Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 20, 1990 TAG: 9004200273
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium
The success by Local 26 stemmed from the strength of its 5,000 members, hotel and food service workers who struggled to eke out a living in one of the country's most expensive cities, local President Domenic Bozzotto said Thursday.
"It shows that when people get together over social responsibility, you can build community," said Bozzotto. "This is what America is all about. We've shown all the cynics that America's not dead. We're still in love with America. Our parents told us anything could be done here and we're not jaded yet."
Union officials from New Jersey to California called the Local 26 offices Thursday to ask about the legislation President Bush signed into law Wednesday. It was the first significant change in the Taft-Hartley Act in 20 years and the first time a local union - as opposed to an international union - had effected a change, Bozzotto said.
Taft-Hartley has been the nation's overriding labor-relations law for 43 years. It includes anti-corruption provisions prohibiting management from making direct payments to unions except for certain purposes such as employee education, health care and retirement. The amendment adds housing to that list.
It became necessary after Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 26 negotiated in 1988 an unprecedented agreement with nine Boston hotels requiring employers to place money in a housing trust fund that could be used to finance housing purchases and rentals.
"It's going to have a huge impact - it's the new benefit of the '90s," said Bruce Marks, housing director for Local 26, as he fielded calls for information from unions and employers.
The cost of the housing trust fund for employers for Local 26's members is $1.5 million during the three-year contract. In contrast, dental insurance in the contract will cost $2 million.
Officials from the Teamsters union, United Auto Workers, the firefighters' union in Toledo, Ohio, the United Food and Commercial Workers in Michigan and the policemen and city workers' unions in New York City were among callers.
New York City unions were particularly interested because most city workers are required to live in one of the five boroughs, known for their expensive housing. The housing assistance plan may someday be brought to the bargaining table, said Michael Musuraca of District 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Some employers are amenable.
Peter van Kleeck, president of Saunders Hotels Co. in Boston said he was first "surprised" at the demand but later became "much more convinced."
"We agreed to it voluntarily," Carl Madda, director of labor relations for the Sheraton Corp., said in a brief statement. "We were satisfied by the negotiation. We hope it works out."
The legislative success is a story that began, according to union officials, with universal predictions of failure.
"They said, `You're nuts.' But we take our philosophy from the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Never surrender," said Bozzotto, a union official since 1981.
Bozzotto, 50, said he is typical of union members who pushed for the legislation.
The son of an Italian immigrant who worked as a cook in a Boston hotel, Bozzotto began work at age 13 as a hotel dishwasher. He later moved up to busboy and waiter. He worked in hotels to pay his way through college.
"It's brutal work," said Bozzotto. "People only see the front part of a hotel. If you're in the back, in the bowels of the kitchen or the laundry room working in all that heat or steam, it's hard, hard work."
He said most members of Local 26 work two or three jobs to meet living costs. The average price of a single-family house in the Boston area is $190,000 and an average two-bedroom apartment runs about $800 a month.
by CNB