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San Francisco Marriott Boycott

vs.

American Library Association

For information on the boycott: http://www.sfmarriottboycott.org

The American Library Association (ALA) chose to use the San Francisco Marriott (4th St.) as its headquarters hotel during their June 2001 annual conference at the Moscone Center. This hotel has been the site of the largest and longest running labor dispute in the city and is the subject of an ongoing boycott.

In 1996 a majority of Marriott employees voted to be represented by the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) Local 2. After 4 years of unsuccessful negotiations with the hotel, the union called for a boycott of the San Francisco Marriott Hotel.

Despite requests from various ALA members, the union, the San Francisco Library Commission, San Francisco City Librarian, and San Francisco Board of Supervisors, ALA refused to make alternative arrangements for meetings, events and lodging scheduled for the San Francisco 4th Street Marriott.

The Librarians' Guild of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 790 and other librarians supporting the Marriott workers were able to convince some sponsoring subgroups to move or cancel some of the ALA events originally scheduled for the Marriott, including:

  • Coretta Scott King Awards Breakfast - canceled
  • Digital Poetry Salon - moved to Golden Gate University
  • Equality Award
  • Native American Culture Night - moved to Alcatraz
  • New Technologies, New Opportunities: Collaborating with Faculty
  • President-elect, Mitch Freedman's, private reception - moved
  • Scholarship Bash with Three Dog Night - moved to the Hilton
A chronology of events, from the perspective of a West Coast caucus member, surrounding the labor troubles at the San Francisco Marriott and their impact on the upcoming ALA conference is available at: http://www.libr.org/Juice/issues/vol4/LJ_4.22.html#4 . The chronology has been reconstructed from information taken from correspondence, listservs, and meetings by Andrea Grimes, a member of the Local 790 Librarians Caucus.

Union members, librarians, and other supporters have scheduled a series of protests in front of the hotel during the ALA conference:

 

CLOSE THE BOOK ON THE MARRIOTT  

All librarians, library workers, conference attendees, and everyone else who supports Local 2 are invited to join San Francisco Bay Area library workers in three days of protests at the San Francisco Marriott. These actions are scheduled for the following days:

 

SIEGE V: TWO ALL-DAY PROTESTS
Friday and Saturday, June 15 & 16,
6:00am - 10:00pm

 

SPECIAL ACTION!!!

ALA AWARDS RECEPTION/INAUGURAL BANQUET
Tuesday, June 19,
4:30pm - 7:30pm

THE INAUGURAL BANQUET ACTION IS A VERY SPECIAL PROTEST AGAINST THE ACTIONS OF ALA LEADERSHIP, WHO HAVE IGNORED THE PLEAS OF MEMBERS AND MARRIOTT WORKERS TO MOVE ALA EVENTS OUT OF THE MARRIOTT. 

 

Don't let Marriott and ALA think it's just business as usual. Let's stand up for the Marriott workers, and all workers, who struggle for a better life. We can do it! Come and join us on these days of protest.

 

For more information on the SF Marriott labor troubles, see Local 2's boycott website at www.sfmarriottboycott.org
 
The Holt Labor Library provides these links for your convenience. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate, the Holt Labor Library makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the information on these sites, and is not liable for any inaccuracy, error, or omission, regardless of cause.

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Pages created by Shannon Sheppard, MLIS
created 06/15/01
revised 06/24/08