By Adam Pagnucco.
UNITE HERE Local 25, which represents hotel, restaurant and casino employees in the Washington region, has been calling for a boycott of the Montgomery County Conference Center for nearly a year. The conference center is owned by county government but is operated by the adjacent Marriott Hotel under a long-term contract. It is one of the county’s premier facilities for hosting events and is familiar to the vast majority of MoCo’s powerful political and business figures.
The union wants a collective bargaining agreement for conference center staff but so far it has not achieved that goal. Last fall, the county council passed legislation mandating that the county require a labor peace agreement providing for employer neutrality at the conference center as part its vendor operating contract. However, the law won’t take effect until the county negotiates a new contract with the operator and that may take several years. So the boycott continues and now the union has brought in Scabby the Rat to press its case.
On Wednesday, the Affordable Housing Conference of Montgomery County, a venerable housing nonprofit whose board is stacked with heavy hitters, abandoned a planned event at the conference center. In its letter to stakeholders, the group noted the existence of the labor dispute and wrote:
In particular, over the past several weeks, two individuals identifying themselves as union “campaign researchers” have repeatedly engaged with our organization in ways we consider intrusive and harassing. Despite our attempts to manage these interactions professionally and constructively, their conduct has continued and, in our judgment, has crossed the line into unacceptable behavior.
Accordingly, the group decided to postpone and move its event. Its letter is reprinted below.
The Affordable Housing Conference is just one of several groups that have avoided the conference center. That activity is starting to cost the county government money. The county usually earns $2-3 million per year from the conference center after paying operator fees to Marriott. However, the boycott has cost the facility more than $200,000 in lost catering revenue with more losses possible down the road. Consider this extract from a recent council staff memo on the conference center.
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Activity from Labor Groups
Moreover, in the most recent Management Committee meeting, Marriott noted that activity from labor groups was also impacting total sales over a dispute regarding the lack of a Labor Peace Agreement in the new management agreement.
According to Marriott, “we do not know the number of groups that have not considered our hotel due to this. In 2025, $66,142 in projected catering revenue was cancelled due to this issue. To date, $205,100 in projected catering revenue has been cancelled for this year due to this issue. We expect this number to continue to grow and suspect this will continue at the same sort of levels in 2027.”
While the data cited from Marriott would not represent a significant reduction in total sales compared to the FY25 ($20.1 million), it is unclear whether this poses a larger risk financially going forward. Council staff requested input from the County Executive Staff regarding their assessment of the financial risk from labor group activity. The questions and responses are provided below:
1. Does the County Executive believe activity from labor groups presents a risk to the Conference Center’s revenues going forward?
The County Executive is deeply concerned with potential impacts of Labor actions at the Conference Center. As structured in the Management Agreement, the operating profit (up to $1,000,000) is paid first to the County before the Marriott receives any profit. In Calendar year 2025, total profit was $2,882,372, a $408,134 increase over calendar year 2024.
The greatest impact of the impasse between Marriott and labor is on the County’s ability to utilize the Conference Center for County and County-sponsored events, as well as on the participation of County, State, and national officials in events held at the conference center. Several high profile events, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Breakfast and the Public Safety Awards, were cancelled or relocated to other venues.
2. Given the CE’s estimated risks to Conference Center, and correspondingly, County revenues, does the County Executive support labor groups’ organizing activities against the Conference Center until a Labor Peace Agreement is in place?
The County Executive unequivocally supports the rights of Conference Center employees to organize and bargain with management for competitive wages, benefits, and working conditions. An LPA between Marriott and Unite Here, Local 25 would facilitate organizing activities.
3. Please summarize discussions and negotiations with Marriott about requiring a Labor Peace Agreement in the updated Management Agreement.
The County Executive has met several times with representatives from Marriott and Unite Here, Local 25 to resolve the impasse. During these discussions, Marriott raised concerns regarding an LPA, including potential costs, concerns regarding restrictions on management, and implications for its management agreement with the hotel owner. (The hotel, while interconnected with the Conference Center, operates under a long-term ground lease.)
In subsequent conversations, the hotel owner informed us a Labor Peace Agreement covering the hotel was already in place. On December 5, 2025, the County Executive transmitted the attached letter to Marriott, expressing a willingness to share the costs of unionization.
Since then, the hotel has been marketed for sale. The Executive’s Office will schedule a meeting with the new owner after the sale is announced. Concurrently, we have requested Marriott provide additional information regarding the costs they anticipate incurring from an LPA.
4. What is OMB’s assumption for County revenue from the Conference Center in FY27, and has it accounted for loss of business from labor activity, specifically?
OMB does not expect a decrease in County revenue from the Conference Center in FY27 at this time.
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The financial damage of the boycott is negligible given the county’s nearly $8 billion operating budget. But the reputational damage matters more. Consider the fact that the Affordable Housing Conference’s co-chairs – a group that includes U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, Congressmen Jamie Raskin and Glenn Ivey, former Senator Ben Cardin, former Congressman David Trone, former County Executive Ike Leggett and Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller – just saw one of the county’s most prominent nonprofits pull out from an event facility owned by county government. Also consider that the facility, which cost the county and state governments $20 million each to build, is becoming a no-go zone for more than a few left-leaning groups and a ton of elected officials. And now the hotel, operated by one of MoCo’s largest headquarters companies (Marriott), is up for sale.
Wherever blame is assigned, this is a huge headache for the county. When will it end?