Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing Conference early registration deadline extended to April 7

[Lisa Poley (lpoley]

Just to clarify -

In this case there is no workers strike involved. The union "Unite Here" has
called for a commercial boycott of this hotel over a dispute between the
union and the hotel on how the workers will determine whether they want to
unionize. The hotel is not refusing unionization of the hotel - but they
want workers to determine whether they wish to unionize via a secret ballot
method - while the union is insisting upon a 'check card' method of
determining unionization.

As we indicated earlier - CohoUS  as an organization does not have a
specific stand on this issue.  We certainly hope that it will be resolved
soon in a way that is satisfactory to the workers of the hotel.  We do not
know to what degree the views of Unite Here represent the views of the
workers themselves.

We do have a clause in our contract that would release us from our
obligation in the case of a workers strike. This clause does not cover a
call for a commercial boycott however.  So unfortunately we are stuck.

We are deeply frustrated and saddened by this issue - but it is so late in
the game at this point - we simply do not have the resources at our disposal
to make a shift to another location.  We feel that the union is asking us to
participate in a boycott after we have purchased the proverbial goods.  This
puts 100% of the onus and costs on us and none apparently on the union
themselves.

This seems questionably fair and ethical at best. We hope that folks will
understand our position on this issue. And rest assured we will be taking
these issues into account from the first in all future conferences - now
that we have had the benefit of this educational experience.

In community,

Lisa Poley
Chair - 2011 Cohousing Conference.

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 11:29 PM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] 
sharonvillines.com
> wrote:

>
> For next years conference, just get a clause in the contract so you can
> cancel if there is a strike. I don't know the right wording but get legal
> advise. That's the advise of union friends.
>
> Sharon
>
> On Mar 31, 2011, at 6:00 PM, Craig Ragland <craigragland [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
>
> >
> > Because the 2011 National Cohousing Conference program team was
> overwhelmed
> > by presenter applications this year, we were much later than expected in
> > making the program schedule available:
> >
> > http://conference.cohousing.org/2011/schedule
> >
> > This delay gave people very little time to view this information prior to
> > the end of the early bird registration. Accordingly, we are extending the
> > deadline for the best pricing to midnight on April 7, 2011.
> >
> > http://conference.cohousing.org/2011/register
> >
> > Thanks, Craig
> > _________________________________________________________________
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> >
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