Hotels, Union Agree Only to Talk Again Next Week

Negotiators for 14 D.C. hotels and the hotel employees union, meeting yesterday after a six-day impasse, reported little headway in resolving substantive issues but said there were enough hints of progress to warrant continued talks.

While the talks were going on, some workers were expressing anxiety about the prospects of a strike. At the city's largest hotel, the Marriott Wardman Park on Connecticut Avenue NW, employees said they wanted more money but were worried about getting caught up in national labor politics between the unions and the hotels.

The next bargaining session is scheduled for Monday, when national Unite Here President Bruce S. Raynor will be available to participate, said John A. Boardman, executive secretary-treasurer of Local 25.

"We did not check one issue off our checklist. We did not agree on one proposal," Boardman said after the meeting.

"There was progress in the sense that the talks were civil and the dialogue was rational," said Peter Chatilovicz, a lawyer representing the Hotel Association of Washington in the negotiations. "But substantive progress wasn't really evident."

Boardman, who has declared that employees might strike ever since the last round of negotiations broke down Sept. 15, yesterday said a strike is still an option before talks resume. But he did not use the same bellicose language describing a strike as a near certainty that he used a few days ago. And for the first time, Boardman yesterday said the union might accept a new contract that ran longer than two years.

A two-year contract has been a key union demand and one of the most intractable issues in the negotiations. The hotels have insisted on a three-year contract, as has been typical in the past. The union is betting a two-year deal would give it greater bargaining power in 2006, because the D.C. hotel workers' contract would expire at the same time as those in other major cities.

When asked about the two-year issue, Boardman said, "We're looking for a total package here. No single issue is sacrosanct. If they want a three-year deal, they have to put together a deal that is a lot more accommodating to our other demands."

Yesterday, the sides mainly discussed company contributions to an employee pension fund, whether hotels can increase employee workloads without union approval, and whether employees can be disciplined for not getting all their work done when the hotel doesn't have supplies ready for them. There was no accord on any of the three issues, but both sides made modest concessions to the other, Boardman and Chatilovicz said.

There was apprehension at the Marriott Wardman Park yesterday as workers were awaiting news from the talks. Employees said they are nervous about having to march on picket lines, upset that they are not getting higher wages from the hotels and frustrated they are getting caught up in the union's politics to negotiate a deal that will benefit several cities.