Amidst the blue-and-white bullhorns, the freedom posters and hundreds of pamphlets
adorning the union Local 217 office in Providence, a blaze-orange sign crying
“Boycott Biltmore” demands attention.
It’s been more than two months since the Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union, Local 217, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), put a boycott on the Providence Biltmore Hotel over contract disputes. The two sides have yet to reach an agreement, and until they do, the picketing and anti-Biltmore rhetoric to deter its business will continue, Local 217 Organizer Jenna Karlin said.
“Last time we negotiated a contract (April 2002), the hotel wasn’t doing as well, and we understood that. We settled on a contract that wasn’t exactly what we wanted because we want the hotel to prosper,” Karlin said. “If they aren’t doing well, we don’t have work.”
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About 100 unionized Biltmore employees have been working without a contract since Oct. 1, 2003, when it expired. The union put the Biltmore on its AFL-CIO boycott list in November. The group is working on getting the hotel on the national list.
The union is boycotting to pressure hotel ownership into dropping a contract clause that gives ownership the right to subcontract work to non-union employees.
“We’re using the strategy that it would be less expensive for them to just settle a contract with us,” Karlin said. “The hotel gives people good jobs with benefits and security. We want our people to be able to keep those jobs.
“We are skeptical of why they won’t commit to the contract. They haven’t said they plan on subcontracting, but if they weren’t planning to, they would have committed to our contract.”
The union successfully deterred some events, including a Christmas party Attorney General Patrick Lynch was planning for his campaign supporters there. Lynch pulled the event from the Biltmore and held the party at The Westin Providence Hotel instead, spokesman Michael Healy confirmed.
The Westin Hotel has a unionized work force, Karlin said.
The union members also passed out fliers to future brides who attended this year’s Southern New England Bridal Expo at the Rhode Island Convention Center, advising them not to book their weddings at the Biltmore – one of the hotel’s fortes.
Providence Biltmore General Manager Jonathan Shisler said the hotel has no new comments about the contract dispute, referring the Providence Business News to a statement released on Nov. 14 when the boycott was put out.
The Providence Biltmore Hotel statement calls the union’s boycott “ill-advised, counterproductive and illogical” because the hotel is one of only two privately owned unionized hotels in the city.
“If the boycott is successful, the union’s actions will solely benefit the non-union hotel properties in Providence to the detriment of the Biltmore’s unionized work force. Clearly, the union has not thought this through.”
Shisler defends the Biltmore in the statement saying the hotel has not demanded concessions from its workers, has proposed wage increases of 12 percent over three years, and has maintained benefits throughout skyrocketing costs without increasing employee contributions.
The union anticipates a meeting with Biltmore management by early February.
“We want to settle this, but we aren’t going to settle,” Karlin said.
