UNITE HERE Local 9 gets contract at Portland Hilton
Contract negotiators for the Portland Hilton
Hotel & Executive Tower and UNITE HERE Lo-
cal 9 reached a breakthrough May 29 that will
likely end the union’s seven-month-old boycott of
the hotel.
The company agreed to nearly every major
proposal by the union. If, as expected, members
approve the contract in a vote to take place next
week, the union’s boycott coordinator will spend
time trying to bring business back to the hotel.
Dozens of unions, non-profit groups and politi-
cians cancelled events or scheduled them else-
where out of respect for the boycott, and the De-
mocratic Party of Oregon pledged not to schedule
any events at the Portland Hilton this year. That
meant hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost
business for the hotel.
Housekeepers were reportedly dancing in the
break room when they heard the news that their
work load will decrease — which was a key
union goal. In two months, the daily cleaning
quota will be 15 rooms, down from the current
16. And of those rooms, the number which are
“checkouts” will go down from 12 to 11, and to
10 in a year’s time.
The new agreement contains higher wages
than those paid in Seattle, which has a higher cost
of living than Portland. The contract has a four-
year term, and is retroactive to Aug. 1, 2007;
workers will get a back pay check of 45 cents an
hour for any hours worked since the old contract
expired. The roughly 100 housekeepers, who now
make $10.10 an hour, will be making $12.20
when the new contract ends July 31, 2011. Even
parking valets, who had been making minimum
wage (plus tips and benefits), will now make a
dollar over minimum.
In the banquet department, workers will now
get to keep 90 percent of the automatic gratuity,
up from the current 75 percent.
The Hilton agreed to a bus pass subsidy of $25
a month, which will rise to $30 and then $40 by
Letter Carriers collect record
73.1 million pounds of food
The 2008 National Association of
Letter Carriers’ “Stamp Out Hunger”
Food Drive collected a record 73.1 mil-
lion pounds of food donations in the
nation’s largest one-day effort to com-
bat hunger.
Locally, more than 3,000 letter car-
riers throughout Oregon and Clark
County, Wash., set a new record this
year, collecting more than 1.65-million
pounds of food. In the Portland metro
area, letter carriers collected 843,258
pounds of food. That’s an increase of
nearly 3 percent over the previous year.
“While we didn’t reach our goal of
two-million pounds of food, we are
thrilled to have set a new statewide
record for the food drive for the second
year running,” says L.C. Hansen, pres-
ident of Letter Carriers Branch 82. “We
thank everyone who donated to the
drive, and we encourage people to con-
tinue to fight hunger locally throughout
the year.”
The NALC food drive takes place
annually on the second Saturday in
May.
“What our letter carriers do on this
one day is simply amazing,” said
Rachel Bristol, executive director of
Oregon Food Bank. “We also thank the
hundreds of volunteers who stepped
forward to help and the hundreds of
thousands of postal customers who do-
nated high-quality food for their letter
carriers to pick up on this day. Your ef-
forts made a big difference.”
Machinist to hold
Guide Dog Dash
motorcycle event
Machinist Lodge 63 will host the
second annual “Guide Dog Dash”
Motorcycle Run Saturday, June 28.
The start and finish will be at the
Machinists Hall, 3645 S.E. 32nd Ave.
Portland. Registration is 8 a.m. and
the first bikes will go out at 8:30 a.m.
The last bikes will go out at 9:30 a.m.
Each rider and passenger will re-
ceive an event t-shirt.
Pre-registration is a $25 donation
per rider and $10 per passenger. Day
of ride: $30 per rider, $10 passenger.
Pre-registration must be received at
the hall no later than June 25.
All proceeds go to “Guide Dogs of
America. ”Registration forms are on-
line at www.iamdl24.org.
the end of the contract. The Portland Hilton may
be the only one in the country to agree to such a
subsidy.
And the contract contains a variety of provi-
sions that will increase job security and enable the
union to build power.
Management agreed to successorship lan-
guage, so that if the Hilton sells the hotel, the con-
tract will remain in force with the new owner.
That was a big issue for the union; the last time
the Benson Hotel was sold, the new owners fired
and rehired all the employees and the union had
to bargain the contract anew.
The agreement also contains language restrict-
ing subcontracting of bargaining unit work, and
even bring back in-house some bakery work that
had been outsourced. And the bakers got a sizable
bonus for the disruption they suffered.
The contract end date is the same as the con-
tract expiration date for the Seattle and Vancou-
ver, Washington hotels, in accord with a union
goal that all contracts expire at the same time to
maximize worker bargaining power. The Seattle
Hilton settled its contract May 28, and Local 9
was hopeful the Vancouver Hilton would also
sign its first agreement soon, two years after
workers joined the union.
And the hotel agreed for the first time to allow
members to take leaves of absence to do union
work: up to three workers for an indefinite
amount of time, and up to 10 for any two-month
period.
Finally, for any hotel the Hilton builds or ac-
quires within Portland city limits, the company
agreed to adopt a stance of neutrality toward
unionizing efforts, and to recognize the union if a
majority of workers sign authorization cards.
Local 9 called the contract a major leap for-
ward. Assuming ratification goes off without a
hitch, the union may push the Portland Hilton as a
model, and as a hotel deserving of business from
unions and pro-labor organizations.
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