A $1,000 Signing Bonus, Substantial Pay Hike and Free Health Care Top New Offer
The Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council on Monday proposed a radically restructured economic package to union members aimed at bringing stalled contract talks to a quick conclusion.
The new proposal offers a $1,000 signing bonus and a more than 20% wage hike for non-tipped employees over the four-year term of the contract. The offer also includes free-health care -- without co-pays, deductibles or employee contributions of any kind -- and an increase to pension and health and welfare funds.
"This is a substantial offer, giving employees an unprecedented pay and benefits package," said Brian Fitzgerald, president of the Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council. "The time to end these contract negotiations is now, for the good of the hotels, our employees and the Los Angeles economy."
The Hotel Council offer also includes the reimbursement of $10 weekly health care co-payments retroactive to July 1, 2004, to be paid within fifteen days of the date that the Union notifies the Council in writing that the contract is accepted. That reimbursement could mean up to an additional $300 to each employee.
The Hotel Council made it clear in their written offer to UNITE HERE Local 11 leadership that the proposal is a one-time only offer. It is not a new position from which to begin another round of slow moving negotiations.
"We hope the Union and its leadership will take this very seriously," said Fitzgerald. "Not only is this offer vastly superior to the short-term contracts that the Union has endorsed at other Los Angeles hotels, including the Hotel Bel-Air and Beverly Hilton, it is also much more generous than some contracts ratified recently in cities across the country."
Negotiations for a new labor contract between the Hotel Council and Local 11 have been dragging on for 14 months. Because there is no contract, hotel employees have missed three wage increases, as well as countless lost wages and tips from the ill effects of a union-sponsored boycott.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese has called for a return to serious consideration of a contract and a prompt conclusion to negotiations. The Hotel Council agrees with the Cardinal and hopes that the Union too will embrace his call for ending this needless stalemate.
The new four-year proposal would include large signing bonuses to be paid on ratification of the contract as follows:
-- A $1,000 signing bonus for non-tipped employees averaging 30 or more hours per week in 2004.
-- A $500 signing bonus for tipped employees averaging 30 or more hours per week in 2004 and non-tipped employees averaging more than 16 but less than 30 hours per week in 2004.
-- A $250 signing bonus for part-time tipped employees averaging more than 16 but less than 30 hours per week in 2004.
The proposal also includes significant wage increases, including:
-- $.75 per hour for non-tipped employees on ratification, plus
-- $.25 per hour for non-tipped employees every six months through the life of the contract, until October 2008, when there would be a $.50 increase, totaling $2.50 per hour in increases over the next four years. Tipped employees will have increases of 10 cents per hour in years two, three, and four (commencing in 2006).
The hotels in the Hotel Council already offer the highest wages and best benefits of hotels in Los Angeles, and exceed those at hotels in many American cities. By comparison, Local 11's new contract with the Beverly Hilton, a non-council hotel, calls for just a 40 cent an hour wage increase for non-tipped employees over two years. That's a wage increase of just 3.6 percent - substantially below the Hotel Council's offer.
"Now is the time to reach an agreement," said Fitzgerald. "Let's end the boycott, which is taking thousands of dollars out of employees' pockets with fewer hours, shifts and lost tips. Now is the time for the Union and the Hotels to finally reach a settlement."
Information on the Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council and its ongoing negotiations with UNITE Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 11 can be obtained at http://www.lahotelcouncil.com. The Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council is the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles, Hyatt West Hollywood, The Westin Century Plaza, Sheraton Universal Hotel, Wilshire Grand Hotel & Centre, Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Regent Beverly Wilshire and Westin Bonaventure Hotel.
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