Labor peace comes, finally,
to Vancouver Hilton Hotel
VANCOUVER — Hilton Vancou-
ver Washington workers have a second
union contract, 10 months after their
first one expired.
The new two-year deal, concluded
by Portland-based UNITE HERE Lo-
cal 9 in mid-May, covers 116 employ-
ees, including housekeeping, laundry,
banquet, and restaurant workers, though
not front desk. The agreement contains
five 20-cent raises totaling $1 an hour
for non-tipped employees, who previ-
ously earned Washington’s $9.04-an-
hour minimum wage. It also reduces
housekeeper workload to no more than
10 “checkouts” per shift within a daily
quota of 15 rooms.
Also, starting January 2014, work-
ing 24 hours a week will make workers
eligible for employer-provided health
insurance; the previous requirement
was 32 hours. Workers pay $40 a month
for employee-only coverage.
The contract also increases the
amount banquet servers get to keep out
of the automatic “service charge” paid
by convention center customers. Event
schedulers may believe that a “service
charge” is a gratuity that goes to work-
ers providing the service, but it’s com-
mon in the catering industry for the em-
ployer to keep all or part of it.
Hilton manages the 226-room hotel
and adjacent convention center under a
15-year contract with the facility’s
owner, the City of Vancouver’s Down-
town Redevelopment Authority. Previ-
ously, Hilton Vancouver banquet
servers received 53 percent of the serv-
ice charge; now they’ll get 57 percent.
With their share of the charge, banquet
servers can earn in the range of $19 an
hour, said server Jillian Province.
The new contract runs through June
30, 2014. It comes after the union
waged a long-running public campaign
of rallies and demonstrations.
“It was really hard for us to get what
we got,” says Province, who’s been ac-
tive in the campaign for a contract.
In December, the union filed a multi-
part unfair labor practice charge with
the National Labor Relations Board, ac-
cusing management of interfering with
a worker vote over whether to boycott
the hotel. Among other things, workers
were told the hotel would close if it was
boycotted, and were given donuts if
they voted no. Workers rejected the
boycott 57-49. Then on Dec. 21, pro-
union telephone operator Lucas Fielder
was fired.
But Fielder was returned to work in
early January, thanks to public pressure,
says UNITE HERE Local 9 deputy
trustee Karly Edwards. [Portland-head-
quartered Local 9 has been adminis-
tered by the national union since 2007,
when it was placed in trusteeship.] Ed-
wards said the Hilton settled the charge
without admitting guilt, and promised
in a bulletin board posting that it would
respect workers’ union rights.
Hilton Vancouver workers have been
union-represented since June 2006,
when the company recognized that a
majority had signed union authorization
cards. But they didn’t get a first contract
until June 2008, and pro-union workers
haven’t had an easy time of it: They
twice had to beat back decertification
efforts by anti-union workers.
Hilton Vancouver Washington is the
first hotel in the Northwest region to
settle during this round of negotiations;
Local 9 members in Portland at the
Hilton, Benson and Paramount hotels
remain without a new contract.
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
JUNE 1, 2012