American Philosophical Association Pacific Division

Labor Dispute at the 2010 Conference Hotel

Statements on the Labor Dispute at the 2010 Conference Hotel

Monday, January 25, 2010

Local 2 of the Unite Here union has called for a boycott of several San Francisco hotels, including the Westin St. Francis, the site of the 2010 meeting of the APA Pacific Division. Having consulted with program participants and considered the options, the Division’s Executive Committee has decided that the meeting will take place as planned in the St. Francis.

Background

It is the Division’s policy to meet at unionized hotels, and the Westin St. Francis hosted meetings in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2010. Hotel contracts are normally signed years in advance, and that is the case with the 2010 contract with the St. Francis. At the time of signing, the St. Francis was on Unite Here’s “please patronize” list.

The Current Situation

The Division learned in December that the collective agreement between the hotels and Local 2 had expired in August and the union had called for a boycott of the St. Francis and several other properties and had placed every other large unionized hotel in San Francisco on its “at risk” list. The Executive Committee asked the Secretary-Treasurer to travel to San Francisco to meet with hotel management and representatives of the union. He made contact with the union by email on December 15th and met with each party face-to-face on December 18th and 19th.

The Secretary-Treasurer reported that members of Local 2 are not on strike, but the boycott is likely to persist into April, and the union could offer no assurance that the boycott would bypass any of San Francisco’s unionized hotels with conference facilities suitable to house our program. He also reported that there is a significant risk of the dispute spreading to Los Angeles and that the only city with multiple suitable properties safe from boycott is Las Vegas. Finally, the Division’s current contract includes a clause which allows us to cancel a booking in event of a boycott, in exchange for a future booking with the same value. The Committee therefore agreed that it should consider the option of moving the meeting outside San Francisco, after consulting with everyone on the program who might be affected by moving the meeting.

Survey Results

An on-line survey was conducted January 18th to 23rd and seventy-seven percent of those listed on the program responded – the full numerical results are available for download. The Executive Committee acknowledges that a survey is an imperfect instrument and that many participants do not have all the information they might want, but the Committee was concerned to get a rough indication of the preferences of program participants.

Responses to Q6, “in the circumstances, the Division should attempt to move the 2010 meeting to an alternate site,” were relatively evenly distributed but show some preference in favor of staying at the St. Francis – 43 percent to 34 percent (with 23 percent neutral). Responses to Q9, which asked for an explicit preference ranking, were clearer: 55 percent preferred staying at the St. Francis, followed by 31 percent who preferred moving to another site in the Bay Area, while only 14 percent preferred moving to a site outside the Bay Area.

In addition, the Committee was concerned to understand the impact on meeting participants of a possible change of venue. One in three respondents had already purchased airline tickets, and many commented that they had purchased non-refundable or “penalty” tickets, some adding that they had prepaid non-refundable hotel rooms. A majority of respondents reported that it would be difficult for them if the meeting was moved outside the Bay Area.

Conclusion

In light of these considerations, the Committee decided against moving the meeting venue outside the Bay Area and also concluded that, taken as a whole, participants prefer the meeting to stay the St Francis. The Committee acknowledges the strong feelings of those who support the boycott, and the Secretary-Treasurer will work with the Program Chair to advertise sessions whose participants wish to meet outside the St. Francis. Guidelines for making this happen will be issued in early February.

As a long-time loyal customer of the St. Francis and the Starwood chain, the Pacific Division has the attention of hotel management. The Secretary-Treasurer will continue to express his grave concerns about the boycott and the failure of the parties to reach a settlement, and he will press that measures be taken to avoid a repeat in the future. Looking beyond this year, the Division will continue to select hotels from Unite Here’s “please patronize” list and to negotiate contracts with “strike/boycott clauses.” It will also endeavor, where possible, not to book dates beyond existing contracts.

Some participants have asked for alternate hotel recommendations. As many unionized facilities in San Francisco are either under boycott or at risk of boycott, we advise participants to consult the Hotel Union Guide page for San Francisco. However, we cannot vouch for the quality or cost of any hotels in the area.

Friday, January 22, 2010

The Pacific Division has a policy only to meet at unionized hotels. Since 2005 it has negotiated hotel contracts that allow it to postpone a booking to a future year in the event of a labour dispute.

In December 2009, the Division’s Executive Committee learned that Local 2 of Unite Here, the hotel workers union, had called for a boycott of the Westin St Francis, the site of the Division’s 2010 meeting. The Committee dispatched the Secretary-Treasurer to San Francisco on December 18th and 19th to meet individually with hotel management and representatives of the union.

At this meeting, union representatives identified health care premiums and co-pays as the principal issue in dispute. This was confirmed in a series of union press releases provided at the time. When the Secretary-Treasurer spoke on the phone with a union representative on January 18th, he was informed that there had been no further bargaining and no further proposals offered. The union has now publicly stated that additional issues are in dispute.

Since the boycott is likely to persist well beyond the spring and is likely to spread to other unionized San Francisco hotels, the Committee agreed that it should consider the option of moving the meeting outside San Francisco. The Committee also felt that no decision should be made without having consulted those who might be affected. It therefore authorized a survey of all those listed on the conference program, and this survey is being conducted this week (January 18th to 23rd).

Starting on January 20th, representatives of the union have been emailing and telephoning philosophers around the continent. The names and affiliations of all program participants are public information on the Division’s web site. The APA has not provided the union with email addresses or telephone numbers of its members or program participants, though some email addresses are included in the membership list printed in the November Proceedings. The APA Privacy Statement is available for download.

At present, the union has called for a boycott, but hotel staff are not on strike. As a result, there is no picket line that hotel workers and customers are enjoined not to cross. There might be “informational pickets” or demonstrations.

The Secretary-Treasurer continues to express his grave concerns about the failure of collective bargaining when he communicates with hotel management, and the Executive Committee has also asked him to investigate alternate sites. In making a final decision, the Committee must weigh a number of factors, including the Division’s support of hotel staff, the availability and viability of alternate sites, the preferences of meeting participants, and the impact on meeting participants. A decision will be made shortly, and will be published on this web page.

APA Pacific Division Executive Committee

Heather Battaly, CSU Fullerton
Michael Bratman, Stanford University
Nancy Cartwright, LSE and UC San Diego
Stewart Cohen, University of Arizona
Rebecca Copenhaver, Lewis and Clark College
Dominic McIver Lopes, University of British Columbia
Ned Markosian, Western Washington University
Michael Tooley, University of Colorado
Julie Van Camp, CSU Long Beach