UAW May Be Target of Pickets for Booking Non-Union Hotels

SAN DIEGO — Local labor leaders reportedly have pledged to picket three non-union hotels that will lodge United Auto Workers delegates during the organization’s convention here in June.

Hotel and Restaurant Union Local 30 business manager Nancy Browning on Wednesday told the Detroit News that the UAW’s decision to book some of its delegates into non-union hotels was “hypocritical,” given the UAW’s attempts to get Americans to buy union-made domestic vehicles.

A UAW spokesman in Detroit on Wednesday declined to comment on the union’s hotel-selection process.

Browning and other Local 30 officials in San Diego were not available for comment on Wednesday, but Joe Francis, executive secretary of the San Diego Labor Council, said that visiting unions typically check with local labor leaders before booking rooms in San Diego.

San Diego labor leaders regularly send visiting unions a list of hotels where workers are union-represented, Francis said. “That’s something we always do when traveling. I usually request a copy of (a hotel’s union) agreement so I can ascertain if they’re a union house,” he said.

Local 30 reportedly intends to post pickets at the San Diego Princess Resort, the Town & Country Hotel and the Sheraton Harbor Island, three hotels that state labor leaders have targeted for alleged anti-union stances.

An estimated 8,000 delegates, family members and friends will be in San Diego for the UAW’s annual convention in mid-June.