Negotiators for 14 major D.C. hotels and the union that represents their employees reported signs of progress in talks over a new contract yesterday -- their most optimistic assessment in months.
Unite Here Local 25 made new concessions, agreeing to ease demands that hotels be penalized financially if managers treat workers discourteously and that workers whose shifts are canceled on short notice be compensated. The two sides tentatively agreed on how to deal with problems when hotels do not have supplies on hand when workers need them.
Since the old contract expired Sept. 15, the two sides have been negotiating intermittently with few signs of progress. Officials on both sides said that yesterday's talks, while representing no breakthrough, showed promise.
"We were encouraged, which is unusual given the state of these negotiations to date," said Mike Viccora, a lawyer representing the Hotel Association of Washington bargaining unit in the talks. "It was a positive sign that they were open to compromise."
"Today represented the union approaching the negotiations more openly," said Bruce S. Raynor, general president for Unite Here nationally, who led the negotiations for the union. "There was less antagonism from us in the room, and that was a conscious decision to create a better atmosphere."
Raynor added that it is "hard to tell" if the apparent progress will be sustained, and that it will depend on whether the hotels now are willing to make concessions. Viccora agreed that the outlook remains uncertain. "We still have difficult issues ahead of us," he said, including wages, health care costs and the duration of a new contract.
