NYT: Lockout at Top Hotels Mars Tourism in San Francisco

Workers on the picket line at The Fairmont and The Mark

Hopkins last week said they were all too familiar with the high cost of living

in San Francisco, especially on a wage of $14 to $22 an hour. Reva James-Frye,

53, a city resident and telephone operator at the Fairmont for 15 years, earns

nearly $15 an hour, or about $33,000 a year. Roughly half of her paycheck goes

toward rent.

"I can barely make ends meet now," Ms. James-Frye said. "What is

the point of getting a little 20-cent raise if it's going to go back in their

pockets to cover health benefits."

Guillermina Tremillo, 27, a single mother

of a 2-year-old, works two jobs to make ends meet, both at the famed Top of the

Mark restaurant. Ms. Tremillo also shares a home with her entire family,

including her parents and five sisters, all of whom pool wages. But four of her

sisters work at San Francisco hotels and they too have been locked out.

"My

feelings are very hurt," Ms. Tremillo said. "I do two jobs so they save one

person with me. They make money with me. You give and give the most you can and

they just don't care."

Mr. Adams said, however, that management wanted the

employees to return to work. "A contract can be had in fairly quick order if we

can resolve the issue of term," he said.

The city has already lost business

because of the dispute. The American Anthropological Association, for example,

decided to move its November conference to Atlanta in support of the union, a

decision that has cost the city $3.2 million, according to the San Francisco

Convention and Visitors Bureau.

With hotel management and the unions so far

apart on several issues, the two sides are not expected to reach a contract

agreement soon.

The union late last week heard that workers would be

eligible for unemployment benefits, which the union said could allow workers to

withstand the lockout for up to six months.

Locked out workers from the

Sheraton Palace flew to Waikiki on Friday to set up picket lines and a one-day

action at two other Sheraton hotels there, "to deliver the message that we won't

be isolated to San Francisco," said Mr. Casey of Local 2. And San Francisco has

received a show of support from hotel unions negotiating in Los Angeles and

Washington, D.C., where strikes have been authorized but not initiated.

"The

point is to get everyone together," Ms. James-Frye said. "There's strength in

numbers."