Showdown at Blackstone over union representation
- By Fernando Diaz •
- Staff Writer •
- March 11, 2009 @ 9:45 AM
Blocks away from the Congress Plaza Hotel, where workers have been on strike for five years, another labor battle is shaping up.
At the Blackstone Hotel, dozens of employees are seeking to end their relationship with UNITE HERE Local 1, according to a petition filed last month with the National Labor Relations Board.
The petition requests an election to determine whether the union will continue representing many Blackstone employees. Local 1 also represents Congress workers.
The Blackstone, 636 S. Michigan, had been closed for years. It underwent a lengthy renovation and opened last March. The union began representing about 200 workers there in December.
Since then, the hotel has been accused in NLRB filings of unlawfully trying to kick out the union.
Managers have encouraged employees to circulate petitions like Kolodziej's, instructed workers to sign them, and threatened retaliation against those who don't.
Blackstone officials were unavailable for comment yesterday.
A woman who answered the phone at the number listed for Erin Kolodziej, who filed the petition, said she could not comment without first speaking to a lawyer.
Annemarie Strassel, a spokeswoman for UNITE HERE Local 1, says she believed officials at Blackstone were involved in a heated campaign against the union but was unable to comment on Kolodziej's filing.
Federal law allows employees to file a request for decertification when they have support from at least 30 percent of their coworkers.
Completed in 1910, the 332-room Blackstone Hotel is a historic landmark and the location of a legendary meeting of U.S. senators who nominated Warren G. Harding as a presidential candidate in 1920.
Staff Writer Fernando Diaz covers labor and unions for the Daily News. He can be reached at 773.362.5002, ext. 14.
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Discuss
GEOFF DOUGHERTY, 03-12-2009
Kyle,
For accuracy's sake, our reporting is limited to the facts we can verify through public documents and interviews.
A decertification petition requires the filer to assert that they have the support of 30 percent of represented workers. So clearly the petition is alleging that dozens of workers are interested in decertification -- and that's what we reported.
Had the spokesperson for the union been more willing or able to provide us with details about alleged union-busting, we would have happily quoted her to that effect in the article.
The petition is addressed at the top of the article and the union's NLRB filings discussed at the bottom because news stories typically address more recent developments first.
If the union files a counterclaim, we'd likely write an article leading with that information.
KILGORE TROUT, 03-12-2009
Bitter much Vince? Unions a cancer? Before you go blaming deindustrialization on workers standing up for their rights, read a little history. The flight of manufacturing is the result of US policies that encourage companies to relocate to third world countries with oppressive regimes that enable worker exploitation. All workers deserve union representation, and perhaps if Blackstone management weren't so hostile to its workforce, it wouldn't be an us vs them game.
VINCE OFFER, 03-11-2009
Please, if the workers were unionized the Hotel would be taken over from within by the mob. The Blackstone isnt large enough to fight them off. Dont be fooled by labor - they are a cancer that destroys businesses from within. Just look at the mass exodus of manufacturing from this region over the last 50 years. The union wont be there for you when they bankrupt the company. The union wont be there for you after they negotiate layoffs in the next recession. The union just wants your dues. They are a relic of a past era and narrow mindedness of "us" vs. "them" mentality.
KYLE SCHAFER, 03-11-2009
The organization of this article completely distorts the struggle at the Blackstone. The story lead frames the struggle as workers trying to kick out their union by circulating petitions. Only buried do we find out that management is not only encouraging workers to sign the petition but is allegedly threatening "retaliation against those who don't."
Even in the face of that pressure, only "dozens" out of "about 200" workers have supposedly signed. It is even unclear if the author has any proof of these signatures.
The story here is not workers unhappy with the union. The story appears to be workers fighting to keep their union while managers try to bust it.
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