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Hub hotel union signs pact,
with trimmingsBy Jay Fitzgerald
Boston Herald
General Economics Reporter
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
After months of
protests and tense negotiations, the city’s largest hotel union and Starwood
Hotels yesterday reached a new contract agreement that averts a citywide strike
- and guarantees workers free Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys.
“It’s a great historic victory,” said Janice Loux,
president of Unite Here Local 26, of the tentative agreement that ultimately
applies to 19 city hotels with more than 5,000 workers.
Workers got pay increases, a new defined-pension plan,
and a reduction in the number of rooms housekeeping staff have to clean each
day, Loux said.
In what was billed as the “battle of the beds,” the union
wanted to cut the number of rooms cleaned by workers, due to injuries associated
with bigger beds.
The union, which had threatened to go on strike if a deal
wasn’t reached soon, expects the six-year contract will be approved by members
later this week. Starwood, which manages four hotels in Boston, negotiated a
pact that applies to 15 other hotels in Boston under a so-called “me too”
bargaining agreement.
While Loux described the pact as a victory for the union,
Starwood attorney Bob Batterman said it’s nearly identical to hotel contracts
recently hammered out in New York and other cities.
“Overall, it’s a very good contract for hotels and for
employees,” said Batterman of the six-year deal.
Loux said she was especially excited about one contract
provision: Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys for each union worker.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attacks and a
drop-off in tourism, many hotels that used to give out free turkeys stopped
doing so.
Now union members have the turkey perk written into their
contract, Loux said.
“They’re never going to take those turkeys away,” she
said.
Batterman said he wasn’t privy to any turkey discussions,
but said such a provision could have been tucked into the contract during
“sideline” negotiations. | 
