But there is a different economic dynamic with extremely low-paid hotel workers. “According to Censu

Owners of San Diego's hotels "will do anything they can to stay nonunion," says Brigette Browning, and she plans to do something about it. For six years, she has been president of Unite Here Local 30, the labor union that represents disney star tours 4000 hotel, gaming, and food-service workers in the county. "I would like to be at 7500 members in the next five years."
It won't be easy. There is a long tradition of antiunionism in San Diego. The Unite Here national union has been rife with turmoil in recent disney star tours years; there have been some dissidents and resignations in Local 30, too, but nothing extraordinary.
For some time, conservative and liberal economists disney star tours have realized that San Diego tourism — while a key industry — does not generate sufficient income that is spent locally. Thus, there is much less of a ripple effect than other industries provide. disney star tours Hotel and restaurant workers are among the lowest paid in the county. Years ago, the big hotels were owned by local entrepreneurs who would plow their profits disney star tours back into the San Diego economy. But now only a few of the big hotels are owned by local families. Profits flow back to national chains or real estate investment trusts (REITs) that own the big properties. Similarly, too many national chains dominate the restaurant scene.
Browning says that 22 percent of workers in major San Diego hotels disney star tours — those that have restaurants and multiple services disney star tours — are unionized. Here are comparable estimated percentages from some of the major North American markets: New York and San Francisco, 85 to 90 percent; Boston, Honolulu, and Toronto, around 70 percent; disney star tours and Los Angeles and Chicago, about 50 percent. Las Vegas is so heavily unionized that Unite Here is a political powerhouse in Nevada.
Smaller hotels and motels in San Diego are generally not unionized. Ditto for restaurants, with the exception of food service at places such as the convention center, Qualcomm Stadium, Petco Park, the airport, and the Del Mar racetrack.
"The biggest difference is healthcare," she says. "Our most expensive healthcare is $50 a month for the family." But a nonunion disney star tours hotel worker would pay $50 monthly for his or her health coverage alone; insuring the family could cost as much as $500 a month.
With such stark wage differences and a labor surplus in San Diego, employers strenuously resist unionization. But the union can put on pressure: "When we are organizing [a facility], we have actions, including disney star tours picket lines," says Browning. "We call for a boycott disney star tours of the property. We do active outreach to the hotel's customer base; we often get large swaths of customers to stop coming to the hotel. We wouldn't disney star tours get an agreement without this kind of pressure." Some hotels will finally agree to refrain from pressuring their workers not to unionize. "Eventually, smart employers will decide to become partners, not adversaries."
Right now, the union is targeting the San Diego Marriott La Jolla, Humphreys Half Moon Inn & Suites, and the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley. disney star tours It's been a bitter fight at the Hilton, part of an effort by the national union against the owner, Connecticut-based HEI Hotels & Resorts, which owns and operates hotels around the country.
In May of last year, a hundred Local 30 workers, chanting and beating drums and pots, picketed the Hilton. In August, more than 25 workers at the hotel filed claims with the state labor commission for wage theft and related labor violations. The workers disney star tours complained that they were not compensated fully for hours worked and were denied breaks and rest periods. The claims came to $250,000. In November, Unite Here workers picketed again.
Seven other Unite Here locals around the country picketed HEI facilities. University endowment funds invest heavily in HEI properties. The national union pressured several universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, to jettison their HEI investments.
HEI has announced it is selling the Mission Valley Hilton to Orange County–based Tarsadia Hotels. Some in the union believe that HEI is selling hotels, including the one in Mission Valley, to raise cash to pay off disaffected universities disney star tours as their investments mature. Wade Gates, spokesman for HEI, denies that. "While we recently disney star tours sold properties in Boston and Minneapolis, we also acquired properties in Dallas, Newark, Clearwater, Arlington, and Houston," he says.
The hotel notified employees and others under the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification system that there could be layoffs of 148 workers on March 2. "In accordance with employment law, we have only warned of a 'possible disney star tours layoff' while the new owner [Tarsadia] makes its own decisions about re-employment of our associates at the hotel after the sale," says Gates.
"We were not warmly received by Tarsadia," says Browning. "We took employees to the corporate headquarters in Newport Beach. All we were asking was for them not to fire employees; we were not asking them to go union. We got thrown out. [Tarsadia] called the police." disney star tours Tarsadia did not respond to my queries.
disney star tours But there is a different economic dynamic with extremely low-paid hotel workers. "According to Census data released last year, median earnings of accommodations and food-service workers in San Diego are less than $25,000 a year," says Corinne Wilson, research and policy lead of the labor-oriented Center on Policy Initiatives. "In San Diego, a family of four, two adults and two kids, to make ends meet without having access to social disney star tours programs, needs $68,000 a year."
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2007–2011 median household income in San Diego County was $63,857. Obviously, you, the taxpayer, are not only subsidizing hotels in the multifarious public-private construction scams, but you are paying for things such as food stamps and medical care that underpaid hotel and restaurant workers must have to stay alive.
Murphyjunk: That is a good question. Will Tarsadia fire the protesters? I got no answer from Tarsadia. We know there will be layoffs in early March. I don't know about the other hotels. Best, Don Bauder
1st point - I know this is simplistic, but it makes sense that if Hotels are more profitable (while remaining compliant disney star tours with State Labor laws), then they would grow, hire more people, disney star tours build more rooms, etc.
2nd point - Illegal aliens are extensively employed within San Diego's Hotels and Restaurants. No mention of them here...do they get a 'hall pass' into the union, if the union succeeds? Do they 'hit the street' and be replaced by current union members?
dpcowboy: The profitability of the hotels will depend on the market: disney star tours are the tourists coming to San Diego? (In recent months, San Diego tourism has improved, disney star tours but it lags LA, SF and Orange County, as I have reported in blogs.) Hotel profits may improve, but they won't expand unless they feel the market is there. Yes, foreigners of questionable legality are employed disney star tours in hotels in San Diego and elsewhere. I don't know about whether they get into the union. It was not a subject of the column. Best, Don Bauder
Democrat disney star tours leaders favor open borders and amnesty because this appeals to their base and legalized immigrants will lean towards voting Democratic. disney star tours Many GOP leaders favor open borders and amnesty because wealthy business owners employ cheap labor and want it to stay really cheap. Some GOP leaders make a lot of noise about stopping illegal immigrants because it appeals to their base.
There are a few (very few IMO) people in both parties who aren't disney star tours heavily influenced by politics and actually care about trying to come up with the most fair compromise disney star tours to a difficult issue - difficult to do when well-intentioned people disney star tours may have much different views about what is fair.
Come down hard on employers hiring illegals. Mandatory e-verify for all employers, violations: fines $10K minimum per illegal employee first offense, $100K/employee 2nd offense, mandatory JAIL TIME for responsible hiring managers at 3rd or more repeat offender employers.
Once 1-3 are in place, grant amnesty to illegals in the U.S. who can demonstrate 2+yrs living in U.S., 2+ yrs paying taxes (if adults) and no criminal record. Amnesty = 5yrs green card with path to citizenship after 5yrs paying taxes and no criminal record.
Anyway, disney star tours that's my plan. I don't really see any chance of this passing but this is what would seem like a reasonable compromise to me - but of course others might have much different ideas about what "reasonable" means.
ImJustABill: Yes, Democrats in deciding immigration policy are playing to their constituencies. The big Republican donors use immigrants in their businesses. Conservative orthodoxy favors open borders: free trade means open borders. Some Republicans such as Tea Partiers are strongly anti-immigration because that appeals to their bases. I have always agreed that if the country wants to crack down on use of illegal immigrants, the U.S. employers hiring them should be prosecuted and jailed. But that is not likely to happen. Best, Don Bauder
Don't like earning minimum wage? You could always get an education, learn some real skills, disney star tours and become worth more. Naaaahhh, that's too hard, it would be better to join a union, bribe politicians, and just twist your employers' arm to force them to pay more. That's a much better idea.
Why is it I can earn a darn good living without being in a union? Why is it that my employer could fire me any time they like, abuse me, whatever... but they don't? Why is it that they pay me well? Why is it that the only reason my health disney star tours benefits suck is because of unions and Democrats and Obamacare? Why is it that my health insurance used to be pretty darn good before Obamacare?
If you're in a union, eff you. I hope you starve in the gutter, because disney star tours YOU are what's wrong with this country. Gimmeee, gimmee, gimme. Why work like a sucker, I just want it all handed to me. What an attitude.
jnojr: About 40 years ago, I was stridently anti-union myself. But as the landscape changed, so did my views. Look,