If you are planning to visit San Francisco You may want to read this:



The war of words continued Monday as San Francisco hotel workers entered their sixth day of drum banging in a strike and lockout affecting some 4,000 workers at 14 hotels.
UNITE HERE Local 2 President Mike Casey said this morning that the picketing is going well and that the fund the union uses to pay striking and locked-out workers is "in good shape."
He claimed that temporary workers called in to replace union members at affected hotels "are making a mess of things," but a spokesman for the San Francisco Multi-Employer Group (SFMEG), which represents the 14 hotels, denied that.
Rumors of a destructive kitchen fire at the Argent Hotel, guests canceling major events and poor service are unfounded, according to SFMEG spokesman Cornell Fowler.
"The truth seems to be one of the first casualties" during a strike, Fowler commented, adding that the alleged Argent Hotel kitchen fire was nothing more than a false alarm elsewhere in the hotel.
The temporary workers "are actually doing fairly well" and "got fully up to speed" on Sunday, Fowler said this morning.
"A lot of these hotels are chains so they have access to hundreds of management trainees" who now are working mostly in housekeeping, he said.
"Room service is up today at most hotels, and the linens and everything are being changed right on time," he said.
The fact that many of the hotels in SFMEG are part of national chains has had an impact on negotiations with the union, which is seeking a two-year contract that would expire at the same time as contracts in other cities. Union leaders say that would give them the same sort of national leverage that the hotels enjoy. SFMEG has proposed a five-year contract and lamented the union's national approach.
Health care costs also are a major sticking point in the negotiations, which are not scheduled to reconvene anytime soon, Casey and Fowler both said Monday.
Local 2 planned to end its strike on Oct. 13, but Fowler said it's possible the lockout could continue after that.
Mayor Gavin Newsom this morning met with federal mediators and said that a mediator will be back in San Francisco this weekend to make his services available to both sides. Newsom said that he hopes that the formal strike will end soon as the strike affects not only the hotels and their workers, but can also impact the city's general fund if hotel occupancy rates fall.
The strike began at four hotels Wednesday, and workers were locked out at the other 10 on Friday.


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