
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992                   TAG: 9203060183
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WARM SPRINGS                                LENGTH: Short

UNION RAISES ANTE IN HOMESTEAD CASE

A union trying to organize employees of the Homestead resort raised the stakes Thursday by asking for representation of 450 employees - three times its first petition.

The Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 863 asked the National Labor Relations Board for a vote on representation by all housekeeping, food and beverage and bellstand employees and doormen. Its first request was for a vote on representing 125 housekeeping employees.

William Boddie, NLRB hearing examiner, denied the hotel management's request that the hearing be continued.

An attorney for the hotel said its labor force is 1,100 workers. But Michael Crowder, a former Homestead payroll clerk who lost his job in December, said the number is about 1,000 and 850 of them are hourly workers who would be eligible to vote.

A union charge that Crowder and his wife were fired because of their union activity was denied by the NLRB, but the union has appealed to the full labor board in Washington. - Staff report

by CNB