By Adam Pagnucco.
As I have previously written, UNITE-HERE Local 25, which represents hotel and restaurant employees across the Washington region, has called for a boycott of the Montgomery County Conference Center for more than a year. Now the boycott has been endorsed by the national AFL-CIO, a sign that problems at the county-owned facility show no sign of abating.
The Montgomery County Conference Center is owned by the county and operated by the adjacent and separately owned Bethesda North Marriott Hotel under an operating agreement with the county government. Historically, the conference center hosted many of the county’s largest and most prominent events. That started to change last May, when the union launched a boycott because the conference center was not covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Many elected officials quickly announced their support for the boycott. The county council later passed legislation mandating that future operating agreements include a labor peace agreement for the facility, which would require employers to stay neutral during a union organizing campaign.
Despite the legislation, the boycott has continued. The union has brought in Scabby the Rat, a giant inflatable rat used in labor protests, and the Affordable Housing Conference of Montgomery County abandoned a planned event at the conference center. A recent council staff memo reported that the facility has lost more than $200,000 in catering revenue during the boycott. In May, the hotel’s owner (Canadian multinational investment firm Brookfield) sold the hotel to a Florida investment firm. The firm announced that Marriott will continued to manage the hotel.
On July 20, the national AFL-CIO endorsed UNITE-HERE’s boycott. That may not have an immediate economic impact on the conference center because labor organizations have probably not been directing much business to it over the last year due to the local boycott. But it is a sign that the union is not giving up and is seeking to escalate its pressure however it can. The AFL-CIO’s letter is reprinted below.
The latest financial data provided to the county indicates that the facility remains profitable. However, the dispute is a black eye for the county since the reason the conference center was originally built was to supply the county with a large, top-tier event facility. As long as the boycott lasts, many prominent county organizations, especially those with ties to elected officials and progressive groups, will hold events elsewhere.
The administration of County Executive Marc Elrich has tried, so far without success, to resolve the dispute. Unless something changes very soon, the issue will become a headache for the next county executive.