National Convention Might Leave Providence due to Westin Boycott
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
After the Westin's managing Procaccianti Group imposed a 20 percent wage cut, unilaterallly quadrupled employee health insurance costs, threatened to replace workers with subcontracted labor like the controversial Hyatt decision in Boston, fired three workers in retaliation for joining a picket line (they were later reinstated four months later - after the NLRB became involved), and broke off contract talks with the hotel workers, you can't blame the hotel workers for calling a boycott of the Westin Hotel.
Now, a major national conference - Netroots Nation - is threatening to bypass Providence for its 2011 convention because of the Westin Boycott. Netroots Nation is the annual gathering of over 2,000 of the nation's most progressive bloggers and Internet activists. It was originally founded by Daily Kos and this year's conference in Las Vegas is featuring Sen. Al Franken and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, amongst dozens of elected leaders.
The loss of Netroots Nation could be a big blow to the Rhode Island economy. The state stands to lose millions of dollars in economic activity, a potential big boost for Rhode Island's creative economy and the attention of the nation's premiere Internet entrepreneurs.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTNolan Treadway, conference organizer, told me that officials in Austin, TX estimated the conference's impact at $2 million by the convention and its attendees.
Treadway said that, "Netroots Nation support union workers because we believe in the rights of workers to organize. We also recognize that many of the progressive public policies that exist today came about through a strong labor movement. We won't book a hotel in the midst of a labor dispute."
Treadway said that conference organizers will give Providence an additional 1 to 2 months to resolve the labor dispute before finding another city for their 2011 event.
"We need to have a labor agreement between the hotel and its workers in place through summer 2011 in order to book," Treadway said. " We hope that the contract is worked out so we can bring Netroots Nation to a city that shares our values: Providence."
