought union
organizing efforts until an arbitrator, John Kagel, held in 1996 that a
majority of its employees had signed union cards.   Even then, according to
the new NLRB complaint, its anti-union efforts didn't end, and the company
quickly reached an impasse in bargaining.  Meanwhile, hundreds of Local 2
members and supporters have organized noisy picketlines on the corner of
Fourth and Mission Streets at least once a week, and have occasionally been
arrested en masse for blocking traffic.
	"Marriott should put its lawbreaking conduct behind it and move
quickly to settle a fair contract," said Local 2 President Mike Casey.

	- 30 -

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david bacon - labornet email            david bacon
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phone:          510.549.0291            berkeley, ca  94703
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