HOTROC and NAACP Rally for Labor Peace

July 10, 2001
New Orleans, LA

Nearly 400 supporters of labor peace in New Orleans rallied on July 10, 2001, with HOTROC and the NAACP national convention. Below are some photos taken by our brothers at the Operating Engineers. The marchers began in front of the Fairmont Hotel, went down Canal Street and rallied in front of the first new hotel built on Canal in nearly 25 years. This hotel is the latest focus of the Labor Peace movement in New Orleans, and HOTROC is currently negotiating with the developers to sign a labor peace agreement.

Marchers lining up by the Fairmont.

Waiting for the Go-Ahead.

Finally, heading down Canal Street.

Around the corner and back up Canal.

HOTROC Chief Organizer Wade Rathke speaking at the rally on Canal.

Special thanks to Pete Babin, IV, and Dave Babin, our brothers from the
Operating Engineers, for sending us these terrific photos!

Poll reveals support for hospitality workers

Wage, labor peace issues addressed
By Stewart Yerton and Stephanie Grace
Staff writers/The Times-Picayune

Nine of 10 New Orleans voters support increasing the minimum wage by $1, and three of four support "labor peace" agreements intended to make union campaigns less contentious, according to a survey released Monday by a labor group campaigning to organize the local hospitality industry.

The survey also found that 59 percent said the current national economic boom has not reached "people like them," according to Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster based in Washington, D.C.

Lake's firm surveyed 600 registered voters for the Hospitality, Hotels and Restaurants Organizing Council, also known as HOTROC, from Oct. 5-10. The poll, which carries a margin of error of 4 percentage points, is the latest salvo in HOTROC's increasingly pitched battle against New Orleans' powerful service industry, a battle that has spilled into City Hall as organizers have focused on public policy initiatives to promote the group's goals.

The business community has decried this strategy, saying government should not interfere in relations between management and employees. So far the efforts have failed to bear fruit for labor.

Wade Rathke, president and chief organizer of HOTROC, said the poll results released Monday were important for the union campaign because they show frustration with the status quo, as well as significant public support for both labor peace agreements and a minimum wage increase.

"Anything that puts wages and income in the public debate is good for us," Rathke said.

Among other issues, the survey highlighted public awareness of labor peace agreements, defined by the poll as "an agreement in the hotel industry between the management of the hotel and employees that, with neutrality, workers will be allowed to decide if they are interested in joining a union, and if a majority of employees sign a card showing their interest in unionizing, management will recognize the union."

According to the poll, in such an agreement, "Management promises not to harass or fire employees who attempt to form a union, and in turn, the union promises not to picket the hotel, strike or call a boycott."

Most of the people polled hadn't heard of the term, but more than half of the 24 percent who had said they look favorably on the concept. And when voters were given the definition, 76 percent said it sounded like a good idea, compared with 12 percent who said it was a bad idea.

The results suggest that a majority in just about every subgroup supports labor peace, including Republicans and residents of Council District A, the most conservative of the city's five districts.

The poll asked only whether voters support the concept of labor peace, not whether they believe the government should require such agreements in new projects.

The poll suggests that support for increasing the minimum wage is even stronger, with 90 percent supporting an increase from $5.15 to $6.15 an hour, and 76 percent saying they support it strongly.

"Mardi Gras isn't this popular," Lake said.

Business leaders did not have time to study the survey Monday but reiterated their opposition to labor peace agreements and a minimum wage increase.

Brian Schwaner, a spokesman for the New Orleans Regional Chamber of Commerce, said creating additional burdens for companies is bad policy.

"We follow the tenet that it's not an incentive for business to raise the minimums that have to be paid," he said. HOTROC has failed to win an election at a New Orleans hotel despite several campaigns. The organization maintains that employers have killed the campaigns by harassing and intimidating workers.

In an effort to help workers express what the union maintains is the workers' will, HOTROC has asked the City Council to require labor peace agreements for hotel projects that have sought tax breaks, zoning waivers or other council action.

While some businesses vehemently oppose such proposals, politicians have been friendly, at least in theory. Mayor Marc Morial and some council members have said they support the concept of labor peace, but have yet to push through a deal between a private developer and the union.

Beyond labor peace, HOTROC has joined worker advocates led by the Association of Community Organizations for Reforms Now in a campaign for a minimum wage increase in New Orleans. A proposal to change the City Charter to set the local minimum wage $1 higher than the federal level, delayed by a nearly four-year legal challenge, will appear on the February 2002 ballot alongside elections for the New Orleans mayor and City Council. Supporters say they hope the timing and poll results will force politicians, most of whom have stayed mum on the issue, to embrace the concept publicly.

The minimum wage question on the survey does not exactly mirror the question that will be put to voters in 2002: The ballot proposal calls for the minimum wage in New Orleans to stay $1 higher than the federal level, even if the federal minimum wage rises.

Officials of the New Orleans Hotel-Motel Association were not available for comment. But Jim Funk, executive vice president of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, called the proposed local minimum wage increase "not good public policy."

The group has joined with the chamber, the Hotel-Motel Association and the New Orleans Business Council to fight both the minimum wage increase and labor peace initiatives, which Funk said is tantamount to mandating a union. "I think they're desperate because they can't win at the ballot box," Funk said of HOTROC.