SF Examiner: Newsom pulls cops from lockout picket lines

If hotel operators want police protection on the picket lines,

they are going to have to foot the bill themselves, Mayor Gavin Newsom declared

Wednesday.



Newsom ordered cops to pull around-the-clock protection from

the 14 hotels involved in a five-week-old contract dispute with 4,300 hotel

workers, who have been locked out of their jobs for three weeks after going on a

two-week strike.



"Why are we all paying for protection when it's [the

hotels'] choice to lock people out?" Newsom asked. "That makes no sense to

me."