SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Fourteen hotels continued their lockout of unionized employees, defying a call by the mayor for a 90-day cooling-off period.þþMayor Gavin Newsome asked for a response by Tuesday afternoon to a letter he sent over the weekend asking hotel management and labor leaders to resume business as usual while the sides try to negotiate a new contract. Union representatives had agreed.þþ``We respectfully decline the mayor's request for a 90-day cooling-off period,'' said Cornell Fowler, a spokesman for the hotel operators.þþOn Monday, Newsom threatened to call for a boycott of the hotels if they did not agree to allow the 4,000 bellhops, maids, cooks and other workers to return to their jobs from Oct. 27 through Jan. 25.þþWarning that the dispute was hurting the city's image and its workers, Newsom said he would join the hotel workers on the picket lines and encourage mayors in other cities to play hardball with the properties' corporate owners.þþHe made good on the vow Tuesday, showing up for a half hour at the posh St. Francis Hotel, where he reiterated his plan to prevent the city from doing business with the hotels. He said he personally won't attend functions there, either.þþ``There are dozens of hotels that are not locking out their workers and I encourage everyone to go to those hotels,'' he said, adding that he's ``on the side of ending the lockout. Period. The 14 hotels have told me that they care more about their interests than the city's interests.''þþStriking workers were pleased with the visit.þþ``I'm so happy he is here, that finally someone is listening to us,'' said Emma Acuna, 28, a server at the Hilton San Francisco. ``Something good is going to happen because he is mayor and he has power.''þþThe workers went on strike at four hotels on Sept. 29 and were locked out at 10 others two days later. They agreed to end their strike last Wednesday, but the 14 hotels declared the lockout would continue until a new contract was reached.þþThe union and the hotels have been at odds over wage increases and the length of the contract that will replace one that expired in August.þþ
Source: NY Times
