Labor Peace Now

Statement by UNITE HERE and SEIU about the Adriaen's Landing Boycott

July 28, 2006

We received a request on Tuesday from Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez to temporarily suspend the boycott of the Connecticut Convention Center and Marriott Hotel. We have decided to honor the Mayor's request. Effective immediately, all picketing and the consumer boycott will be suspended.

All Hartford workers deserve good jobs with strong benefits and a voice on the job. Workers deserve the right to a free and fair process for deciding if they want to unionize without management interference. We believe that good faith efforts could yield a fair process that both sides would accept at Adriaen's Landing.

Just recently, a federal complaint was issued by the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, prosecuting the Waterford Group for illegal coercion of employees at the Convention Center, in violation of federal labor law.

Referencing this federal complaint, the Mayor's letter asked Len Wolman to refrain from all anti-union activity. We were pleased to see a copy of Len Wolman's letter agreeing to the Mayor's proposal, and we will continue listening to the workers to find out whether there is indeed a change of atmosphere inside these facilities.

The boycott has been successful, demonstrating that Adriaen's Landing cannot operate effectively under the cloud of a labor dispute. Responsible community groups will use their buying power to reward venues that respect their workers, not those that don’t. We hope that this cooling-off period will enable us to achieve a more permanent solution, so that Hartford does not see a return to the conflict of the past two months.

A couple of months ago, the City of Hartford sued The Waterford Group to enforce the City's Labor Peace ordinance at the Marriott Hotel, which requires developers who receive special tax breaks to sign a Labor Peace agreement with interested unions, in order to avoid labor disputes. Waterford received a tax break worth $30 million for the Marriott Hotel.

This dispute is not resolved, and this suspension of the boycott is temporary. However, we expect the Superior Court to uphold the City's right to enforce its labor peace law. Once that occurs, we expect Len Wolman will finally agree to obey the law, and labor peace will be achieved. If it is not, all options will still remain on the table.

UNITE HERE Local 217
425 College St., New Haven, CT 06511
Phone: (203) 624-5161, ext. 283
Fax: (203)776-6438