Heard a rumor about a big hotel project coming to town? Just ask Warren Heyman.
Heyman is secretary of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 217. Among other duties, his job is to persuade hotel developers – long before the first spade of dirt is turned – to agree not to interfere in employees’ decisions regarding whether to unionize.
Under pacts called “card count neutrality agreements,” employers agree to allow union-membership applications to be counted as an official ballot when workers vote to form a union. Unions argue that these agreements are necessary because elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board fail to provide adequate protection against pressure from employers.
Heyman said that because hotel projects sometimes are given tax breaks or other financial incentives from the public sector, developers should be held to a higher standard when it comes to labor relations.
“If we’re giving these guys public money to create notoriously low-wage, high-turnover, no-benefit jobs, then what’s the public getting out of it?” Heyman said. “Card count neutrality agreements are a fair way for workers to make their own decision free of harassment and intimidation.”
Because the agreements come early in the development process, Heyman keeps his ear to the ground for whispers of new hotel projects, often attending meetings of the Capital Center Commission, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. and the Providence Redevelopment Agency.
Lately, he’s been busy. Three hotel projects are in various stages of development in Providence, and Local 217 is two for three.
Developer and former state representative Vincent J. Mesolella signed an agreement with the union in connection with his plan for a $60 million, 392-room hotel at the sight of the Fogarty Building on Sabin Street across from the convention center.
And businessman Stanley Weiss, who is planning to renovate two historic buildings at Mathewson and Westminster streets into a boutique hotel, also has signed an agreement with Local 217, Heyman said.
That leaves Sage Hospitality Resources Inc., the Denver-based developer that in October announced a $60 million plan to redevelop the Masonic Temple as a 250-room Marriott Renaissance hotel. Heyman said he has requested a meeting with Sage officials to discuss an agreement, although no meeting has been scheduled yet.
So what does the developer get out of signing to a card count neutrality agreement? Often, the agreement includes a binding-arbitration clause to settle future disputes, so the union is less likely to disrupt the workplace through strikes or boycotts.
But another key consideration for developers is that they usually get the union’s support during the hotel’s development phase – a process that can turn cantankerous in a hurry. Heyman said that factor is one reason the agreements are signed so early in the development process.
“If the developer is willing to sign an agreement and respect the workers to make their own choice, then we’re willing to go to bat for them and lobby on their behalf,” Heyman said.
Local 217 represents more than 2,600 hospitality industry workers in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Its membership runs the gamut, from workers at the Biltmore and Westin hotels in downtown Providence to dog handlers at Lincoln Greyhound Park.
Union members also includes food-service workers at the Rhode Island Convention Center and Dunkin’ Donuts Center, food-service workers in the Coventry, Warwick and Pawtucket school districts and custodians at the Newport Naval Station.
