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A prolonged power struggle between a large hotel chain and a labor union that represents thousands of low-wage immigrant workers escalated Tuesday with the arrest of 11 union members who refused police orders to end a noisy demonstration in the lobby of the Hyatt Wilshire.
The demonstrators were among about 80 union officials and hotel workers from Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 11 who participated in a carefully planned civil disobedience action at the Mid-Wilshire hotel to draw attention to the union's stalled contract talks with the Hyatt chain.
The outcome of the dispute is viewed as crucial by organized labor officials in Los Angeles. If Local 11 cannot force Hyatt to sign favorable contracts, it will lose steam in its long-term goal to organize maids, bellboys and other workers in nearly two dozen new hotels proposed for the downtown area.
Local 11, which has about 13,000 members, negotiated contracts with more than a dozen large downtown hotels last year through the Hotel-Restaurant Employers Council of Southern California. For the better part of this year, it has been unable to reach agreement on a renewed contract with the Chicago-based Hyatt chain, which does not belong to the employers council.
The primary sticking point is Hyatt's desire for greater flexibility in setting work schedules, which the hotel chain says would allow it to accomplish the same amount of work with fewer part-time employees.
The union objects because the proposal would allow Hyatt to require some workers to work 10 consecutive days-the last five days of one week, followed by the first five days of the next week-without paying overtime.
Cody Plott, a Hyatt regional vice president, said Hyatt insists on work rules that differ from Local 11's...