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In a deal brokered by Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa, hotel operators and union leaders tentatively agreed on a new contract Saturday, narrowly averting a lockout of union workers at seven major Los Angeles hotels.
The agreement to end a 14-month dispute between Unite Here Local 11 and the Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council was signed at 4:55 a.m., five minutes before 2,500 union workers were to be locked out of their jobs in retaliation for a strike called Thursday against one of the council's hotels.
Villaraigosa, in his first major effort at managing the city he will head beginning July 1, was credited by both sides for bringing the long-standing dispute to a close.
"It would have been horrible for Los Angeles' economy and its image," Villaraigosa said of the lockout.
The strike by 120 workers against the Hyatt hotel on the Sunset Strip, known as the "rock and roll hotel" because of its music industry clientele, was over allegations of unfair labor practices. Other hotels involved in the contract talks are the Westin Century Plaza, Sheraton Universal, Regent Beverly Wilshire, Westin Bonaventure, Millennium Biltmore and Wilshire Grand.
The proposed contract would expire Nov. 30, 2006, a key victory for union leaders who have insisted that their pact should expire about the same time as union contracts with hotel operators in other major cities.
The union has been calling on union-friendly groups to boycott the Los Angeles hotels since the previous contract expired in June 2004.
If approved, the new pact would give hourly employees who do not receive tips a 65-cents-an-hour raise over the life of the contract, which is retroactive to the...