AAAUnite

Back to the picket line?

2010-03-13T08:50:00.000-05:00

Hi. It's been some time.

I'm afraid I had to recover from commission-fatigue -- the creeping death that sets in when you've been part of a successful organizing campaign that is co-opted and turned into a rubber stamp for the policies you'd been fighting.

As you likely know, the AAA is meeting in New Orleans. They are doing so in violation of a AAA preference (which was, itself, a violation of an LRC motion and an AAA Exec Board vote for a REQUIREMENT) for meeting only in union hotels. Further, they have continued their opposition to using INMEX, the union-supported conference planning organization. Instead, they have continued their use of ConferenceDirect, which is a meeting planner run by former Hilton execs.

What can you do? Well, I'm boycotting the whole damned thing. No registration, no attendance, and no AAA membership fees from me this year.

Colleagues, however, still believe that working with the AAA leadership -- even it's union-hating, puppet master of an Executive Director, Bill Davis -- might get some change. They've composed the following letter, which they're asking you to sign on to. You don't have to be a section leader -- listing your section affiliation(s) could help sway your section leaders to do the right thing.

If you would like to sign on to the letter, please email Steve Striffler or Paul Durrenburger . The letter follows.

Best,

Rob O'Brien

Dear Section Head [address by name]
We are writing to request that you help us with a resolution to improve the AAA’s relationship with the people and places that host our conferences. As a section leader, you can bring a motion to the Section Assembly Convener and request that the Assembly discuss and vote on the resolution before the New Orleans meeting and discuss it further there. This is one prong of a 3 pronged strategy to achieve the change we think will help—to change the conference organizing firm that AAA uses from the corporate-friendly Conference Direct to the labor-friendly INMEX. The other prongs entail bringing a similar motion to the business meeting in New Orleans and discussing the matter with the AAA executive board. If you would like to help us with this important matter, please let us know and we will suggest other section heads that are of like mind with whom you might profitably work.
Background
Like other professional organizations, we should be using the money we spend individually and collectively on conferences in socially responsible ways that support the workers and cities that host our annual meetings. The best way we can do this is by shifting from a corporate-friendly planning agency, Conference Direct, to a labor-friendly one, INMEX. However, AAA staff have refused to make this shift.
In 2004 after a groundswell of member support, the AAA eventually supported locked out Hilton workers in San Francisco by cancelling our meeting there and moving it to Atlanta. Our actions were a catalyst for getting other professional associations to think about how to use their “hotel spend” more strategically. We followed up in 2006 by canceling another meeting in San Francisco. In spite of our early leadership in this area, AAA has lost the initiative and other professional organizations have taken the lead in this area.
Although there are many factors involved, two central reasons for this failure are a permanent staff at the AAA that has impeded all efforts in this area and an elected leadership that continually changes and has to be re-educated (and thus defers to the permanent staff on many questions). In addition, the Labor Relations Committee, set up by AAA leadership to handle precisely these issues, has been marginalized, ignored, and is not functioning as it was originally envisioned. In short, the existing structures and procedures that were put in place after 2004 have been tried in the best of faith and have failed us in the realm of labor relations with regard to meeting planning.
The way the meeting planning process works is that staff prepares a list of eligible locales (those with suitable facilities and that are not on the AAA list of sanctioned locales) and works with a planning organization that works out the details of how many rooms of what type we need for academic meetings, business meetings, and sleeping rooms, negotiates the rates for them, and schedules them for our use. This is a complicated process as it must account for every meeting and pay for every cup of coffee.
One of these conference planning organizations is the for-profit Conference Direct, organized and operated by former Hilton executives who make their money from organizations that use their services, among them the AAA. This is a staff decision.
As part of their working with professional organizations, the union that represents hotel workers, UNITE-HERE organized an alternative not-for-profit planning agency, INMEX, which offers the same range of services while also looking out for the interests of workers and protecting the AAA from San Francisco-type disasters. INMEX currently plans conferences for organizations such as the American Studies Association and plans all meetings for the Democratic National Committee. Unfortunately, even when the AAA permanent staff has been instructed by the AAA leadership to work with INMEX they have refused to do so (due largely to anti-labor sentiment).
This has led us where we are now: to a non-union hotel in New Orleans (2010); to no real commitment to the people or places that host us; and to a vision/practice of how we use our "hotel spend" that is no better than the average corporation.
Staff have pointed out that meetings are planned well in advance. When the Labor Relations Commission (now a Committee) first heard of the suggestion of New Orleans as a meeting site, they protested. They were removed from any decision making processes, and have remained side-lined since. Future meetings are planned for hotels whose workers are represented by unions in line with the AAA’s policy of “strongly preferring” union hotels. However, the AAA continues to refuse to plan its meetings via INMEX which leaves us vulnerable to labor problems such as San Francisco and does not use our collective and individual funds in the most socially responsible manner. INMEX not only insures that our meeting is planned smoothly and in union hotels (without labor disputes), but insures our money is strengthening the labor movement and going to companies and cities that are “doing it right.”
As a result, we, the undersigned, ask you to support the following resolution:

RESOLUTION
Whereas the AAA has a history of supporting UNITE HERE workers in the San Francisco lockout of 2004 and in negotiations during 2006.
Whereas the best way to support the people and places that host our annual meetings is for the AAA to switch from Conference-Direct, a for-profit meeting planner, to INMEX, a non-profit, union-friendly, planner that helps professional organizations (such as the American Studies Association and the Democratic National Committee) plan meetings, and use their “hotel spend” in a socially conscious manner.
Be it resolved that AAA will use INMEX as its conference planner.

Anthropologists Resolve Ban on Coke

2006-03-19T16:25:00.000-05:00

Anthropologists Call on Coke to End Labor and Human Rights Violations
As of this posting, the Association for Feminist Anthropology, the Anthropology and Environment Section, the Labor Relations Commission, the Society for the Anthropology of North America, the Society for Latin American Anthropology, the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists, the Society for the Anthropology of Work, the Society for Urban, National, and Transnational Anthropology, and the Society for Visual Anthropology have adopted the following resolution:

RESOLUTION REGARDING A BOYCOTT OF COCA-COLA PRODUCTS

WHEREAS, trade unionists at Coca-Cola plants in Colombia have been assassinated, harassed, and intimidated by right-wing paramilitaries, and
WHEREAS, the wives, children, and relatives of SINALTRAINAL leaders have been targeted by these paramilitaries, and
WHEREAS, eyewitness accounts and circumstantial evidence support the conclusion that company personnel have organized the murder and intimidation of Coca-Cola workers, and
WHEREAS, paramilitary groups operate unhindered, and often in collusion, with the government and foreign corporations as an anti-union force, and
WHEREAS, the U.S. government provides billions of dollars to the Colombian government in mostly military aid, and
WHEREAS, these actions deprive Colombian workers of their internationally recognized rights to organize into unions and bargain collectively, and
WHEREAS, no professional organization of social scientists concerned with labor and human rights should offer its credibility to the Coca-Cola Company by distributing its products,
BE IT RESOLVED THAT the [the AAA sections listed above] will:
1) ban all Coca-Cola products from its functions and annual meetings and calls upon the American Anthropological Association to do the same,
2) communicate to the Coca-Cola Company that until the situation involving SINALTRAINAL is resolved and the safety and rights of workers in its bottling plants are protected, SAW will support SINALTRAINAL's boycott of the Coca-Cola Company and do all it can to publicize the boycott, and
3) demand that the Coca-Cola Company a) make a public declaration in Colombia that paramilitary violence against unionists must stop, b) create a company policy against collaboration with paramilitaries, c) establish a human rights ombudsman in every plant, and d) provide compensation to the victims, and
4) call upon the United States government to stop military aid to the Colombian government until the perpetrators of human rights crimes are held accountable.

Hilton Target of Nationwide Strike Plan

2006-03-05T14:26:00.000-05:00

"We've decided to isolate Hilton because they are the most recalcitrant and belligerent employer in the industry," said Peter Ward, president of the New York Hotel Trades Council.

NYT on UNITE HERE's Strategy

2006-02-16T08:33:00.000-05:00

An article in today's NYT discusses the importance of UNITE HERE's corporate strategy. This strategy is central to both understanding the AAA's role in the struggle, and to seeing the potential for anthropological work on corporate globalization.

Excerpted from the article:
"After years of effort, [UNITE HERE] has managed to ensure that its contracts in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Honolulu all expire this year. This has enabled Unite Here to maximize pressure on the industry by threatening a walkout by 60,000 workers at 400 hotels.

"Hotel workers in San Francisco have been working without a contract since 2004, and that would enable the union to declare a strike here as well. In 2004, some of the city's most prominent hotels locked out many workers in a labor dispute.

"'The only way to take on a global corporation is to take them on with a national or regional strategy,' said Mike Casey, president of the hotel workers' local in San Francisco."

Hostile Working Conditions: How Anthropologists Can Demand Change From Coke

2006-02-15T18:01:00.000-05:00

What You Can Do
1. Send your own message to Coke:
E. Neville Isdell, CEO, Coca-Cola
Ed Potter, Director of Global Labor Relations, Coca-Cola (Potter's been Coke’s point-person on this issue, so he should definitely be contacted)
Cc: Rodrigo Calderón, Vice-President, Public Affairs and Communications, Coca-Cola, Latin America
Lori Billingsley, Issues Director, Media Relation, Coca-Cola

2. Ask the AAA Executive Board to adopt the resolution:
Alan Goodman, President, AAA Executive Board
Cc: Bill Davis, Executive Director, AAA
Lucille Horn, Director of AAA and Section Meetings, AAA
Paul Nutti, Director of External, International and Government Relations, AAA

4. Ask your section leaders to take a stand in solidarity with the Colombian Coca-Cola workers and those unions, universities and colleges that seek to pressure the Coca-Cola Company to change its business practices.

Please use the links in the sidebar and see Lesley Gill's essay in Transforming Anthropology (you need Adobe Acrobat to open this link) to find out more about these issues.

AAA LRC Report on Actions to Date

2006-01-13T13:07:00.000-05:00

Below is the text of the report the AAA Labor Relations Commission has submitted to Anthropology News. It will appear in the February issue. Thought folks here would want to know what we've been up to. The LRC would very much like to be in dialogue with AAA members about the work we're doing. Please use the email addresses provided at the site listed below to contact us.

R

After relocating the 2004 annual meeting of the AAA from San Francisco to Atlanta because of labor issues, the AAA Executive Board (EB) established the Labor Relations Commission. Its term is from January 15, 2005 through the AAA Annual Meeting in November, 2009.

We have prepared this report to better communicate with our fellow AAA members and in the interest of transparency. We urge you to communicate any questions or concerns you may have directly with us via e-mail addresses listed at the AAA website.

The LRC is charged with (1) providing information to the AAA Executive Board and staff as they negotiate contracts that promote collective bargaining and the right to organize while protecting the Association from liability and the disruption of its scheduled annual meetings, and (2) sharing information with other scholarly associations for the above purposes. In addition to frequent email communication, we have had six meetings via conference call, as well as a face-to-face session at the AAA meeting in DC. Our first task was to advise the EB on the wording of an AAA referendum on the policy of using only union hotels. We collected relevant data on the availability of unionized sites and debated the language of the ballot measure.

Our next order of business was to conduct research with other academic associations on their experiences with labor struggles and on the best practices regarding force majeuere (opt out) language and contract negotiation. We agreed on questions to ask and contacted fourteen academic organizations and spoke with their executive directors, staff, and/or board presidents. In addition, several LRC members had pro bono conversations with labor attorneys. We have presented a report to the EB summarizing these data. Alan Goodman and Rob O’Brien have maintained ongoing contact with UNITE HERE.

Most recently, we have advised the EB and AAA staff on the location of the 2006 meeting. Facing an ongoing hotel boycott by UNITE HERE in San Francisco and the probability that the ongoing contract dispute would result in losing another annual meeting in 2006, the LRC began to research alternate sites. In June, 2005, the LRC sent the EB and AAA staff the following:

“There now appears to be little reason to be optimistic that the labor dispute in San Francisco will soon be resolved, despite the agreement recently reached in Los Angeles and the relocation (or threatened relocation) of several large meetings and conventions since our 2004 annual meeting was relocated to Atlanta. Both the hotel/restaurant industry and UNITE HERE consider the stakes in San Francisco to be particularly high and there are a substantial number of crucial issues to be resolved. The Labor Relations Commission supports making an early decision to relocate the annual meeting to a site in which a substantial proportion of employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements that will extend at least through December 2006. From the point of view of labor relations we have two excellent options: San Jose and Vancouver. In both cases meeting rooms would be in the convention center, while sleeping rooms (approximately 1800) would be more dispersed than is customary for AAA.”

In July, the EB passed a motion to relocate the meeting to San Jose. Although time constraints prevented the EB and staff from considering San Jose a viable option in 2004, upon further research and communications with organizations that have met there it appears to be a promising meeting location.

The meeting will be held in the unionized San Jose Convention Center. Meeting participants will be almost entirely housed in hotels in which employees are represented by UNITE HERE, including the San Jose Marriott (the meeting headquarters) and the San Jose Hilton (both attached to the convention center).
• The labor situation is stable in San Jose, in part because the hotels, unlike those in San Francisco, are under local rather than corporate ownership. UNITE HERE has assured us that that we will not encounter any labor strife in San Jose.
• Conference Direct, the company with which we currently subcontract to plan our meetings, as well as AAA meeting organizer Lucille Horne are very confident that all will proceed well in San Jose.
• The hotels are less dispersed than in Vancouver, the alternate location we considered, and the air fares cheaper for many participants.
• Relocating to this site communicates to San Francisco and other cities our commitment to labor-friendly policies.

The actions taken by the AAA have encouraged at least seven other national conferences to relocate their 2006 meetings from Multi-Employer Group hotels (known as MEG, a group of fourteen San Francisco hotels that formed a consortium to strengthen their position vis-à-vis labor contracts). The AAA represents considerable consumer power. Our memberships in our association give us collectively constructive and affirmative power that we lack as individuals. Joined with the power of other such organizations, we can be a positive force.

The boycott continues in San Francisco except for the Westin St. Francis Hotel, which has expressed its willingness to negotiate with the union.

After more than a year, hotel workers in San Francisco remain determined to win a decent contract. The LRC supports them in this goal for San Francisco and all hotel workers. LRC members believe that our support represents a professional commitment to the people most of us work with and benefit from: working people, especially the working poor and marginalized, many of whom are immigrants, women, and people of color. Moreover, we remain dedicated to minimizing the disruption that would inevitably result if our meeting hotels were surrounded by picket lines.

Ongoing Labor Issues

2006-01-13T12:44:00.000-05:00

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing in the hopes of creating a dialogue about ongoing labor issues affecting (or being affected by) the AAA. I would like to ask people to post reponses to the list and to keep these limited to the issues raised below, as they fall both within the rationale for this blog and within the purview of those things on which AAA members can urge the AAA EB and section leaders to take action.

Although the Labor Relations Commission (of which I am a member) has done a tremendous job in thinking through and addressing labor issues related to the hotels in which we meet for conferences, there are several labor issues which fall outside the purview of the LRC. (A report on the Labor Relations Commission's work will be forthcoming in the February Anthropology News (AN) and on this blog).

First is the issue of Coke's efforts globally to suppress labor organizing. The Labor Relations Commission will be discussing a resolution to ban Coke products from all AAA meetings. Individual readers might consider supporting such a ban and also promoting one on your home campuses.

Second is the question of academic labor - supporting the rights of graduate employees, adjuncts, and other contingent workers to organize and supporting the cases of folks like David Graeber at Yale.

Finally, as AN editors were just told recently, "AN changed its local printer from Fry Communications to Gannett starting with the November 2005 issue of AN, which resulted in a $10K savings." Gannett's labor practices are, of course, just the beginning of the problem with this media conglomerate. They're the largest newspaper chain and they've just started a bid to buy Knight-Ridder (the second largest). If you're familiar with Robert McChesney's work on media consolidation (or Habermas' work on the lack of a public sphere), you know this goes far beyond labor union issues.

I hope that we can use this page and the list as a forum to discuss these issues over the next several weeks, and, perhaps, to come up with a plan of action.

All the best,

Rob

The AFL-CIO Boycott

2005-07-25T09:07:00.000-04:00

"Unite Here, which represents hotel, restaurant and garment workers, is also on the verge of leaving the federation."

Here is a round-up of recent related stories.

And be sure to read coverage at the House of Labor blog.

This post by Rose Ann DeMoro on the reaction of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee to the split struck me as particularly interesting.

Hotel union says no to new offer

2005-07-20T12:13:00.000-04:00

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A contract proposal that San Francisco hotel owners hoped would end an 11-month labor dispute was rejected Wednesday by the hotel workers union, whose president dismissed it as "cynical and disingenuous.''

The proposal from a group of 14 major hotels offered improvements in health and welfare benefits compared with the last proposal in January. But it also had an expiration date that the union said is unacceptable, and it reduced wage increases in an earlier offer by 25 cents per hour for non-tipped workers and 12 cents for tipped workers.

The offering came as a package and was automatically withdrawn when the union rejected it. Thus Local 2 of the hotel workers union and the negotiating group for the hotels are back where they started in August.

In addition, the rejection almost certainly means that several major conventions scheduled for San Francisco in 2006 will go elsewhere.

NYU no longer to recognize grad student union

2005-06-18T11:58:00.000-04:00

On Thursday, NYU announced that it planned to stop negotiating with the United Auto Workers local that represents the graduate students. The university said that the union had tried to interfere with academic decisions and that the university could better serve graduate students without the UAW. Simultaneously, the university announced plans to raise graduate students’ stipends and to create new forums for graduate students to have their views represented.

The decision could set off a new round of labor strife at NYU. “I see them backing us into a corner where we will have no choice but to strike,” said Michael Palm, a Ph.D. student at NYU and head of the union.

Via Inside Higher Ed, which has more on this story.

Labor Relations Commission

2005-06-03T01:16:00.000-04:00

A recently released report from the AAA President's office to the AAA Labor Relations Commission. (Read my comments over at Savage Minds.)

June 1, 2005

To: Labor Relations Commission
From: Liz Brumfiel, AAA President
RE: 2006 AAA Annual Meeting Location

At its spring meeting, May 14-15, 2005, the AAA Executive Board had a lengthy and productive discussion of issues surrounding the location of the 2006 Annual Meeting, presently scheduled to be in San Francisco. Give the likelihood of hotel management-labor conflict at the San Francisco Hilton, the scheduled venue of the 2006 Meeting, and given strong indications from AAA members that they would not cross picket lines in the case of a strike or a lockout, the AAA Executive Board directed AAA staff to begin to explore alternative 2006 meeting times and locations and to initiate further surveying of membership as to acceptability of these other potential times and locations. The Board also agreed to make a decision concerning the 2006 meeting location no later than July 1, 2005, and it directed me to consult with the Section Assembly and the Labor Relations Commission regarding these deliberations.

This memo reviews the information that was considered by the Executive Board at its spring meeting.

Status of the Hotel Management-Labor Conflict

President-Elect Alan Goodman summarized the current and anticipated status of hotel management-labor conflict, based on conversations that Labor Relations Commission members Paul Durrenberger, Alan Goodman, and Rob O’Brien have had with UNITE-HERE (UH) representatives Neal Kwatra and Matthew Walker. Paul Nuti, AAA Director of External, International and Government Relations also participated in these conversations.

Goodman stated that the union regards San Francisco as “ground zero” in its struggle with the hotel/restaurant industry. Historically, the industry has been atomized, but its recent transformation from locally owned and controlled employers to a more consolidated, globalized structure has created a need for a “national-level relationship” between labor and hotel groups. This is necessary in order for labor to secure better terms on issues such as health care, safety, workers compensation costs, health insurance, and worker productivity.

Labor contracts will have expired in several major markets (New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Detroit, Monterrey and Hawaii) during 2005-2006. The union cannot provide any assurance to the AAA that the dispute in San Francisco will be resolved in advance of November 2006. Management shows no willingness to settle the dispute in the near term. The stakes for the union are particularly high in San Francisco where, according to the union, the hotel companies are making lots of money and the unions are among the healthiest, best organized, and strongest in the country. UH Local 2 is a “linchpin” of the UH national strategy. One-third of the San Francisco Hilton’s cash flow comes from academic/professional groups like the AAA. Hilton has stated recently that its recent weak performance in San Francisco is a result of the labor action. Walker expressed appreciation for the AAA’s engagement and support in the labor dispute.

Goodman said that he had every reason to believe that the current labor action will still be in effect in 2006. So, it is important to begin examining options for the 2006 Annual Meeting.

Membership Survey

AAA Executive Director Bill Davis then presented the results of the recent email membership survey. Approximately 22% of the membership responded to the survey.

In response to question 1, “If there is an employee strike at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel at the time of the 2006 AAA Annual Meeting and a picket line established at the hotel, would you be willing to cross the picket line to attend the Meeting?”

9% of respondents answered “Yes”
75% of respondents answered “No”
14% of respondents answered “It would depend on the situation” and
2% of respondents answered “I don’t know”.

In response to question 2, “If employees of the San Francisco Hilton Hotel at the time of the 2006 AAA Annual Meeting are being locked out and a picket line established at the hotel, would you be willing to cross the picket line to attend the Meeting?”

8% of respondents answered “Yes”
83% of respondents answered “No”
8% of respondents answered “It would depend on the situation” and
2% of respondents answered “I don’t know”.

In response to question 3, “If union representatives of San Francisco Hilton Hotel employees are urging a boycott of the hotel at the time of the 2006 AAA meeting, but employees are not on strike or locked out of the hotel, would you be willing to attend an AAA meeting at the San Francisco Hilton?

28% of respondents answered “Yes”
39% of respondents answered “No”
29% of respondents answered “It would depend on the circumstances” and
5% of respondents answered “I don’t know”.

In response to question 4, “Under normal circumstances, would you expect to attend the AAA Annual Meeting in 2006?

80% of respondents answered “Yes”
5% of respondents answered “No”, and
16% of respondents answered “I don’t know”.

The Executive Board concluded that these responses provided clear evidence that the AAA cannot hold an effective annual meeting in San Francisco in 2006 if, as seems likely, management-labor disputes are occurring at the time.

Bill also reported on the cost to the AAAof moving the 2004 meeting to Atlanta. The total cost of the move was $445,394. This total includes:

Refunds to AAA members (registrations and abstracts): $296,015
Exhibitor fee refunds: 55,050
Special event refunds: 2,500
Child care contribution refunds: 107
Atlanta Hilton attrition clause (50%) 81,000
Legal fees 10,722

A more detailed report on the financial consequences of the decision to move the 2004 meeting
from San Francisco will be provided to AAA members in the Anthropology News this fall.

Finally, Davis reported on a survey on labor/hotel conflict he conducted among the 67 national scholarly organizations who hold membership in the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), and of two recent meetings of ACLS during which issues involving hotel contracts for 2005 – 2007 had been discussed at length. Among issues viewed as most problematic were (1) the difficulty of informing association members about the consequences and costs of breaking contracts for annual meetings, (2) identifying the particular circumstances in which a society should employ its meeting location policy to serve the advancement of social policy goals, (3) the extent to which the use of meeting location policy to achieve social policy objectives was severely restricting the number of city and hotel venues available for large scholarly meetings, and (4) the likelihood that continuing hotel labor/management conflict could prevent some of the scholarly societies from continuing to successfully conduct their traditional annual meetings. The chief executive officers of ACLS member societies have agreed to continue to work together in addressing these and other issues.

Report of the Labor Relations Commission

AAA President Liz Brumfiel provided a brief report of the activities of the labor Relations Commission’s efforts to forge liaisons with other scholarly and progressive organizations.

The LRC has learned that a few organizations have negotiated contract language that reduces or eliminates financial penalties for cancellations in response to strikes or other labor disputes. For example, the American Sociological Association has included paragraphs in some of its contracts that permit the Association to cancel its hotel contract in the event of any labor dispute that it believes will disrupt or interfere with the Association’s Annual Meeting. The ASA must demonstrate at least 40% of its members would refuse to attend the Annual Meeting due to the labor dispute.

The American Studies Association includes a paragraph in its Standard Agreement that gives it the right to cancel its contract without penalty if there is a possibility that organized labor actions (such as picketing) could occur during the meeting dates.
Brumfiel noted that while these contracts protect organizations against financial loss when they cancel meetings at locations where labor struggles are in progress, the contracts provide no protection against the disruption that occurs when meetings must be moved on short notice from one location to another. The way to avoid meeting disruption is to determine the dates that labor contracts will expire in advance of signing a meeting contract with a hotel and to avoid signing contracts with hotels for years when their labor contracts are due to expire.

Brumfiel also noted that other organizations have had difficulties as a result the San Francisco labor disputes. The Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association decided to proceed with its meeting in a hotel that was being struck, and this decision caused deep and bitter division within the association, disputed elections of officers, and the resignation of the APA executive director. The Organization of American Historians decided to move its March-April 2005 meeting from San Francisco to San Jose when they became aware that there was “a distinct possibility of a strike, lockout or continued boycott at the Hilton in San Francisco.” The move cost the OAH somewhere around $460,000, about the same as the loss to the AAA when it moved its 2004 meeting to Atlanta. However, the OAH is about half the size of the AAA, and most of its loss was incurred as liquidation damages paid to the SF Hilton whereas most of the AAA loss was incurred as registration fees refunded to its members and none of the loss was paid out to the San Francisco Hilton Hotel.

Brumfiel concurred with other presenters that the key to avoiding disruption of the 2006 meetings was to make an early decision to move the meeting, giving the SF Hilton time in which to rebook the room space cancelled by the AAA and before any AAA members make arrangements to attend the meetings.

Discussion of the AAA’s Options

Discussion then ensued of the AAA’s options for 2006. AAA Director of Meetings Lucille Horn reported that she had already initiated a discreet search of unionized locales that might be available for the 2006 Annual Meeting. She observed that when the AAA puts out a RFP to hotels, it lists unionized facilities as one of its requirements. Thus, hotels everywhere are made aware that the AAA will give its business only to unionized hotels.

Board Action on the 2006 Annual Meeting Location

After this discussion, Alan Goodman moved the following:

Whereas, there is continued labor unrest in San Francisco

and

Whereas, a recent membership poll shows strong support for not attending a meeting at a hotel involved in labor unrest:

1) The AAA Executive Board directs AAA staff to explore alternative 2006 meeting times and locations,
2) The Executive Board directs AAA Staff to initiate further surveying of membership as to acceptability of these other potential times and locations,
3) The Executive Board directs Liz Brumfiel, Alan Goodman and Bill Davis to consult with the Section Assembly, and the Commission on Labor Relations regarding the deliberations of the AAA Executive Board, and
4) The AAA Executive Board agrees to set a time for the Board to come together via email or telephone, not later than July 1, 2005.

By a unanimous vote, the motion was adopted.

David Graeber

2005-05-13T22:01:00.000-04:00

From an article in Zmag:

[Anthropologist] David Graeber, was fired from Yale University a few days ago. Of course, that wasn't the official explanation. The official one reads that "his contract wasn't renewed" because of his lack of "collegiality". If you would allow me to translate this: the "lack of collegiality" that David had showed was when he was trying to defend his graduate students who were graduate union organizers.

Union organizers are regularly targeted at Yale. When one brilliant graduate student organizer was almost kicked out for clearly fabricated reasons, David Graeber was the only member of her committee with the courage to openly stand up for her at that committee meeting, and then later at a faculty meeting. On David Graeber's behalf, Yale graduate students have initiated a petition which has been signed by almost all graduate and good number of undergraduate students of anthropology.

Sign the petition.

Learn more on the web site.

Keep informed on the blog.

Vote "no" on Referendum #2!

2005-04-19T17:56:00.000-04:00

[Please Distribute Widely]

Dear fellow AAA Members,

I admit it, I normally throw my AAA ballot in the circular file. But this year I didn't, because I knew that there were some important labor related issues at stake. However, as I sat down to vote, I realized just how confusing the wording is for Referendum #2. Although it might seem otherwise, if you wish to support the collective bargaining rights of workers in the United States, you should vote "no" on this referendum!

Voting "no" will keep the current wording of the guidelines passed by the AAA executive board last December.

Voting "no" will keep the wording as follows:

"AAA staff responsible for negotiating and administering meeting venue contracts shall select only meeting facilities whose staff are represented by a union."

Voting "yes" will have the adverse affect of changing this wording to remove the word "must" and replace it with "strongly prefers," thus weakening our bargaining position in negotiating contracts with hotel and conference chains.

Referendum #2 misrepresents the number of venues that the AAA will continue to be able to use we keep the current language. It does this by listing venues the AAA has historically attended, rather than all the potential venues we could continue to use.

Please take the time to vote on this important ballot.

Vote "no" on Referendum #2.

You can comment on this referendum, and view other comments, at this URL.

Thank you.

P. Kerim Friedman
Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Haverford College
On behalf of AAA-UNITE
The views expressed here are my own.

More on Wal-Mart

2005-03-08T18:36:00.000-05:00

Here is more on Wal-Mart's anti-union closing in Canada:

Facing the threat of unionization, Wal-Mart closed its Jonquiere, Quebec store rather than pay its employees living wages and benefits. The Canadian store would have been the first union shop in the Wal-Mart empire.

Via Retro vs. Metro, which links to several news stories about the closure. Including this one by Roy J. Adams:

Not long ago, a butcher department in Texas certified a bargaining agent under U.S. law. Within weeks the company shut down the department and outsourced meat-cutting. Internal company documents indicate that remaining union free is a priority objective.

Many labour experts believe Wal-Mart's plan in closing the Jonquière store and the unit in Texas is to send a signal to other employees who might contemplate exercising their right to organize that doing so is useless and, indeed, dysfunctional.

As is well known, Wal-Mart keeps its prices low by taking employee exploitation to new heights, including child labor, discrimination against women, and relying on government programs to provide health care for workers (who are paid so little they still qualify for poverty programs).

The AFL-CIO has an excellent website devoted to Wal-Mart. With a link to this petition you can sign to complain about the Jonquiere closing. And here is a letter (PDF file! - see below as well) signed by a bunch of academics.

On a related note, here is a blog devoted to keeping New York City Wal-Mart free.

Finally, you can watch the PBS Frontline show on Wal-Mart online.

NOTE: This post originally appeared on Keywords.

Wal-Mart Shuts Down Store Rather Than Allow Union

2005-02-27T23:28:00.000-05:00

For details see:

common dreams
The ledger
The Retail Bulletin
ICLA Online
NY Times
Wal-Mart's War on Workers
NY Times

The following letter is being circulated in protest. Please send an email (using the "email us!" link in the sidebar) if you'd like to have your name and info added to the letter.

We are very concerned about Wal-Mart's decision to close its store in Jonquiere, Quebec in the wake of its employees' opting for unionization and collective bargaining. The right to unionize and bargain collectively is not only a statutory right in Canada, but also a fundamental human right. Wal-Mart has a well documented policy of discouraging its employees from exercising this fundamental right and in frustrating its object when employees choose, nevertheless, to exercise it. We believe that respect for human rights is fundamental to good corporate citizenship. In order to conform to international human rights standards, Wal-Mart must cease its active opposition to unionization and instead recognize and deal fairly with leaders freely chosen by its employees with a view towards working out, in good faith, mutually acceptable solutions to issues raised.

Roy J. Adams, Professor Emeritus, McMaster University, Ontario
Larry Haiven, Professor, St. Mary’s University, Nova Scotia
Basu Sharma, Professor, University of New Brunswick
Bob Hebdon, Associate Professor, McGill University, Quebec
Kurt Wetzel, Professor, University of Saskatchewan
Yonatan Reshef, Professor, University of Alberta
Gregor Murray, Professor, Universite de Montreal, Quebec
Gilles Trudeau, Professor, Universite de Montreal, Quebec
Guylaine Vallee, Professor, Universite de Montreal, Quebec
Michel Hebert, Lecturer, Universite du Québec en Outaouais
Don Wells, Professor, McMaster University, Ontario
Harish Jain, Professor, McMaster University, Ontario
Jack Quarter, Professor, University of Toronto
David Cingranelli, Professor, Binghamton University, New York
Richard Hurd, Professor, Cornell Univerity
Elaine Bernard, Professor, Harvard University
Ruth Milkman, Professor, University of California at Los Angeles
Hugh Hindman, Professor, Appalachian State University, North Carolina
Richard Hyman, Professor, London School of Economicsm
Reuben Roth, Assistant Professor, Laurentian University, Ontario
Renaud Paquet, University of Quebec in Ottawa
Gerald Rosenblum, Emeritus Professor, McMaster University, Ontario
Gary Warner, Professor, McMaster University, Ontario
Joy Warner, Co-Chair, Hamilton-Burlington Kairos Committee, Ontario
John Whitman, Ph.D. student, University of Toronto
Jorge Sousa, Ph.D. student, University of Toronto
Jane Cudmore, Hamilton, Ontario
Bob Cook, Hamilton, Ontario
Ben Taal, Kairos Coordinating Committee, Great Lakes Region
Angela Miles, Professor, University of Toronto
Patrice Jalette, Professor, University of Montreal
Steven E. Abraham, Professor, State University of New York, Oswego
Elizabeth Gedge, Dept of Philosophy, McMaster University, Ontario
James A. Gross, Professor, Cornell University, New York
William Canak, Professor, Middle Tennesee State University
Arthur Hochner, Associate Professor, Temple University, Pennsylvania
Sam Lanfranco, Professor, York University, Ontario
Gerald Hunt, Associate Professor, Ryerson University, Ontario
Lawrence Root, Professor, University of Michigan
Howard Stanger, Associate Professor, Canisius College
Immanuel Ness, Professor, City University of New York
Bruce Nissen, Professor, Florida International University
Susan Stabile, St. John’s University, New York
Danielle Benoiton, North Bay, Ontario
Paul Clark, Professor, Penn State University
Joanne Lloyd, Brant Kairos Group, Ontario
Stewart Sweeney, University of South Australia
Ellen Dannin, Professor, Wayne State University, Michigan
Silvana Pozzebon, Associate Professor, HEC Montreal, Quebec
Michael Craig, Senior Organizer, Amnesty International, Toronto
Ann Martin, Senior Extension Associate, Cornell University
Anne Pollard, Hamilton, Ontario
David Montgomery, Emeritus Professor, Yale University
Donald Woodside, McMaster University, Ontario
Nancy Jackson, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
James Penney, Assistant Professor, Trent University, Ontario
David Jacobs, Professor, Hood College, Maryland
Marilyn Adams, Professor, Mohawk College, Ontario
Ann Frost, Associate Professor, University of Western Ontario
Karen McCrank, University of Toronto, Ontario
Vilma Donatelli, Development and Peace, Ontario
Risa Lieberwitz, Associate Professor, Cornell University
Wes Johnson, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Paul Adler, Professor, University of Southern California
Gerry Kirk, Sault St. Marie, Ontario
Richard Marens, Assistant Professor, California State University,
Raza Mire, William Patterson University, New Jersey
Nancy DiTomaso, Professor, Rutgers University, New Jersey
Jack Fiorito, Professor, Florida State University
Haideh Moghissi, York University, Ontario
Ray Markey, Professor, University of Woolongong, Australia
Atif Kubursi, Professor, McMaster University, Ontario
John C. Robertson, Professor Emeritus, McMaster Univeristy, Ontario
Rev. Joan L. Robertson, Hamilton, Ontario
Josie D’Amico, Hamilton, Ontario
Corliss Olson, University of Wisconsin
Laurie N. DiPadova-Stocks, Associate Professor, Park University
Sylvie Morel, Professor, University of Laval
Max B. Sawicky, Economists, Economic Policy Institute, Washington, DC
Leon Fink, Editor, Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas
Ian Towers, Ph.D. student, Carleton University, Ottawa
James Atleson, Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Buffalo
Jennifer Madsen, Anchorage, Alaska
Richard McIntyre, Professor, University of Rhode Island
Vilma Donatelli, Hamilton, Ontario
Frank Reid, Professor, University of Toronto
Clyde Summers, Emeritus Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Sarah Stookey, Doctoral Candidate, University of Massachusetts
Louis Chauvin, Lecturer, McGill University
Robert Kucheran, Caledonia, Ontario
Stephen Hughes, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Owen Darbishire, Oxford University, UK
Willy Brown, Professor, Cambridge University, UK
Beth Lyon, Assistant Professor, Villanova Univesity, Philadelphia
Catherine MacDonald, Nova Scotia
Eileen Appelbaum, Rutgers University, New Jersey
Thomas Kochan, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston
Jan Johnstone, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Toronto
Bethany Sutton, Ottawa, Ontario
Rick Goodwin, Ottawa, Ontario
Jeanne S. McPherson, University of South Alabama
Roland Zullo, University of Michigan
Peter Archibald, McMaster University
Karen Szala-Meneok, Hamilton, Ontario
Constance deRoche, Professor, University College of Cape Breton
Elizabeth Wilson, University of Manchester
Pradeep Kumar, Professor, Queen’s University, Ontario
Emma Gardner, Germany
Joe Wallace, Professor, University of Limerick, Ireland
Brian Towers, Professor, Nottingham and Strathclyde Universities, UK
Doug Massey, Hamilton, Ontario
Thomas E. Terrill, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of South Carolina
Harley Shaiken, Professor, University of California at Berkely
Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor, Stanford University, California
Daniel Golodner, Wayne State University, Michigan
Julius Getman, Professor, University of Texas
Richard N. Block, Professor, Michigan State University
Greg D. Squires, Professor, George Washington University, Washington, DC
John Revitte, Profesor, Michigan State University
Dorothy Sue Cobble, Professor, Rutgers University, New Jersey
Alex Johnstone, University of Western Ontario.
Pat Doherty, University of Ontario
Art Shostak, Emeritus Professor, Drexel University, Pennsylvania
Neill DeClerq, University of Wisconsin
Catherine MacDonald, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
Con and Chris Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario
Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, DC
Kay Devine, University of Alberta
Steven Deutsch, Emeritus Professor, University of Oregon
George Gonos, Associate Professor, State University of New York, Potsdam, NY
Adrienne Eaton, Professor, Rutgers University, New Jersey
Roxana Ng, University of Toronto, Ontario
Judy Silver, University of Toronto, Ontario
Hoyt Wheeler, Professor, University of South Carolina
John Kervin, Professor, Unviersity of Toronto
Ran Chermesh, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Andree Cote, National Association of Women and the Law
Michael Gent, Professor, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY
Cheryl Maranto, Associate Professor, Marquette University
Raymond Wiest, Professor, University of Manitoba
Michelle Kaminski, Assistant Professor, Michigan State University
Berndt Keller, University of Constance, Constance, Germany
Philip Alston, Professor, New York University and past-chair, UN Commission on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Kiran Mirchandani, University of Toronto
Reynald Bourque, Professor, University of Montreal
Raymond Hogler, Professor, Colorado State University
Daniel Geagan, Professor, McMaster University
Celia Haig-Brown, Professor, York University, Ontario
Lance Compa, Professor, Cornell University, New York
George Tsogas, Senior Lecturer, Cass Business School, London, England
Melvin Rothbaum, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois
Jon Rogers, London, England
Charles McCollester, Professor, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Niki Gately, Hamilton, Ontario
Cynthia Nance, Associate Professor, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
David Walsh, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
Guy Bellemare, professor, Université du Québec en Outaouais
Louise Briand, Université du Québec en Outaouais
Noelle Stutt-Walsh, Milton, Ontario
Nancy Biagini, Santa Clara, California
Julie Dwyer-Young, Burlington, Ontario
Noam Chomsky, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston
Richard Troy, Toronto, Ontario
Peter Samuel, Senior Lecturer, University of Wales, UK
Louis Favreau, professeur, Université du Québec en Outaouais
Robert Plante Médecin-conseil en santé au travail et environnementale
Romaine Malenfant, professeure, Université du Québec en Outaouais
Normand Lapante, professeur, Université du Québec en Outaouais
Denis Bourque, professeur, Université du Québec en Outaouais
Guy Chiasson, professeur, Université du Québec en Outaouais
Paul Leduc Browne, professeur, Université du Québec en Outaouais
Manfred W. Weiss, Professor, University of Frankfurt, Germany
Michel Grant, Professor, University of Quebec at Montreal
Emma Gardner, Hamburg, Germany
Meris K. Brookland, University of New Brunswick
Ann Marie Powers, Professor, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS
Diane Swanson, Professor, Kansas State University
John Taylor, Burlington, Ontario
John Godard, Professor, University of Manitoba
Jacques-Andre Lequin, University of Quebec at Ottawa
Sujan Vasavada, Economic Policy Institute, Washington, DC
Joydeep Roy, Economic Policy Institute, Washington, DC
Rebecca Gumbrell, Birkbeck College, UK
George Strauss, University of California at Berkely
Suzanne Bouclin, University of Ottawa
Lorraine Kraft, Calgary, Alberta
Chris and Mike Whatmore, North Bay, Ontario
James G. Scoville, Professor, University of Minnesota
Joan Mason-Grant, King’s University College, London, Ontario
Karl Klare, Professor, Northeastern University, Boston
David Goodings, Professor Emeritus, McMaster, Ontario
Eileen Foley, Senior Economists, Economic Policy Institute, Washington, DC
Joan Greer, Hamilton, Ontario
Siddiq Burney, Burlington, Ontario
Lee Prince, Economic Policy Institute, Washington, DC
Brian Timlick, Manitoba
Andrew Jackson, Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa
Charles T. Schmidt Jr, Professor, University of Rhode Island
Robert Alpern, Co-Chair, Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community, Healdsburg, California
Goetz Wolff, Lecturer, UCLA. Los Angeles, California
Frances Beer, York University, Toronto, Ontario
Steve Frenkel, Australian Graduate School of Management, Sydney, Australia
Luis Bueno, Professor, Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico
Michael Fichter, Professor, Free University of Berlin, Germany
Thomas Greven, Professor, Free University of Berlin, Germany
Louise Rose Blume, Clermont, Georgia, USA
Larry Smoot, Washington, DC
David Kaplan, Seattle, Washington
Andrew Peterson, Washington, DC
Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor, University of California at Santa Barbara
Mina Dizdarevic, Hamilton, Ontario
Mike Groom, Hamilton, Ontario
Sylvia Groom, Hamilton, Ontario
Sumner Rosen, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, New York
Judith Davidoff, New York, New York
Joseph B. Rose, Professor, McMaster University
Judith Haiven, St. Mary’s University, Nova Scotia
Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Professor, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
Rod Hill, Professor, University of New Brunswick
Greg Albo, York University, Toronto
Marc Lavoie, University of Ottawa
Maxwell Cameron, University of British Columbia
Maria Carmen Galang, Associate Professor, University of Victoria, British Columbia
Mel Watkins, Adjunct Research Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa
Richard Allen, Hamilton, Ontario
Jane Zukovs, Ontario
Judith Ackerman,
Wendy Russell, Assistant Professor, Huron University College, London, Ontario
Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, Lecturer, University of the West Indies, Jamaica
Linda Kirnan, New York, NY
Joan McDonald, Haliburton, Ontario
Jesse Vorst, University of Manitoba, Canada
Kim Rohrbach, San Francisco
George Clark, Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
Tessa Hebb, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
John Cornwall, Professor Emeritus, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
Wendy Cornwall, Professor Emeritus, Mount St. Vincent University, Halifax, Canada
Pierre Verge, Professor Emeritus, Laval University, Quebec
Bodo Zeuner, Professor, Free University of Berlin, Germany
David Peetz, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
David Antill, University of Leicester, UK
Jean-Guy Loranger, Honorary Professor, University of Montreal
Thomas Offit, Assistant Professor, Baylor University
Beth Boerger, Kansas City, Missouri
Isik Zeytinoglu, Professor, McMaster Univeristy, Hamilton, Ontario
Robert Chernomas, Professor, University of Manitoba, Canada
Sandy Smith-Nonini, Assistant Professor, Elon University, North Carolina
Jan Kainer, Associate Professor, York University, Toronto, Canada
Ellie Perkins, Associate Professor, York University, Ontario
Rosemary Warskett, Associate Professor, Carleton University, Ontario
Judith Ackerman, New York, NY
David Doorey, Adjunct Professor, Queen’s University and University of Toronto, Ontario
Greg Saltzman, Professor Albion College and Research Scientist, University of Michigan
Carolyn Jones, Birkbeck University, UK
John Hendy QC, Visiting Professor, King’s College, London, UK
Mike Waghorne, Ferney-Voltaire, France
Hans Engelberts, Ferney-Voltaire, France
Robert T. O'Brien, PhD Candidate, Temple University

UNITE HERE Hotel Contract Compaign Continues

2005-02-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

UNITE HERE Hotel Contract Compaign Continues

By UNITE HERE, ILCA Member

Hotel workers in cities across North America are locked in battles with their employers, the global hotel companies that want to trap them in low-wage jobs. The details of each city’s fight are different, but the overall goals are the same: to improve and protect wages and benefits at unionized hotels and to help workers at non-union hotels join unions and gain a voice at work. San Francisco. The cooling off period agreed to by UNITE HERE Local 2 members in San Francisco and the 14 Multi-Employer Group (MEG) hotels at the end of the lockout ended on January 23, 2005. Local 2 and the hotels negotiated throughout the cooling off period and have continued those negotiations. A bargaining session is scheduled to take place next week.

The boycott of the San Francisco hotels has continued because the members of Local 2 are still working without a contract while the hotels persist in proposing major cuts in healthcare. Through the boycott, Local 2 members are sending the message that they will not accept a reduction in contract benefits while hotels are reporting such high profit margins.

Local 2 hotel workers and allies in San Francisco will hold a rally and picket line in Union Square on Monday, February 14th at 4:30 pm. The rally will highlight the hotel boycott and the workers' demand that the MEG stop cutting health care in their proposals.

Los Angeles. The Local 11 negotiating committee and the LA Hotel Employer's Council (EC) met last week to discuss a three-year term proposal that includes significantly improved wages and benefits over the union's two-year proposal (which remains actively on the table). The EC hotels rejected this offer and called off negotiations, only to announce soon after that they would make a counter proposal later in the afternoon. But the EC counter-proposal represented several steps backward from the hotels' previous negotiating stand: Rather than being retroactive to April 15, 2004, the hotels proposed a 5-year agreement from the date of agreement, with meager wage and benefit improvements. The hotels also wanted the union to agree, in effect, to a gag order prohibiting any form of economic action against the hotels, including handbilling or placing the hotel's name on a website or boycott list.

Local 11 made a counterproposal this week with two separate sets of proposals, one for a contact with a 2006 expiration date and another for a contract expiring in 2007.

Visit Hotel Workers United for more information

Response from Liz Brumfiel to Walter Goldschmidt

2005-01-20T13:05:00.000-05:00

Dear Colleagues:

President Brumfiel has requested that I post her response to Walter Goldschmidt's earlier message.

For those of you who were not in Atlanta, this email reiterates and in some cases clarifies positions that President Brumfiel made there and deserves the same attention as Dr. Goldschmidt's letter.

Best,

Rob

Dear Wally,

Thank you for your letter of a couple of weeks ago. It clearly expresses your ongoing concern for the well-being for the AAA, and that is heartening.

As I understand it, your letter makes four points, two of which I agree with and two of which I disagree with.

The first is that since I am the current President of the AAA, I am the one who is responsible for the preservation of the organization. I certainly agree with that! I assure you that I have thought hard and worked diligently since I took office fourteen months ago to make the AAA a better organization, one that serves the needs of all its members. This has been particularly true during the past three months, as we faced the challenge of a lock-out of workers by the San Francisco hotels. I am painfully aware of my responsibilities to the organization and its members.

The second point you make is that the AAA is currently in crisis, on the verge of disintegrating. I must respectfully disagree with this assessment. Reading through the Section News of the January 2005 AN, it seemed to me that there is widespread recognition that the Executive Board operated in good faith when it voted to move the meeting to Atlanta. This was true even of sections that went ahead and held their own session in San Francisco. There is also widespread concern about the information available to the Executive Board when it made its decision and the flow of information from the EB to the membership and from the membership to the EB. These are definitely matters requiring serious attention and reform, but they do not constitute a crisis.

The third point you make is that the AAA officers and staff ought to undertake a detailed and public review of the events leading up to the decision to move the meeting to Atlanta. I must also disagree with this position. Such a review would undoubtedly yield conflicting accounts, leading to further accusations and dissention. It would also cost both the AAA officers and staff a great deal of time and energy, time and energy that are better spent in more forward-looking efforts to solve our problems and provide better membership services. I think we know enough about what transpired in October to agree that in situations like this, AAA officers and staff need to begin to react earlier and to consult more extensively with the membership. This was a very painful lesson, but I am confident that we have learned it.

The fourth point you make is that the AAA ought to undertake reforms that will ensure that the events of last October will not be repeated. I agree entirely! For this reason I am creating two Commissions. The Labor Relations Commission is charged with 1) providing information to the AAA Executive Board and staff as they negotiate contracts that promote collective bargaining and the right to organize while protecting the Association from liability and the disruption of its scheduled annual meetings, and (2) seeking alliances with other scholarly associations for the above purposes. The Governance Commission will see reforms in the relationship between the AAA Executive Board and the Sections and to facilitate communication and feedback mechanisms within the AAA as a whole between annual meetings. Both of these Commissions come at the suggestion of membership proposals in response to the Executive Board decision.

I think that the AAA has come though a difficult time fairly well intact. Let us strive to make 2005 a great year for the organization!

With best wishes,

Liz

Letter from Walter Goldschmidt to Liz Brumfiel

2005-01-18T23:18:00.000-05:00

Dear Colleagues:

I have been asked by Walter Goldschmidt, former AAA President, to circulate the letter below (sent to current AAA President Liz Brumfiel two weeks ago). Dr. Goldschmidt spoke passionately about the issues of labor relations and AAA governance at the meetings in Atlanta. He has expanded on his thoughts here. I think they warrant a close read.

Best,

Rob O'Brien

Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:15:01 -0800 To:
ebrumfiel@northwestern.edu From: Walter Goldschmidt
Subject: crises Cc: Robert O'Brien, Paul
Durrenberger, bdavis@aaanet.org
Dear Liz,

I am concerned that I have not had a response to my letter of two weeks ago. Because the matter goes far beyond you and me, I am having Bob O"Brien circulate it more widely. Wally

To: ebrumfiel@northwestern.edu From: Walter Goldschmidt walterg@ucla.edu Cc: agoodman@hampshire.edu Bcc: bdavis@aaanet.org lhorne@aaanet.org

Dr. Elizabeth Brumfiel, President American Anthropological Association 2200 Wilson Blvd. Arlington VA 22201

Dear Liz,

This letter is being addressed to you, Liz, as the responsible head of the Association, who has found herself suddenly faced with a crisis of major proportions in what is generally seen as a largely ceremonial and honorific role. You have my sympathy, for I am sure that you wanted to follow some agenda of your own, but now you have no choice. I am giving you friendly advice with sympathy and concern, because conscientious and forceful action is essential for the very preservation of the Association. This is not a melodramatic statement, but a sober assessment. Though I know from experience that it seems the other way around, you are the boss and Bill and the staff are your employees; this means that you are the fall-guy; you are where the buck stops. When I was inducted as an officer of the Association, I and my cohort were advised that as officers we had fiscal responsibility and legal liability, if I remember the terminology correctly, and whether this advisory is still practiced, I am sure it is still the law.

The crisis has two aspects, each of which must be addressed. The first is damage control, for there is great anger at both the manner in which the situation was handled from the outset and the decision that was made and the way it was arrived at. The second is planning for the almost inevitable revisit to the same crisis in 2006. While this will not occur on your watch, the planning for this must be done by you and your successor right away.

1. Damage Control. Given the existence of a contract and the likelihood of a strike, the Association had to face the issue of its memberswillingness to cross the picket lines. Though we are not a union, we are made up largely of liberals who are reluctant to act in support of management. Thus the question was: Can the AAA meet successfully in a hotel that is not merely on strike, but where the workers were locked out? If not, what are the alternatives? The inevitability of having to face this issue raises further questions: Why was there no planning for this likely event? I called my long-term friend, Lucille Horne, on Oct. 12, to find out what was being planned, more to protect my hotel deposit than as a call to action, and was surprised when she blithely said she expected the strike to be over by then. I should have been alerted by this response that sounded more like Rumsfelds planning for Iraq than I like with the same inevitability of disaster. It is of course not Lucilles job to anticipate political disasters -- but what was going on in the administration of Association affairs? Was there no realization of the potential gravity of the situation? Why had there been no canvass of the membership to measure its commitment to support the strikers and its attitude toward crossing picket lines? The opacity of the action that was taken, the sudden and very limited referendum and the decision to take action quite unlike any proposed in the referendum all combine to alienate the membership and exacerbated the latent antagonism that always lies between authority and rank-and-file. It is this alienation that the leadership, both elected and employed, must do all in its power to dispel. It can do this only by a full disclosure of what was said and done leading up to the decision to move to Atlanta and to keep us posted on actions currently being taken with respect to the future. The members need to know in detail just how matters were handled, when was the gravity of the situation realized, what the initial reactions were, what the staff was doing about it, what voices came from the members and whose voices and what knowledge came to dominate the decisions. In short, full disclosure!

The meetings have been held; they were a travesty for the participants, a tragedy for those who most needed them, particularly the young and hungry, and an on-going threat to the integrity of the Association. I feel that neither you nor Bill appreciates the gravity of this situation, and your round-robin letter describing the meetings does nothing to dispel this fear. I had been astonished to find no call for a plenary session to explain and discuss the matter at the meeting, if only to release a little steam. Sitting in the so-called business meeting was like discussing the relative merits of Evian Water over Vichy while the house was burning. It was surreal. There is already an outside threat to use this situation to break up the Association, but nobody seems to have taken the trouble to recognize the presence of that elephant in the parlor.

The only overt expression of awareness and of negotiations was the session called by Paul Durrenberger and Suzan Erem. It gave us a peek at what went on, but did not explain your and Bills role and the decision-making process. Apparently outside consultants were used but no consultation with the membership. There should have been a session called specifically to discuss the issue, with yourself presiding, Bill, Lucille and the President-elect there, in which you outlined for us the history of the action and took questions from the floor.

I urge you now to make up for this failure by establishing a forum in the Newsletter, in which you set forth in painful detail all the discussions and action, starting with the first recognition of the existence of a crisis and continuing on over the years, taking letters of condemnation and advice as well as describing on-going actions until the crisis of 2006 has been resolved. Perhaps this letter could be published as an open letter as a kick-off for such a forum. I urge that you and the staff be open and frank. The crisis was not of your making and the solution was not self-evident, yet the one reached was far from ideal and the membership deserves to know just how it was arrived at and what other solutions were considered. This forum should, if necessary, replace less urgent materials. You dont want a call for a commission of enquiry on the matter, which is the last thing we need.

2. The Coming Crisis. The Faustian bargain reached for the 2004 meeting means that we must meet the devil face to face very soon. You must realize that this strike/lock-out is no mere local conflict, but a major confrontation between labor and management. The union is the largest one in the public sector and represents not only the poorest of the working poor but those very people who are trying to lift themselves out of the poverty level, into which their un-unionized counterparts fall. It is, furthermore, a battle for unionization itself, a battle that had its first skirmish with Reagans defeat of the flight monitors union when he took office. I was dismayed to hear one of the Association officers, whose name I do not know, dismiss the matter as being just a house-keeping girlsissuewhen we had important issues like what should be done about Iraq (about which we can have zero influence) to discuss. I suggest you ask Paul Durrenberger and/or Suzan Erem do explain what is involved, for they are far better qualified than I am to do so. Any assumption that the problem will go away is just more Rumsfeld thinking.Indeed, management will very likely want to chastise us for having walked out of San Francisco.

I cannot advise you on how to solve the problem, but I can suggest some courses of action you should take now. The first is to get the best measure you can of the temper of the Association membership. How many would boycott a meeting that was on strike; how many would refuse to cross a picket line, etc. The second is to create an ad hoc committee made up of knowledgeable people, I would presume chaired by the President-elect, who is saddled with the issue, to explore alternatives, assay their costs and, for those that seem viable, get membership reaction. Third, I would be open about all actions taken, keeping the membership informed through the Forum in the Newsletter and by email.

You have my sympathy, Liz. I have no doubt of your good intentions but I am not impressed with your performance to date. It is not an easy task and I am sure you will have to give up doing a lot of things with your term of office that are more dear to your heart. But it has fallen on your shoulders and you and your President-elect will have to spend long, agonizing hours working on it, learning as you go. But nothing is more important than the resolution of this internal issue to keep our Association intact. If you succeed, you will have accomplished something more important than anything on your (or my) resume.

Happy Holidays!

Walter Goldschmidt, UCLA

Overdue Update

2005-01-17T13:07:00.000-05:00

Here's my long-overdue report from the AAA Annual Meeting in ATL, supplemented with some addt'l info received since.

Labor CommissionThe AAA EB has established a Labor Relations Commission. Former AAA President Louise Lamphere will chair. I (and, I believe, Paul Durrenberger) have agreed to serve through the November 2009 Annual Meeting. We haven't met yet, so I'm not sure who else will be on the commission.

The LRC is charged with (1) providing information to the AAA Executive Board and staff as they negotiate contracts that promote collective bargaining and the right to organize while protecting the Association from liability and the disruption of its scheduled annual meetings, and (2) seeking alliances with other scholarly associations for the above purposes.

AAA Dues

The AAA EB announced that they will be introducing an "un- and under-employed" membership category. This will be a category between Student and Professional. Unfortunately, since dues are going up this year, the Un- and Under- category will pay last year's full professional membership rate.

However, the EB has asked the fiduciary committee to investigate a sliding scale fee schedule. Since this will have to be "revenue neutral" (meaning that the AAA cannot make money on the deal), a sliding scale will mean that folks with jobs and security will need to pick up the tab for those of us who don't.

The fiducary committee wil be looking into ways that other professional orgs deal with sliding scales.

DC Contract
Thought you'd be interested, if you hadn't already seen it, UNITE HERE local 25 in DC got a contract offer on Saturday (Hotels, Union Agree on Contract (DC)). It will go to the membership, who seem likely to ratify it. Things look good for 2005 AAA at Wardman Park. The UNITE HERE local didn't get the 2006 date, but, otherwise, seems to have gotten a good contract.

Perhaps we can use an uninterrupted annual meeting in DC to build on the organizing we've begun online and at the SF and ATL meetings.

Future Organizing

My vision for what we need to be working on includes two immediate goals -- organizing around SF 2006 and building a progressive bloc of academics and others to work o labor issues.

San Fran 2006

Unite Here Local 2 in SF is still at the bargaining table. The cooling off period ends on January 23rd. The MEG Hotel group is still making offers that cut health care. They're also still refusing the 2-year contract (which would put SF in the same bargaining cycle as hotels in 6 other cities).

SF is Unite Here's strongest local. The hotels have made a stand there because they know this. AAA can continue to make a difference in this struggle.

First, the 2006 Annual Meeting contract must be renegotiated to include strong language that protects the Association in the event of a labor action or a management lockout.

Second, the association signs contracts several years in advance (I believe we currently have contracts through 2009). We can and should use this as a carrot and a stick for the hotel chains involved in the SF negotiations.

Please contact the EB and your section heads to let them know that you are in favor of these actions.

Building a Progressive Bloc

All told the conference business of progressive organizations (including groups that work on labor, faith, race, gender, sexuality, etc.) and academic conferences accounts for over $250 million of hotel conference business each year. Since this money is, increasingly, the only business that hotels can count on, we wield significant power. The AAA's long-term relationships with Marriot and Hilton demonstrates this relationship -- and its potential power -- when compared with individual business and liesure travel choices made more fickle by online travel services.

In order to strengthen both the position of labor and our own power in negotiating contracts, we need to build a progressive bloc that wields this consumer power. We need to identify people in other professional organizations who we can build alliances with. Anthropologists and the AAA have taken a strong lead in this struggle. we can and should use our successes to build greater power.

Please reach out to colleagues and friends and get them in touch with me, the LRC, or other AAAUnite members so that we can work in coalition.

Union Hotel Options for 2005 AES-SPA Meetings

2005-01-17T13:00:00.000-05:00

While there is not a UNITE boycott of the Catamaran (the
conference hotel), the Catamaran is not a union hotel. As
there have been requests by AAA members for info on union
hotels, I am writing to provide this info.

People should consider that AES and SPA have a contractual
obligation to fill a certain number of rooms at the Catamaran.
Their respective EBs have been discussing how to deal with
these financial costs, should they arise. Folks should also be
aware that the contract for the AES-SPA meeting was signed
long before the union-only restriction was approved by the EB
at the 2004 Atlanta meeting.

It looks like the Hyatt and then the Hilton are the best
options. Directions to these two are included. The other
hotels seem much too far.

UNITE HERE Local 30 in San Diego is calling for a boycott of
the following hotels:
Hotel Del Coronado - San Diego La Costa Resort and Spa -
San Diego Mission Valley Hilton

The union hotels, in order of increasing distance, are:

Hyatt Regency Islandia Hotel & Marina Hotel
1441 Quivira Road San Diego, CA 92108
Phone:
(619) 224-1234
Contact: Angela McMahon
2.5 miles from conference hotel
Driving Directions
1. Start out going SOUTH on MISSION BLVD toward ZANZIBAR CT.
(1.27 miles)
2. Turn LEFT onto W MISSION BAY DR. (0.93 miles)
3. Turn RIGHT onto QUIVIRA RD. (0.32 miles)
4. End at 1441 Quivira Rd San Diego, CA 92109-7805 US
Total Estimated Time: 6 minutes

Hilton San Diego Resort
1775 E. Mission Bay Dr. San Diego, CA 92108
Phone: (619) 276-4010
Contact: Tom Fraher
4.26 Miles from conference hotel
Driving Directions
1. Start out going NORTH on MISSION BLVD toward WAVE CREST CT.
(0.32 miles)
2. Turn RIGHT onto GRAND AVE. (2.38 miles)
3. Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto E MISSION BAY DR. (1.55 miles)
4. End at 1775 E Mission Bay Dr San Diego, CA 92109-6801 US
Total Estimated Time: 10 minutes

Canterbury Statement

2004-12-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

The following statement was composed by participants at the Canterbury Convocation in San Francisco and sent to the AAA EB on Monday, December 13, 2004.

Please note that this statement represents points of unity. In other words, not everything that has been discussed is included here, but everything on which we agree is.

We hope that the AAA EB will consider this statement in their deliberations at the AAA EB meeting on Tuesday, December 14, 2004.

The statement is still open for signatures and is currently being considered for adoption by several other AAA sections. Up-to-date endorsements may be viewed here.

November 20, 2004
San Francisco, California

Canterbury Statement

An open letter to the Executive Board (EB) of the American Anthropological Association (AAA):

In response to recent events, we believe that reforms need to be made in how the AAA makes decisions so that it uses the collective power of its membership to advance fundamental human rights as well as carries out its functions as a professional organization. To that end, we are committed to ensure that AAA leaders and membership engage in a productive discussion about the following: 1) the levels of material support the AAA staff needs to negotiate contracts that promote collective bargaining and the right to organize while protecting the Association from liability, and 2) the need for greater transparency, accountability, and responsiveness in the management of the Association, particularly pertaining to communication between the AAA staff, its elected leadership, and the Association's constituent sections, committees, and members.

We would like the AAA EB to publicly explain what mechanisms will be put into place to address the above issues. We are particularly concerned that the EB consider taking the following steps:
• Establish an elected Committee on Labor Issues composed of AAA members who will conduct ongoing consultation with AAA staff, labor leaders, labor attorneys, and other academic and professional organizations on ethical business practices. The committee will seek alliances that promote the interests of labor while protecting the Association from liability.
• In anticipation of labor disputes in Washington, DC in 2005 and in San Francisco in 2006, renegotiate the existing Marriot and Hilton contracts to include force majeure (“opt-out”) language that protects AAA in the event of such disputes.
• Resolve to ensure that the staff
o works closely with the Committee on Labor Issues,
o pursues contracts only with union vendors,
o adds force majeure (“opt-out”) language that protects AAA in the event of a labor dispute to all future vendor contracts,
o prioritizes vendors in union environments over anti-union, “right-to-work” environments,
o and increases AAA’s conference liability insurance.
• Evaluate the conference staff and the resources available to them, with an eye towards ensuring that they are adequately staffed, trained, and managed in a way that ensures their actions are transparent and that they are accountable and responsive to the EB and membership.

Respectfully,

Sign the Canterbury Statement!

Sections and Committees:
Anthropology and Environment Section
American Ethnological Society
Committee for Human Rights
Council on Anthropology and Education
Society for the Anthropology of North America
Society for the Anthropology of Work
Society for Urban, National and Transnational/Global Anthropology
Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists

Individuals:
KAREN BRODKIN, Professor, UCLA, SANA, AFA, ABA
SHARRYN KASMIR, Associate Professor, Hofstra University
JUNE NASH, Distinguished Professor Emerita, CUNY
GILLIAN NEWELL, PhD Candidate, University of Arizona, LASA, NASA
THOMAS E. SHERIDAN, Professor, University of Arizona, A&E
ROBERT T. O'BRIEN, PhD Candidate, Temple University, AES, SANA, SAW, SCA, SMA
JOAN E. PALUZZI, Partners In Health, SMA
SANDY SMITH-NONINI, Assistant Professor, Elon University, SAW
MOLLY DOANE, Assistant Professor, Marquette University, SANA, A&E, AES, SLAA
HEATHER LEVI, Lake Forest College, SOLGA, SLAA, SCA
TERENCE TURNER, Professor, Univ. of Chicago Emeritus, GAD, SCA
DONALD M. NONINI, Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, SUNTA, AES, SAW, SCA
YURIKO C. WELLINGTON, Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa, CAE, SLA, SCA
ZOE REITER, Ph.D. student, Columbia University, SUNTA
PAUL DURRENBERGER, Professor, Penn State, CSAS, SAW, SAE, SANA, SHA, GAD, AES
JASON KLUGMAN, Program Administrator - Program in Teacher Preparation, Princeton University, CAE
VIN LYON-CALLO, Associate Professor, Western Michigan University
ANN KINGSOLVER, Associate Professor,University of South Carolina
JIM WEIL, President, Society for the Anthropology of Work
GILBERT QUINTERO, Research Associate Professor, University of New Mexico, SMA
MICHAEL CLATTS, Director, Institute for International Research on Youth at Risk, National Development Research Institutes, Inc., SMA
KRISTIN BRIGHT, Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley/ Prevention Research Center, SMA, SCA
ANGELA JANCIUS, Visiting Assistant Professor, Youngstown State University, SAE, SUNTA, APLA, AES [SfAA, SEA]
KEVIN MICHAEL FOSTER, Southern Illinois University, ABA, CAE
JASON RODRIGUEZ, UC Santa Cruz, Council on Anthropology and Education
STEPHEN C. MAACK, Founder and Lead Consultant, REAP Change Consultants, NAPA, SUNTA, SAW, AAAAAA
CAROLE L. CRUMLEY, A&E, AD, SAE
NEIL SMITH, Dist. Prof; Director, CUNY Grad Center
JENNIFER ADAIR, Arizona State University, CAE
TORIN MONAHAN, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University, SUNTA
ANN S. NIHLEN, Professor, Univ. of New Mexico, CAE
P. KERIM FRIEDMAN, Ph. D., Temple University, SLA, AES, SEAA
JASON SANFORD GREENBERG, Pratt Institute, CAE
CRAIG R. JANES, Professor, University of Colorado, President, Society for Medical Anthropology
KATHE MANAGAN, Postdoctoral Fellow, Tulane University, SLA, SOLGA
SAM BECK, Director, Cornell university
ELLEN BIGLER, Associate Professor, Rhode Island College, CAE, Latin America
PETER LAWSON, Case Western Reserve University, SUNTA, SfAA, SMA
PHILIPPE BOURGOIS, Professor, University of California, San Francisco, Medical Anthropology, Urban Anthropology, Alcohol and Drug Research Group, Applied Anthropology, Latin American Anthropology and North American Anthropology
KAREN STOCKER, Assistant Professor, CSU Bakersfield, CAE, AFA, SLAA
JANET IRENE HECSH, Assistant Professor, California State University, Sacramento, CAE
JUSTINE P. VANTHILT, B.A. Candidate, Anthropology, Cornell University, SUNTA, SAE
DAVID CHAUDOIR, University of Arkansas, CSAS, SANA, SCA, SUNTA, MES
HORMAZD N. SETHNA, Case Western Reserve University
ROSEMARY HENZE, San Jose State University, CAE
STEVE FERZACCA, Associate Professor, University of Lethbridge, AES, SCA, SHA, SUNTA, SPA
HEATHER PLEASANTS, Assistant Professor, University of Delaware, CAE
ANNE MARIE BEISSWANGER-HOUSER, Temple University
PAUL MCDOWELL, Instructor, Santa Barbara City College, SUNTA, SLAA, SACC
CLARE TALWALKER, Assistant Professor, University of Dayton
DANIEL RENFREW, Binghamton University-SUNY
HANS C. BUECHLER, Professor, Syracuse University, SAW
ELLEN E. FOLEY, Postdoctoral Fellow, Health and Societies Program, University of Pennsylvania, SMA
MARIANN SKAHAN, Univ. of New Mexico, CLA, NASA, SLA
SHASTA GAUGHEN, University of New Mexico, NASA, AES
MARIA T. BRODINE, Graduate student, San Diego State University
DOUGLAS FOLEY, Professor
VALENTINA PAGLIAI, Assistant Professor, Oberlin College, SLA, AES, SOLGA, CSAS
CHARLES MENZIES, UBC, AES, SAW, SAE, SANA
DEBRA CHANDLER, PhD
JANISE HURTIG, Research Specialist, UIC
KRISTI BRIAN, PhD
PAULINE LIPMAN, Assoc. Prof., DePaul University, CAE
DAVID C. VIRTUE
DAVID VALENTINE, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota
JANET G. AHLER, Professor, University of North Dakota, CAE, Public Anthro
GREG TRAUTMANN, Student, SLA
DR. ANITA FABOS, University of East London
ALEXANDER KING, Lecturer, University of Aberdeen, AES, SLA
PER KRISTIAN HILDEN, Senior Research Fellow, University of Oslo, Medical Anthropology, Alcohol and Drug Research Group
SUSAN GREENBAUM, Professor, University of South Florida, SUNTA President-elect
NIKOLETA KATSAKIORI, University of Manchester, UK, SUNTA
KAREN J. CLARK, Adjunct Prof., Univ. of Pa. and Arcadia Univ., CAE
DR. RONALD FRANKENBERG, Keele & Brunel Universities (retired), SMA and several others
ELIZABETH GRACE, Ph.D. student, University of California, Santa Barbara, CAE
LEILA MONAGHAN, Course Director, Indiana University, SLA
DR. CONSTANCE DEROCHE, UCCB, SAW, SANA, SUNTA
KRISTINE GENTRY, Auburn University, AFA, AES
PATRICK MCQUILLAN, Associate Professor, Boston College, CAE
TIMOTHY M. HALL, PhD, SAE, SPA
YVONNE LASSALLE, Assistant Professor, Hunter College, CUNY AE, SCA, SUNTA, POLAR
BEN CHAPPELL, Asst. Professor, Bridgewater College
WILLIAM L LEAP, Professor and Chair, Dept of Anthropology, American University
LISA BRANDO
DAVID GADSBY, Ph.D. Student, American University
LEE D. BAKER, Associate Professor, Duke U., ABA SANA
AARON TOBLER, American University
FAYE V. HARRISON, Professor, University of Florida, ABA, AFA, AES, SCA, SUNTA
WENDY HATHAWAY, University of South Florida, SANA, SUNTA, NASA, NAPA, CAR, AFA, ABA
DR. MARGARET MACDONALD, York University, SMA
TIM MAHONEY, Assistant Professor, California State University-Stanislaus, CAE, SLA
PETER C. HANEY, Lecturer in Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin
LISA ROFEL, Associate Professor, University of California Santa Cruz, SCA
KARL H SCHWERIN, Professor Emeritus, Univ. of New Mexico, AES, ASA, C&A, GAD, SLAA
JEMIMA PIERRE, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, ABA
MELANIE ROCK
ROSHANAK KHESHTI, Ph. D. Candidate, UC Santa Cruz
KAREN L. DAVIS, Adjunct Instructor/PhD candidate, Temple University, SMA, etc.
MARC PERRY, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Ilinois, Urbana-Champaign, ABA
ANA M. ALONSO, Associate Professor, University of Arizona, Elected Board Member, SCA
KATHRYN S. OTHS , Professor, Alabama, SMA, CNA
NICK RATTRAY, Graduate Student, University of Arizona
BRINTON S. RAMSEY, Graduate Student, Teachers College, Columbia University, CAE, NAPA
FREDERICK ERICKSON, University of California, CAE, SLA
DEVIN, American University, AES, NASA
KAMALA VISWESWARAN, Associate Professor, UT Austin, AFA
ELLEN LEWIN, Professor, University of Iowa, AES, AFA, SANA, SMA, SOLGA
ANGELA E. ARZUBIAGA, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University, CAE SUNTA
CAROLE NAGENGAST, Professor, UNM, AA, AES, SFA
LOUISE E. TALLEN, Ph.D., UCLA Dept. of General and Internal Medicine Health Services Research, SPA, SOLGA, SAR
JAN NESPOR, Virginia Tech
SAMUEL GERALD COLLINS, SAW Executive board, Towson University, SAW, AES, East Asia
MARY ANGLIN, Associate Professor, University of Kentucky
VANESSA DEKONINCK, University of California, Davis
SAMUEL M. MARTINEZ, Assoc. Prof, Anthropology & Latin American Studies U Connecticut-Storrs, AES, SCA, ALLA, SLAA
MICHAEL BLIM, Associate Professor, CUNY Graduate Center, SAW Past President
NANCY SCHEPER-HUGHES, Professor, UC Berkeley
LUCIA ANN MCSPADDEN, Senior Research Fellow, Pacific School of Religion, SUNTA, GAD, NAPA
JUDITH M. MAXWELL
ROBERT FOSTER, Professor, University of Rochester, SCA, AES
HINDA SEIF, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley
SIMON CRADDOCK LEE, Cancer Prevention Fellow, NCI, SMA, SCA, SOLGA
PAMELA O. BROWN, Graduate Student, University of North Texas, CAE, NAPA
GREG TANAKA, Professor, Pacific Oaks College, CAE, SUNTA, SCA, SAA
JAY SOKOLOVSKY, Professor, Univ of South Florida, St. Petersburg, SANA, SMA, SUNTA
SUSAN MAKIESKY BARROW, Research Scientist, NY State Psychiatric Institute, SMA, SANA, AES, SUNTA
LISA MAYA KNAUER, Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, SUNTA, Visual Anthropology
CHAR ULLMAN, Senior Research Associate, University of Arizona, Board member of CAE; other memberships include SUNTA, SOLGA, SFA
CHIP PERKINS, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, CAE
SUSAN HYATT, Associate Professor, IUPUI, SANA, AFA, SUNTA, ABA, NAPA, SAE
ADAM HENNE, University of Georgia, A&E, SLAA, NASA
MARIELA NUNEZ-JANES, Assistant Professor, University of North Texas
ROBERT BOROFSKY, Hawaii Pacific University
DREW J. ASSON, Grassroots Program Manager, SPLA
MISHA KLEIN, Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley, School of Public Health/Prevention Research Center, AES, A&DSG
DONNA DEYHLE, Professor, CAE
ANRU LEE, Assistant Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY, SAW
CAROLYN EPPLE, Assistant Professor, Sonoma State University
MAX KIRSCH, Associate Professor, Florida Atlantic University
DR. SOFIA VILLENAS, University of Texas at Austin, CAE
FRANK A. SALAMONE, Professor and Chair, Iona College
REYMUNDO CHAPA, Graduate Student, University of Texas at Austin, SLAA, NASA
DAVID NUGENT, Professor, Colby College, AES, SLAA
ROSE MILLS
JESSACA LEINAWEAVER, University of Michigan, AFA, SHA, SLAA
MARIA D. VESPERI, Professor, New College of Florida, SANA, ABA, AES, SCA, SVA
DEBBIE ZORN, Senior Research Associate, University of Cincinnati, CAE
CARLY HUTCHINSON AAA Member
JUNAID RANA, Assistant Professor
JULIA MEREDITH HESS, Instructor, University of New Mexico, AES, SUNTA, CORI Co-Chair, AFA
MARGI NOWAK
LISA HOFFMAN, Asst Prof, U Washington, Tacoma, SUNTA, SCA, AFA
LISA WOZNIAK
KELLY FELTAULT, PhD Candidate, American University
LINDA LIGHT, California State University Long Beach, SACC, SLA
KATHRYN ANDERSON-LEVITT, U Michigan-Dearborn, CAE, SAE, SPA
MARIA AMELIA VITERI, American University, AAA, AFA
REBECCA FRISCHKORN, PhD Student, American University, SUNTA, CORI
C. TODD WHITE, University of Southern California, APA, SOLGA, SLA
FRANCOISE DUSSART, Associate Prof, University of Connecticut
ROB GORDON, University of Vermont
CLARA HENDERSON, Indiana University, SVA, SCA
ERIC RICE, Instructor, Johns Hopkins Graduate Division of Education
JOANNE B. EICHER, Regents Professor, University of Minnesota, SVA, AES
JEAN DENNISON, Ph.D. Student, University of Florida, SVA
MARION MCCREEDY, Adjunct Professor, University of St. Francis
ADAM FRANK, Freeman Teaching Fellow, Wittenberg University
JON C WAGNER, University of California, Davis
MARIANNE GEORGE
AARON GLASS, New York University, SVA, CMA
AMY CATLIN-JAIRAZBHOY, Associate Professor (Visiting), UCLA, SVA, NAPA, SAR
ALAN KLIMA, Associate Professor, UC Davis, SCA, SVA
JOE KINSELLA, Doctoral candidate, University of New Mexico, CMA, AES, CAE
PETER S. ALLEN, Professor, RIC, SVA, SAE
JAN NEWBERRY, Assistant Professor, University of Lethbridge, APLA, AFA, AES, SUNTA, NAPA, A&E
NERIKO DOERR, Brookdale Community College, CAE
ELIZABETH BIRD, Professor and Chair, University of South Florida, SVA, SCA
JEFF DUNCAN-ANDRADE, Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University, CAE
CAROL HERMER
CHRISTA CRAVEN, Co-Chair, Society of Lesbian & Gay Anthropologists, University of Mary Washington, SOLGA, AFA, SANA, CAR, SMA
PETER WOGAN, Visual Anthro
BRIAN MCKENNA, University of Michigan-Dearborn
ROSA ELENA, Archaeologist, Visual Anthropologist
SUSAN ERVIN-TRIPP, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, SLA
STEWART GUTHRIE, Fordham University
HILDA LLORÉNS, Asst. Prof., Middlebury College, SVA, SHA, ABA
PETER BIELLA, President, Society for Visual Anthropology, San Francisco State University
FRANCES RIEMER, Associate Professor, Northern Arizona University
LORI ALLEN, MES
SARAH LAMB, Associate Professor, Brandeis University
MICHAEL OSTERWEIL
DR. BRAD BIGLOW, University of North Florida, CAE, SLAA, NAPA, SOLGA
TIM PILBROW, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, SAE, SCA
RACHEL HEIMAN, Core Faculty, The New School
MARY L. GRAY, Assistant Professor, Indiana University, Department of Communication and Culture, SOLGA, SANA
STEPHANIE TAKARAGAWA, Temple University, SVA
KELLY ASKEW, Associate Professor, University of Michigan, SVA, AfAA
MARILYN SILVERMAN, Professor, York University, Toronto, APLA, SAE, SAW, AES
G. ALEXANDER MOORE, Professor, Univ. Southern California, AES, SUNTA, SOLGA, SVA
MARCELA MENDEZ, MA, Business Consultant, NAPA, SUNTA, SEAA, SLAA
AMY AILEEN DONOVAN, Ph.D., UCSF, SOLGA, SANA, AFA, SVA, SAW
STEPHEN O. MURRAY
JENNIFER ALVEY, Lecturer, University of Michigan-Flint, AES, SLAA, SANA
DOUGLAS A. FELDMAN, Professor, SUNY Brockport
KAREN KELLY-BLAKE, Ph.D. Candidate, Michigan State University
ROBERT ROTENBERG, DePaul University, SUNTA (President), SAE, AES
TY TENGAN, Assistant Professor, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
VICTOR M. TORRES-VELEZ, ABD, Michigan State University
SARAH HORTON, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School, SANA
GILLIAN M. GOSLINGA, Ph.D. Candidate, UC Santa Cruz
ARACHU CASTRO, Assistant Professor of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Partners In Health, SMA
KRISTIN KOPTIUCH, Associate Professor, Arizona State University West
MELANIE E. L. BUSH, Brooklyn College, CUNY
TIM SIEBER, Professor, Massachusetts-Boston, SANA, SUNTA, ABA, CAE, AES, SCA
ATHENA MCLEAN, Associate Professor, Central Michigan University SMA, SANA
MARY ALICE SCOTT, University of Kentucky
MERRILL SINGER, Associate Director, Hispanic Health Council, SMA, SANA
SARAH E RUBIN, Graduate Student, Case Western Reserve University, SMA, CAR, CAH
ANDREW ROTH-SENEFF, Professor, El Colegio de Michoacán, AES, SLAA
CHARLOTTE HANEY MUELLER, Ph.D. Candidate, Case Western Reserve University, SMA
ALISSE WATERSTON, Associate Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
ANNA MARIE NICOLAYSEN, Ph.D. student, University of Connecticut, SMA, SLAA
CHRISTOPHER CARRICO, Adjunct Instructor/PhD Candidate, Temple University, AES, SLAA, SANA, CAE, NASA
CLAIRE WENDLAND, Chinle Comprehensive Healthcare Facility, Navajo Area Indian Health Service
BARBARA ROSE JOHNSTON, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Political Ecology, ABA, AFA, A&E
ROBERT L. A. HANCOCK, Department of History, University of Victoria
BEVERLY BENNETT, Shimer College
JUDITH GOODE, Professor, Temple University, SANA, SUNTA, SAW
ROBERT CLARK, Ph.D Candidate, Yale University
MARGARET (GRETA) GIBSON, Professor, UC Santa Cruz, CAE
JOHN DONAHUE, Professor, Trinity University, SMA, AFA, NAPA, SfAA
CAROL THOMPSON
KATE MASLEY, Doctoral candidate, Case Western Reserve University, SMA, SfAA, CAR
DENNI BLUM, Assistant Professor, CSU Fresno, CAE
ELLEN MOODIE, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
SARAH HILL, Asst. Prof., Western Michigan University
ALLEN FELDMAN, Associate Professor, Department of Culture and Communication NYU, AES, SCA, SVA, SUNTA
KENYON STEBBINS, Assoc. Prof, retired, West Virginia Univ.
SALLY A. CAMPBELL, University of Colorado at Boulder
BRUCE GRANT, Associate Professor, Swarthmore College, SCA Board Member.
VINCI DARO, PhD Candidate, UNC-Chapel Hill
RON LOEWE, Assistant Professor, Mississippi State University, SLAA, SMA
ELIAS L. MARTINEZ, Asst. Professor, SUNY-Binghamton, CAE
HEEWON CHANG, Associate Professor, Eastern University, CAE
ALAYNE G UNTERBERGER, Exec Director, FICS, UF, SMA, NAPA
DARA CULHANE, Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University
ANDREA MUEHLEBACH, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Chicago, SAE
ANDREA CLEMONS, Loyola Marymount University, CAE #1
RENE LLEWELLYN, University of South Florida, BAS, SAFN, SOLGA
JOHN GLEDHILL, Professor, The University of Manchester, AES, SLAA, SVA
GARRETT ALEXANDREA MCDOWELL, Ph.D. Student, Temple University SUNTA, SVA
JESSICA FALCONE, PhD student, Cornell University, SPA, SCA
CONAL GUAN-YOW HO, Ph.D. Candidate, UC Santa Cruz
GERALD SIDER, Professor, CUNY, AAA, AES, Culture.Agriculture
MARA BUCHBINDER, Case Western Reserve University, SMA, SfAA
DONNA KIRSCHNER, PhD Student, University of Pennsylvania, CAE
HARRIET L RICHARDSON SEACAT, Adjunct Faculty, University of South Alabama, NAPA
SHARMIN SADEQUEE, Grad Student
SIMON MAY, University of Chicago
TRICIA NIESZ, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Kent State University, CAE
SONIA NUSSENZWEIG HOTIMSKY, Student, Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo
ANTHONY MARCUS, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne University Private
CARLA PACIOTTO, Associate Professor, Western Illinois University, CAE
SHARI FELDMAN, graduate student, University of South Florida
JUDITH PREISSLE, Professor, University of Georgia, CAE
JANISE HURTIG, Research Specialist, UIC
JESSICA GREENBERG, University of Chicago, SAE
THERESA MCGINNIS, Assistant Professor, Hofstra University, CAE
ANWEN TORMEY, U. of Chicago
MICHAEL L. CEPEK, University of Chicago, AES
JUBIN CHERUVELIL, Graduate Student/Information Analyst, Michigan State University
HEIDE CASTANEDA, PhD student, University of Arizona, SAE, SMA, SUNTA
KARIN FRIEDERIC, University of Arizona, SMA
ALEXANDER (SASHA) NEWELL, Visiting Assistant Professor, New York University
JOANNA STONE, Graduate Student, University of Arizona
JAMES P. STANSBURY, Asst. Professor, University of Florida, SMA, SAFN(CNA)
DAVID J. DWYER, Professor, Michigan State University
DEVVA KASNITZ, Academic Coordinator, UCB, SMA
AVIVA BOWER, Assistant Professor, College of Saint Rose, CAE
GREGORY S. POOLE, DPhil candidate, University of Oxford, UK, CAE, SEAA, SLA
DR. MELFORD S WEISS, Professor, California State Univ. Sacramento, CAE
MICA POLLOCK, Assistant Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education
JEFF SHULTZ, Professor, Arcadia University, CAE
CRISTINA GONZALEZ, University of South Florida, GAD, SCA, SANA, SUNTA, CAE
CAROL S. GOLDIN, Director, Academic & Strategic Planning, Rutgers University, SMA
DEBORAH REED-DANAHAY, Professor of Anthropology, UTexas-Arlington, CAE, AES, SAE, APLA
YA-CHUNG CHUANG, Assistant Professor, National Chiao Tung University, SUNTA
DR. BARBARA OOMEN, University of Amsterdam
WILLIAM O. BEEMAN, Professor, Brown University, SLA, AES, SOLGA
VICTORIA J. BAKER, Professor, Eckerd College, CAE
JANET RAFFERTY, Professor, Mississippi State University
DR. GERALDINE GRANT
GISELA ERNST-SLAVIT, Professor, Washington State University, CAE
EDWARD MURPHY
BENITO VERGARA, San Francisco State University
LETTY LINCOLN, Ph.D., Cascade AIDS Project, CAE, SAC
ROBIN LEBARON, Finance Director, Parodneck Foundation, SUNTA, SANA
LISA ROSEN, Research Associate (Assistant Professor), The University of Chicago, CAE, SANA
ANNE-MARIA MAKHULU, Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University
STACY LEIGH PIGG, Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University, SCA, AES, SMA
NANCY R. ANDERSON, M.A. Student, University of Tennessee Knoxville
MARISOL DE LA CADENA, associate professor, UC Davis, SLAA, SCA
JEFFREY SLUKA
JOANNE RAPPAPORT, Georgetown University, SLAA
JACQUALINE REID
ROBERT P. MARLIN, Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, SMA
DEBORAH POOLE, Professor, Johns Hopkins University, SLAA, SVA, AES
SUZANA SAWYER, Associate Professor, UC Davis
BRADLEY S. TATAR, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, SUNTA
DIANE M. NELSON, Associate Professor, Cultural Anthropology, Duke University, SCA, AES
BILL MAURER, Assoc Prof, University of California, Irvine, AES, SCA, APLA
JULIAN, Doctoral Candidate, Graduate Center, City University of New York, SUNTA
FRANCES NORWOOD, PhD Candidate, University of California-San Francisco/Berkeley, SMA
SHANNON JACKSON, assistant professor, university of missouri urban anthropology
JESSICA WEINBERG, Ph.D. candidate, University of Arizona, SLA, AFA, NASA
ROBERT J. SHEPHERD, Professorial Lecturer, The George Washington University
CHARLES R. HALE, University of Texas at Austin , AES, SLAA, CAE
CATHY STANTON, Lecturer, Tufts University, AES, SUNTA
MARINA AMAT
BEVERLY ANN DAVENPORT, Doctoral Candidate, UCSF-UCBerkeley Joint Program in Medical Anthropology, SMA, SANA
BONNIE ADRIAN, U of Denver
JAMES PFEIFFER, Associate Professor, University of Washington, SMA
PETE RICHARDSON, VA Professor, University of Michigan, SAW, SPA
KIRA KOSNICK, Nottingham Trent University
JENNIFER JO THOMPSON, Ph.D. Student, University of Arizona, SMA
ELIZABETH CHIN, Associate Professor, Occidental College
RODNEY HOPSON, Duquesne University
BARBARA SCHRODER, Assistant Professor, Lehman College, CAE, SOLGA
ASHLEY SPALDING, Doctoral Student, University of South Florida, SANA
ANTHONY BALZANO, Professor, Sussex County Community College
MARY ROAF, Temple University

Atlanta Events Wiki

2004-12-12T17:13:00.000-05:00

I've set up a "wiki" page (a page that anyone can edit) where people can post their own information about planned events. You can visit the page here. If you've ever used wikipedia, this is the same. Hopefully this will facilitate gathering and collecting information. However, I know that some people are not comfortable with new software, so if some people would like to take on the task of collecting information and posting it to the wiki, please e-mail me.

Polly Strong Resolution under consideration at 2004 AAA Business Meeting

2004-12-11T13:45:00.000-05:00

Date: November 14, 2004
To: Mac Marshall, AAA Secretary
From: Pauline Turner Strong, President, Society for Cultural Anthropology

RESOLUTION FOR CONSIDERATION AT 2004 AAA BUSINESS MEETING

Whereas all AAA members are required to join a Section;

Whereas much of the intellectual work of the AAA is conducted by the Sections;

Whereas the decisions of the AAA Executive Board directly impact the activities and finances of the Sections;

Whereas the AAA Executive Board relies on the Sections for providing a conduit for communications with Section members; and

Whereas the current organization of the AAA makes no provision for the direct representation of the Sections on the Executive Board, except through the non-voting Section Convenor:

Be it resolved that an ad hoc Governance and Communications Committee be established to formulate proposals for (1) reforming the relationship between the AAA Executive Board and the Sections and (2) facilitating communication and feedback mechanisms between annual meetings within the AAA as a whole. The Committee will be composed of the AAA President, the Section Convenor, and an equal number of representatives of the AAA Executive Board and the Section Assembly.

The implementation of this resolution should fall within the ordinary budget of the AAA Executive Board, except for any necessary travel on the part of the representatives of the Section Assembly.

Respectfully submitted,
Pauline T. Strong, President
Society for Cultural Anthropology

Motions Passed by SA in 2003

2004-12-11T13:41:00.000-05:00

Section Assembly Actions since November Meeting
Items adopted by Email Ballot

Adopted by Section Assembly February 9, 2004

MOTION 1 ("Union Motion")

Whereas: The employment situation and real wages in the United States continues to deteriorate and there are substantial differences according to race and gender
The costs of healthcare and health insurance are steadily increasing
There are increasing inequities in our economic system
Unions offer effective remedies to these problems
Be it resolved that the Section Assembly urges:

The Executive Board of the AAA to study and adopt a policy that would have the American Anthropological Association, and its sections, meet only in hotels whose staff are represented by a union.

Explanation
The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union maintains a website--http://www.hereunion.org/hotelguide/results.asp that lists all organized hotels, so that it takes virtually no staff time to find organized hotels.
This would use the economic power of our organization to reversing the negative trends listed above, and to improve the lives of working people

Adopted by Section Assembly February 17, 2004

MOTION 2 (“Living Wage Motion”)

Whereas: i. There is an increasing trend to contracting work and
ii. worsening economic conditions for working people and
iii. living wage ordinances have proven to be an effective means for combating poverty and race and gender imbalances in remuneration
Be it resolved that the Section Assembly urges the Executive Committee of the American Anthropological Association to study and adopt a policy that will restrict the AAA and its sections from meeting in any municipality, within the United States, that has not adopted a living wage ordinance.Explanation
This puts the economic power of the American Anthropological Association behind the move to gain living wage ordinances across the United States that has proven effective in combating poverty. This website maintains a list of municipalities that have adopted such ordinances so that it would take virtually no staff time to check sites:
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/issueguides_livingwage_livingwagefacts

In Atlanta for the AAA? Join AAAUnite at Jobs with Justice Event

2004-12-11T13:18:00.000-05:00

Jobs with Justice International Solidarity Tour

Thousands of jobs are being outsourced to lower-wage countries like India. How should workers and communities respond?

Come meet Indian labor leaders to discuss our mutual interests in fighting together to defend good jobs and fair labor standards.

Speakers will include:

· Ashim Roy, President of union representing General Electric workers in Gujarat state.
· V. Chandra, Organizing Secretary of a union representing 50,000 miners who has worked in the coal industry for 25 years.
· Anannya Bhattacharjee, coordinator of an international collaboration between Jobs with Justice and India's New Trade Union Initiative.

Date: Thursday, December 16, 2004
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: CWA Local 3204 (279 Logan St. near I-20 & Hill St.)

Less than a month after a U.S. presidential election in which candidates traded accusations about the increase in the number of jobs shifting from the U.S. to India and other countries, a delegation of labor leaders from India is coming to Atlanta. The goal of the tour is to develop grassroots strategies to force global corporations to respect workers' rights and to help build international solidarity between U.S. and Indian workers to fight for good jobs and fair labor standards.

The tour is sponsored by Jobs with Justice and India's New Trade Union Initiative. The New Trade Union Initiative is a democratizing force within the Indian labor movement, independent of any political party. It is playing a leading role in the larger social movements that are now burgeoning in India. Jobs with Justice is a national campaign for workers' rights with over 40 local coalitions that unite labor unions, community groups, faith-based organizations and students to promote economic and social justice for all working people.

For more information contact:
Terence Courtney 404-381-5993 terencecourtney@yahoo.com

For more information and updates about the New Trade Union Initiative tour, visit www.jwj.org.

From the Hyatt to CWA:
Start: Depart Start on Courtland St (NE) (South) 0.9 0:02
1: Road name changes to Washington St SW 0.2 0:01
2: Turn LEFT (East) onto SR-154 [Trinity Ave SW] 0.1 0:01
3: Keep STRAIGHT onto SR-154 [Memorial Dr SW] 0.1 < 1min
4: Keep STRAIGHT onto SR-154 [Memorial Dr SE] 0.1 < 1min
5: Turn RIGHT (South) onto Martin St SE 0.1 0:01
6: Turn LEFT (East) onto Logan St SE 0.1 0:01
End: Arrive End < 0.1 < 1min
Total Route 1.7 mi 6 mins

SCA Open Forum on the AAA and Labor Relations

2004-12-05T21:47:00.000-05:00

OPEN FORUM ON THE AAA AND LABOR RELATIONS

Hyatt Regency Atlanta 265 Peachtree Street North East (6 blocks
from the AAA meeting hotel)

Friday, December 17, 2004 5:00-7:30 PM

SCA has organized this forum in order to promote discussion
about current struggles involving workers in the hotel and
restaurant industry and, specifically, about how professional
groups such as the American Anthropological Association might
play an active role in solidarity with hotel and restaurant
workers. The forum is intended to be forward-looking and
practical. Discussion topics will include the strategies of
organized labor; proposals for alternate meeting sites and
structures; and the kinds of plans AAA is making for future
meetings.

PRESENTATIONS (5:00 - 6:15 PM)

Neal Kwatra (Department of Strategic Affairs, UNITE HERE!) Paul
Durrenberger (Pennsylvania State) Suzan Erem (Independent
Scholar, Writer, and Activist) Sandy Smith-Nonini (Elon
University & Society for the Anthropology of Work) Elizabeth
Brumfiel (President, American Anthropological Association)
DISCUSSION: THE AUDIENCE (6:15 -- 7:30 PM) Moderators: Pauline
Strong (President, Society for Cultural Anthropology) Robert
Foster (Treasurer, Society for Cultural Anthropology)

Defeat the Hayden Resolutions

2004-12-05T01:31:00.000-05:00

Dear Colleagues:

I am writing to ask you to oppose Dr. Robert Hayden's proposed resolutions for the 2004 American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting. These resolutions are here and here.

This is a critical time, in which we can and should evaluate the AAA's mission(s) and the role of the Executive Board (EB). However, these resolutions limit discussion rather than facilitate it. Further, they border on sanctioning the AAA EB for the widely-supported, ethical stance they took in moving the Annual Meeting from the the San Francisco Hilton during the worker lockout.

There are three reasons to oppose these motions:

1) Opposition to the "corporate culture" of the AAA has been clearly voiced in the past several weeks. The language of both of Dr. Hayden's resolutions supports further corporatization of the AAA and clear prioritization of fiduciary over ethical responsibilities.

A full accounting of the costs of the move to Atlanta must be done. Likewise, while there are questions as to the soundness of the AAA Counsel's advice and the actions of the AAA leadership regarding this advice, it is not clear that the EB or the membership would benefit from training the EB in corporate law. Neither an accounting of the recent move's costs nor actions regarding the AAA EB and the AAA Counsel should be conducted under the terms suggested in Dr. Hayden's resolution.

2) Although Dr. Hayden cites the AAA Mission Statement and the Long-Range Plan in his proposed resolutions, he chooses his citations in a manner that depict an Association that few among us would recognize. He, correctly, points out that the "duty of corporate officers runs to the corporation in support of achieving its stated goals," yet he chooses carefully among the goals of the AAA. He has left out the portions of the Mission Statement that refer to the goals of "the dissemination of anthropological knowledge and its use to solve human problems" and "represent[ing] the discipline nationally and internationally, in the public and private sectors." Further, in choosing only these two documents, Dr. Hayden neglects the Code of Ethics of the AAA, the AAA Declaration on Anthropology and Human Rights, and the goverment relations and public policy efforts of the Association.

The cumulative effect of AAA and other groups moving meeting business out of San Francisco MEG hotels built political pressure which resulted in an end to the lockout. This is entirely consistent with the goals and efforts I cite above.

3) Just as there is no "value-free" science, there is no position that the AAA can take that leaves us out of the labor struggle so long as we continue to hold conferences.

The AAA has two options -- to oppose labor's efforts or to get behind them.

Roughly one-third of the hotel industry's business in the US comes from conferences held by groups like academic and professional organizations, labor, and progressive clergy. Although business and vacation travelers make up almost two-thirds of hotel business, these consumers are increasingly fickle. Hotel chains count on our return business -- as witnessed by the contracts we've maintained with Hilton and Marriot over the years and into the next decade. Academic conferences alone account for more than $65 million in hotel business annually. We also tend to spend more money on ancillary services like audio-visual equipment than business and vacation travellers.

The struggle continues, at both Local 2 -- as they negotiate their contract and fight to retain healthcare and pension benefits, fair working hours and jobs -- and throughout the industry -- as an effort to strengthen collective bargaining and the right to organize in the form of nationally coordinated contract negotiation.

UNITE HERE has developed a strategy that puts pressure on the employers without putting hotel employees at risk. This offers us the opportunity to, as Leith Mullings has called on us to do, use our relatively privileged position as academics to solve people's real problems. While it is odious to many of us to discuss inequality and suffering inside the Grand Ballroom of some corporate hotel, moving out of these hotels takes away from the power we can bring to bear on these very hotels. By using this leverage, UNITE HERE has been able to get "card-check neutrality" agreements to unionize new hotels. What this means is that they use the economic leverage of the AAA, the ASA, the NAACP, and others to increase worker opportunities for organizing. In this way, vulnerable workers have not had to deal with the employer intimidation that comes with organizing in the US.

The success of this strategy can best be seen in UNITE HERE's history of organizing the gaming industry in Las Vegas. Over the course of a decade, the city's union workforce grew from 10,000 to 45,000, making it the most densely unionized city in the US.

The AAA can (and in my mind should) be central to the realization of these efforts. Defeating this resolution is one step in the right direction. EB passage of the restriction of all conference business to union hotels is another.

In solidarity,

Rob

SCA Announces Online Business Meeting and Open Forum

2004-12-01T01:30:00.000-05:00

November 30, 2004

Dear SCA members,

This e_mail is a reminder about the SCA On_line Business Meeting. As you know, the SCA Business Meeting/Reception (ordinarily held at the AAA) has been canceled. Instead, we are holding an electronic business meeting, from December 1-10, at this url.

You can also get to this URL through the link at the SCA web site. Easy-to-follow instructions are included on the site. We invite all SCA members to participate in the electronic business meeting, which will provide a forum for the discussion of labor relations, AAA governance structure and communications with members, and AAA meeting structure.

Let me also take this opportunity to remind those of you who will be at AAA in Atlanta that we are holding an Open Forum on labor issues and questions of AAA governance at the HYATT REGENCY Hotel, 265 Peachtree St. NE, Friday, December 17th, 5-8pm.

Your participation in the electronic meeting (and, if possible, the Open Forum in Atlanta) are deeply appreciated, particularly since the events of this past fall have put all of us at so critical a moment in the history of the AAA and its sections.

Yours sincerely,
Bonnie Urciuoli,
SCA Secretary

Hotel workers back on the job, for now

2004-11-23T21:40:00.000-05:00

See Sunday's article in the SF Chronicle here.

Going to Atlanta? Boycott the Hilton and Stay in a Union-Friendly Hotel

2004-11-23T14:50:00.000-05:00

If you go to the 2004 AAA you can still support labor. The Atlanta Hilton is a non-union hotel. It's also corporate-run, which means they see all of the profit from it, unlike the franchise in San Francisco where they receive only a small
fraction.

Don't stay in the Atlanta Hilton. Don't buy a newspaper, a donut, a cup of coffee, or a postcard at the Hilton.

According to UNITE HERE organizer Neal Kwatra, the Hyatt Regency is currently our only union-hotel option in Atlanta.

Hyatt Regency Atlanta
265 Peachtree Street North East
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: (404) 577-1234

AAAUnite is conducting a poll of AAA members going to Atlanta. Take the poll in the sidebar and let other members know where you'll be staying.

For future reference, UNITE HERE has an online guide
to hotels to which they have given approval.

UNITE HERE on AAA Communication

2004-11-23T14:40:00.000-05:00

To AAA Section Leaders and Board Members,

I have thought for some time about the utility of responding to Bill Davis and Kim Baker's version of the history of communication efforts between our union, UNITE HERE and the AAA staff. After consultation with various interested parties in the AAA, I decided it was important to inject some facts, that are documented, regarding our outreach efforts.

I am attaching a timeline of our outreach efforts [appended below as inline text] to the AAA staff that date back to August 27. In this timeline I include internal e-mails and notes from the staffer from our organization who lead the outreach efforts to the AAA from August 27 forward.

As you will see in the notes and e-mails contained herein, after being referred to Lucille Horn by Liz Brumfiel, our staffer Amy Willis, left countless messages for Ms. Horn from August 31 to September 21. Finally, after not having any of her calls or e-mails returned by Ms. Horn, Amy reached out to Liz Brumfiel, via e-mail on September 21, and asks her to intervene and play a constructive role in helping facilitate contact with Ms. Horn about our concerns and issues.

Despite Baker and Davis' assertion, Ms. Horn never returned one message from Amy Willis, which is what necessitated the further communications and request for Liz Brumfiel to intervene (see internal e-mail dated September 7 and 21 in attached document). We also have preserved Amy Willis' work voicemail with all messgaes saved from August 1- present and there is not one message from Ms. Horn or any other AAA staffer on her voicemail or her cell phone.

What is important to understand about our outreach efforts from August 27 through September is that we wanted to start a line of communication with the AAA. We knew there was a high likelihood of a strike or lockout, given the contract expiration in San Francisco, and as a result we wanted to talk to the AAA staff and leadership about ways they could help to prevent such an outcome by communicating with the hotel.

Additionally, we wanted to talk to the AAA staff about alternative options for hotels and meeting places so AAA members would not have to cross any picket lines, in the event of a strike or lockout. We were having the same conversations with many other big groups and had successfully aided some of them in finding alternative accommodations.

We were somewhat puzzled by the uncooperative nature of the AAA staff in discussing these issues with us, especially since we had worked so well with other academic groups- like the Sociologists, the Geographers, the American Studies Association and many other academic organizations.

On September 29, our union in San Francisco called a two-week strike and only then did the AAA staff begin to talk to us.

In terms of Baker and Davis' recollection of their communication with Kelly Dugan, that is also riddled with inaccuracies. First of all, despite what Davis and Baker allege, she is not a member of our Union's national Strategic Affairs Department. She is the community coordinator of our Local union in San Francisco. Without spending too much time refuting Baker and Davis's recollections of those conversations, it is inconceivable that Kelly would not be helpful about information for alternative accommodations and meeting options, since that is a big part of her job in San Francisco. I have spoken to her about the version of events recounted by Davis and Baker and she strongly disputes their version of events.

In terms of UNITE HERE staffer Rose Murphy's conversations with Ms. Horn, it is true they happened on those days, however, despite our offers, at no time was Ms. Horn interested in our offer to help with alternative accommodations or other logistical assistance. I personally left two messages for Ms. Horn On Wednesday October 20, offering UNITE HERE's assistance and I never heard back from her.

Obviously, after we were on strike and then locked-out, the communication between the AAA staff and my staff increased, however, these were conversations that never had a cooperative tone of two interested parties seeking a solution to a problem. Time and again my staff and I felt as though the AAA staff viewed us in an adversarial way, that it was somehow our fault that this labor dispute was disrupting their meeting. While I completely understand that sentiment given how hard I am sure they worked on arranging the meeting, it was not a helpful dynamic given our collective need to find a soultion to a bad problem.

It was not until October 21, when I received a phone call from Alan Goodman, did our Union, UNITE HERE, feel we had a partner from the AAA who was genuinely interested in problem solving. It is unfortunate that it took that long to get us working together, however, it was not because of a lack of sincere effort on the part of UNITE HERE to reach out to the AAA and its staff to discuss these issue dating back to August 27.

I hope this sheds some more light on the history of our outreach efforts to the AAA and we can avoid these problems as we continue to work together in the future.

If anyone has any questions or is interested in copies of the internal e-mails and notes from our staff on the history of our outreach efforts to the AAA, I am happy to provide them.

Thank you for your time- please see attached timeline document which contains internal UNITE HERE notes and e-mails.

Neal Kwatra

Contents of Kwatra's attachment:

AAA and UNITE HERE – summary of communications

August 27th

- Phone call from Amy Willis to Kim Baker, looking for AAA’s support in our members’ campaign for a fair contract. Kim referred Amy to Liz Brumfiel, President of AAA. She noted that, although Lucille Horn was the meeting planner, Amy should talk to Ms. Brumfiel first.

- Voice mail message from Amy Willis to Liz Brumfiel, asking for AAA’s support and a call back.

- Email from Amy Willis to Liz Brumfiel where Amy explained the importance of academic associations to the hotel companies, what we wanted the associations to do to support the hotel workers campaigns in DC, LA and SF and also what the status of the workers’ contracts was in San Francisco.

August 29th:

- Liz Brumfiel e-mails Amy back and arranges a phone call for the week of the 30th.

August 30th:

- In Amy’s first weekly update on her progress with academic organizations, she has the following to report on her dealings with the AAA thus far. From an internal memo dated 8/30/04:

American Anthropological Association (AAA)

Spoke with Kim Baker, who referred me to Liz Brumfiel (Northwester University), President of AAA. Brumfiel e-mailed me and asked me to call her this week, which I will do. Depending on what she says, I may then be able to talk to Lucille Horn, the AAA’s in-house meeting planner.

Follow up: Call Brumfiel and Horn

August 31st:

- Amy speaks to Liz Brumfiel for the first time. Their conversation has to do with actions the AAA can take in support of the workers, including writing to Hilton, passing a resolution, and integrating FM language into their hotel contracts. Brumfiel also indicates in that conversation that Lucille Horn is the person to contact about AAA’s meeting contracts, relationships with different hotel companies, hotel contacts, etc.

- Having talked first to Brumfiel, as Baker had advised, Amy calls Lucille Horn for the first time. Amy gets her voicemail and leaves a message. Amy mentions that she’s talked to both Baker and Brumfiel and that they had suggested a phone call to discuss the situation with the hotel workers in SF, LA, and DC and what the AAA could do to help their fight. Ms. Horn does not return Amy’s call.

September 3rd:

- In Amy’s second weekly update on her progress with academic organizations, she has the following to report on her dealings with the AAA thus far. From an internal memo dated 9/3/04:

American Anthropological Association (AAA)

Contact: Liz Brumfiel, Northwestern University, AAA President, 847-491-4564

Upcoming Meetings: 2004 (November 17 – 21) - Hilton and Towers, San Francisco; 2005 - Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, DC; 2006 – Hilton, Atlanta

Size of Meeting: 6,000 attendees

Meeting Planner: In-house, Lucille Horn (I have not been able to speak with her yet, despite leaving numerous messages)

September 7th

- Amy calls Lucille Horn again, but again gets her voicemail. Amy waits until the 7th day because she’s been told that Ms. Horn only works one day per week and 9/7/04 was the next day that she was supposed to be in the office. Again, Ms. Horn does not return Amy’s call.

- Amy also e-mails Liz Brumfiel regarding a change in UNITE HERE’s timeframe in terms of getting the associations to act, and about Lucile Horn. From Amy’s 9/7 email to Ms. Brumfiel:

From: ar_willis@comcast.net
To: ebrumfiel@northwestern.edu
Subject: UNITE HERE
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 20:12:41 +0000
Hello, Prof. Brumfiel,
I wanted to follow up with you on UNITE HERE's efforts with academic associations. Our timeline has been condensed somewhat and we are now pushing to get letters out to some of the hotels as early as next week, around the time that the contract expires in DC.
I have not been able to speak with Lucille Horn, but am continuing to try to get in touch with her to determine who she has dealt with directly in organizing AAA's meetings.

September 8th:

- Amy leaves a message for Kim Baker, asking for her help in getting a hold of Ms. Horn.

September 9th

- Amy calls Kim Baker and speaks to her. Ms. Baker again tells Amy that she has to speak to Ms. Horn for information about AAA’s meeting planning and anything to do with the upcoming meeting in San Francisco.

September 10th:

- Amy leaves another message for Ms. Horn on her voicemail. Amy also calls Ms. Brumfiel to seek her assistance, but does not reach her.

- In Amy’s third weekly update on her progress with academic organizations, she has the following to report on her dealings with the AAA thus far. From an internal memo dated 9/10/04:

American Anthropological Association (AAA)

Contact: Liz Brumfiel, Northwestern University, AAA President, 847-491-4564

Upcoming Meetings: 2004 (November 17 – 21) - Hilton and Towers, San Francisco; 2005 - Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, DC; 2006 – Hilton, Atlanta

Size of Meeting: 6,000 attendees

Meeting Planner: In-house, Lucille Horn (I have not been able to speak with her yet)

Update: I’ve still not been able to speak to Lucille Horn. I’ve left numerous messages with her and with another woman at their office, but to no avail. I tried to get Liz Brumfiel today, but did not reach her. I will call again on Monday and ask if she can put pressure on Horn to get me the info.

September 11th – 14th:

- Amy leaves two more voice mail messages for Ms. Horn.

September 15th:

- Still not having heard from Ms. Horn, Amy calls Liz Brumfiel to ask for her assistance in reaching Ms. Horn. Ms. Brumfiel says she is reluctant to intervene with Horn on Amy’s behalf, stating that she feels Horn’s failure to return Amy’s calls is due to her being in the office on a limited basis. Ms. Brumfiel suggests that Amy e-mail Horn, which she does that day. From Amy’s 9/15 email to Lucile Horn:

From: ar_willis@comcast.net
To: lhorn@aaanet.org
Subject: Hotel Information for UNITE HERE
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 20:40:20 +0000
Hello, Lucille,
I'm just following up on some phone messages I left over the past couple of weeks. I work for UNITE HERE, the hotel workers' union.
I have spoken with Liz Brumfiel about the AAA's writing a letter of support for the hotel workers because they are working without a contract. We want to be sure that the letter goes to the correct contact -- the one with whom you and the AAA have a relationship -- in order that it be as effective as possible.
Would you be so kind as to give me the names, titles and contact information of the hotel sales people you've worked with to arrange the AAA's upcoming meetings at the SF Hilton and the Marriott Wardman Park in DC and also at the Atlanta Hilton.
Also, if you work closely with a national sales person at either the Hilton or the Marriott companies in planning these meetings it would be helpful to have that contact information.
Thank you very much for your assistance with this effort.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Amy Willis
UNITE HERE
415-864-6881

Ms. Brumfiel also suggests that Amy should get back to her if Ms. Horn continues to be unresponsive.

September 17th:

- In Amy’s fourth weekly update on her progress with academic organizations, she has the following to report on her dealings with the AAA thus far. From an internal memo dated 9/17/04:

American Anthropological Association (AAA)

Contact: Liz Brumfiel, Northwestern University, AAA President, 847-491-4564

Upcoming Meetings: 2004 (November 17 – 21) - Hilton and Towers, San Francisco; 2005 - Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, DC; 2006 – Hilton, Atlanta

Size of Meeting: 6,000 attendees

Meeting Planner: In-house, Lucille Horn (I have not been able to speak with her yet)

Update: I’ve been trying for weeks – by phone and e-mail – to get Lucille Horn, the AAA’s conference planner to get back to me. I’ve left messages with her and with another woman at their office, but to no avail. I talked to the AAA’s president, Liz Brumfiel, on the 15th. She was hesitant to intervene and wanted me to give Lucille one more try, which I did. Since I have still not heard from her, I will call Brumfiel and Horn on Monday and really try to push whomever I reach.

September 21st:

- Ms. Horn has still not responded to emails or phone calls as of this date. Amy E-mails Ms. Brumfiel asking for her help getting information from Horn. From Amy’s 9/21 email to Liz Brumfiel

From: ar_willis@comcast.net
To: ebrumfiel@northwestern.edu
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 21:07:18 +0000
Hello, Professor Brumfiel,
I just wanted to check in with you becaue I still have not been able to speak with Lucille Horn about the meeting planning contacts she has with AAA's conference hotels.
I've left her about a half dozen messages and sent an e-mail, but have not had a response. I realize she is only in the office on a limited basis and must be very busy, but I'm feeling a bit pressed to get this information.
As you may know, LA, SF and DC all voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. It is somewhat urgent now that we get letters to the hotels letting them know that the labor dispute is of serious concern to academic associations, as well as others.
Would it be possible for you to give Lucille a call and ask her to get in touch with me to discuss the contact information. I don't think it will require much of her time.
I greatly appreciate your assistance with this.
Also, can you tell me what the possibility would be of getting something from the AAA out to the Hilton in the near future? With your meeting coming up in SF, it would be very powerful.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Amy Willis
UNITE HERE
415-864-6881

AAA on UNITE HERE Communication

2004-11-23T14:33:00.000-05:00

Memo to Sections on AAA/UNITE HERE Communication

I know that there is wide interest among Section leaders in what AAA leadership and staff did to communicate with the leadership of UNITE HERE. Following is a review of the communications that took place.

On, or about, September 1, AAA President Liz Brumfiel received a call from a woman identifying herself as a representative of UNITE HERE. The representative asked for information on the Association's policy relative to meeting in unionized hotels. Dr. Brumfiel reported that AAA had a preference for meeting in unionized hotels, and referred the representative to Lucille Horn, AAA's Director of Meetings for further information. Brumfiel reports that it is possible that she and the rep discussed (in general terms) the union's assistance in relocating the meeting. However, Brumfiel does not remember this as being the primary objective of the call, and these topics were not discussed in the union's subsequent contacts with Lucille Horn.

On September 2 and again on September 6, Ms. Horn received telephone messages from Amy Willis of the UNITE HERE staff asking for the dates and locations of all of AAA's future Annual Meetings as well as copies of AAA's contracts with each hotel. Ms. Horn returned each call and left messages but heard nothing more from anyone at
UNITE HERE until October 12.

The San Francisco Hilton Hotel employees went on strike on Wednesday, September 29.

On Wednesday, October 6, President Brumfiel had the first conversation with UNITE HERE staff related to an alternative location for the 2004 Annual Meeting. That day, she received a call from a UNITE HERE staff member Kelly Dugan urging AAA to cancel its meeting at the SF Hilton Hotel and offering to help locate and arrange for alternative space. Dr. Brumfiel asked Ms. Dugan to communicate with AAA Executive Director Bill Davis about the details of such assistance and reported the conversation to Mr. Davis that evening.

Davis attempted to reach Mr. Dugan the next day, but did not reach her until October 8. On October 8, he had a lengthy conversation with Ms. Dugan. During that conversation, he indicated quite clearly that many members of AAA would be loath to cross a picket line at the SF Hilton and asked Ms. Dugan for assistance in making
arrangements to move the AAA 2004 Annual Meeting to alternative properties in San Francisco that were not being struck or locked out. Her response was (1) to refer him to the UNITE HERE website to get a list of SF hotels that were not part of the 14-hotel group, and (2) to FAX him a chart outlining the meeting room capacities for
the hotels that were on the UNITE HERE website.

Davis described at length the many requirements for AAA's meeting, indicated clearly that AAA would need UNITE HERE's help in locating specific facilities that could accommodate various elements of the meeting (sleeping rooms for 4,000 attendees, 450 session meeting rooms and 250 special events meeting rooms of various sizes on specific days and time blocks, space for our job placement center, a location for our exhibits program, etc.) Her response was to say that items (1) and (2) above were all the assistance that UNITE HERE could provide.

During that same telephone conversation, Davis also conveyed to Ms. Dugan that the AAA and its members were very much in sympathy with the striking/locked out workers and wanted very much to be helpful both to hotel employees and to the Union. He asked Ms. Dugan for her assistance, advice and counsel in helping to identify specific actions that the American Anthropological Association and its individual members might take to support the striking/locked out workers and union's efforts. Her response was to say that the only thing she was authorized to do was urge AAA to move its meeting out of the SF Hilton Hotel and its members not to cross the picket
lines. She indicated that she could not discuss other actions that might be helpful.

He then identified to Ms. Dugan several specific actions that AAA and members of the Association had suggested and asked whether these actions would be helpful in demonstrating and/or providing support for the striking/locked out workers. She replied that she had been told that she could not discuss anything other than why AAA should move its meeting, and why AAA's members should not cross the picket
lines.

Finally, Davis asked Ms. Dugan if he might talk to others on the UNITE/HERE staff who would be able to discuss any or all of these matters at greater length, and if so who those individuals might be. Her reply was that she was the person in UNITE HERE's Strategic Affairs Department designated to coordinate with AAA and there
wasn't anyone else with whom he could speak.

On October 12, 15, 19 and 21 Lucille Horn, AAA's Director of Meetings spoke with Rose Murphy of the UNITE HERE staff. On each of these occasions, Ms. Murphy reported the major issues involved in the strike/lockout and offered to help AAA find alternative meeting space for the 2004 Annual Meeting. On each occasion, Ms. Horn asked for such help and Mr. Murphy responded that the appropriate UNITE HERE representative would call Ms. Horn with such assistance. No return call was ever received and no assistance was ever provided.

Given the need to identify alternative arrangements for the 2004 Annual Meeting, AAA secured the services of ConferenceDirect, a consulting firm specializing in annual meeting site selection and contract negotiations with conference hotels and convention centers. Research on such alternatives was conducted by ConferenceDirect and the results of that research became the basis for the AAA Executive Board's decisions regarding eventual relocation of the 2004 Annual Meeting to Atlanta.

Best,

Kim

Kimberley Baker
Section Liaison & Executive Secretary
American Anthropological Association
(703) 528-1902 ext 3027
kbaker@aaanet.org

Hotel Lockout Ends, Negotiations Resume

2004-11-21T11:43:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning, in negotiations at Mayor Gavin Newsom's office, the San Francisco Multi-Employer Group agreed to end the lockout. The move followed offers by three healthcare providers to provide worker healthcare coverage free of charge through December and the announcement that workers would receive unemployment compensation.

Faced with the prospect that they would be unable to starve the workers out, the MEG owners have temporarily backed off from their union-busting efforts. UNITE HERE! Local 2 members will return to their jobs next week. A 60-day cooling-off period --during which the Union agrees not to strike and the hotels agree not to lock out -- will allow negotiations to continue in an attempt to settle the outstanding issues in the contract: medical benefits, pension contributions, retiree benefits, right to organize, wages, and contract term.

To follow events as they unfold, go to www.unitehere2.org.

UNITE HERE Solidarity Rally -- Sat. 11/20

2004-11-16T22:11:00.000-05:00

UNITE HERE Solidarity Rally

Join members of UNITE HERE, the San Francisco Central Labor
Council, the dockworkers union, Rigoberta Menchu, AAAUnite, and fellow
activists and anthropologists in a rally in support of the
locked out workers.

Saturday, November 20th
Gather in front of the Hilton at 10:30 AM. We will march to
the rally as a group at 10:45 AM. The rally is scheduled to
begin at 11:00 AM.

4,000 UNITE HERE workers have been locked out of their jobs
since October 13th. In addition to lost wages, they're now
facing the loss of healthcare coverage.

The union has asked a joint hotel-union trust fund to
withdraw money to provide coverage for workers in December
and January. Four management trustees voted no on Monday,
sending the matter to arbitration.

Management's vote to end health care benefits "is
unconscionable, indefensible, and it will not stand,'' said
Mike Casey, president of Local 2, the union that represents
the locked-out workers.

Join us in telling the San Francisco Multi-Employer Group of
hotels that their every action to date has
been "unconscionable, indefensible," and WE will no longer
stand for the lock out.

Support the Workers!

2004-11-12T09:17:00.000-05:00

As the 4,000 locked out workers in California go on unemployment pay, their worker's strike funds are running out. Please donate to help the workers through the holiday season. Many of us considered donating to defray the costs of cancelling the Hilton contract. That would have amounted to $150 per member. Please think of this when you consider what to donate.

You can donate online directly to the union's solidarity fund.

Or you can send a check to:

Local 2 Solidarity Fund
209 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Attn.: Tho Do, Secretary/Treasurer

Or, if you prefer, to the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) "worker hardship fund."

CLUE is also looking for a few thousand turkeys to help the workers through the holiday season.

AAAUnite's sister organization, picketaaa.org, is keeping a running tally of AAA member donations. If you feel comfortable, please email them with the amount of your contribution: picket73@picketaaa.org.

Bay Area Events Wiki

2004-11-09T19:15:00.000-05:00

Refunds of Annual Meeting Registration Fees

2004-11-09T16:30:00.000-05:00

The AAA has posted a form for requesting refunds of registration fees here.

According to the AAA site, "On November 4, 2004, the AAA Executive Board approved a motion to grant registration fee relief to 2004 Annual Meeting registrants who registered when the Meeting was scheduled to occur in San Francisco, and because of the change in dates and venue, are now unable to attend the Annual Meeting scheduled for Atlanta."

Once you have completed your refund request, please support the UNITE HERE Local 2 Solidarity Fund.

Relocated MESA Sessions

2004-11-09T16:27:00.000-05:00

Waleed Hazbun, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Johns Hopkins has requested that we post the following rescheduled Middle East Studies Association (MESA) panels on the blog. As many of you know, MESA also planned its annual meeting in SF at about the same time as the AAA. The MESA board decided that they could not get put of their contract with Hyatt which has also locked out its workers.

MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ASSOCIATION (MESA) CONFERENCE
November 20-23, San Francisco

The following panels have been relocated from the Hyatt due to the lockout:

Roundtable on Culture, Violence, and Media

Saturday, November 20
2pm-4pm

Location: Stacey's Bookstore, 581 Market Street
(Located between 1st & 2nd Street on Market. Just off the Montgomery Street BART stop)

Chair: Waleed Hazbun, Johns Hopkins University

Rebecca Luna Stein, Duke University
Invasion, Occupation, and Other Tourist Practices (1)

Michelle Woodward, Independent/MERIP
Trends in Photographic Style and the Depiction of Israeli-Palestinian
Conflicts, 1948-2004

Waleed Hazbun, Johns Hopkins University
Tourism, Terrorism, and Security: Remapping the American geopolitical
imagination

Discussant: Ted Swedenburg, University of Arkansas

Whose Heritage? Whose Environment?

Tuesday, November 23
8:30am-10:30am

Location: Stacey's Bookstore, 581 Market Street
(Located between 1st & 2nd Street on Market. Just off the Montgomery Street BART stop)

Chair: Waleed Hazbun, Johns Hopkins University

Talinn Grigor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
'Orient Oder Rom' Debate: The 1901-(re)Invention of 'Iran's Cultural 'Heritage'

Laura Strachan, McMaster University
The Success and Sustainability of the Wadi Rum Protected Area: Multiplicity in Opinion, Experience and Positioning

Heather M. Alden, University of Texas at Austin
National Parks in Egypt's South Sinai Peninsula

Jeannie L. Sowers, University of Iowa
Environmental Controversy and Authoritarian Rule: The Politics of Egypt's Toshka Project

Howyda Al-Harithy, American University of Beirut
World Heritage: A Redefinition

Philippe Bourgois calls for boycott of Atlanta Hilton

2004-11-08T08:16:00.000-05:00

Dear Anthropologists,

Please do not go to Atlanta for the sake of the workers locked out of the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco and for the sake of hotel service workers throughout the country. The Hilton Hotel in San Francisco has locked its workers out for asking for basic necessities that are common sense in the rest of the industrialized world and should be considered a basic human right: decent minimum wages and health benefits... (for full-time employees!) The conference in Atlanta is at a non-union Hilton Hotel. All sections of the American Anthropological Association should cancel their sessions in Atlanta. The Hilton Hotel and the Hilton Company will benefit financially and symbolically by having anthropologists attend their hotel in Atlanta.

By patronizing any Hilton Hotel while its workers are locked out in San Francisco (or anywhere else in the world or the country) we would be behaving exactly like United Fruit Company executives in Central America and multinational executives throughout the world who break the backs of unions by simply switching production to non-union plantations/sweatshops in neighboring countries when one of its plantations/sweatshops tries to unionize. That is unconscionably abusive and is much more important than any of our anthropology-meeting-related concerns. We should have the decency and humility to realize that whatever we have to say at our academic meetings can wait for another year or six months for the sake of hotel workers. Service workers have a chance of winning this fight for their rights because hotels, unlike plantations and sweatshops, have to stay put. The service workers union will lose if organizations like the AAA move around the country at the will of the Company to whichever city has the cheapest wage and most abusive working conditions. This is not a complicated issue. It should be easy for anthropologists with a global perspective to understand the stakes.

Philippe Bourgois
Professor
Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine
University of California, San Francisco

SF Chronicle Spin -- AAA and Hilton Cut Deal, Save Face

2004-11-04T19:15:00.000-05:00

If you're angered by this post:
1) "Support the UNITE HERE Local 2 Solidarity Fund."
2) Boycott the Atlanta Hilton if you go to the AAA.
3) Let us know what San Francisco events you'll be doing the week of 11/16-11/22 to pressure the Hilton and the other MEG hotels.

San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, November 1, 2004
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
[From "California's North-South split now East-West"]

Anthropology digs: If you want evidence that San Francisco's hotel lockout is hurting the city more than the hoteliers, look no further than the American Anthropological Association's decision to move its convention out of town.

The group had planned to meet here later this month, with nearly all 5, 000 members set to stay at the San Francisco Hilton.

But when the labor dispute hit high gear -- with 14 hotels locking out 4,000 cooks, cleaners, bartenders and others, after employees had called a two- week strike at four of the hotels -- the union-sympathizing anthropological association decided to move its gathering to Atlanta.

Breaking the San Francisco Hilton contract, however, would have left the association on the hook for as much as $1.2 million.

'We aren't very flush with money and couldn't just do that,'' said Ghita Levine, the group's spokeswoman.

Upshot: The association and Hilton cut a deal, agreeing to move the convention to the nonunion Atlanta Hilton, where the group had already signed on for a future meeting anyway.

So while the anthropologists got to send a message that they wouldn't cross the picket lines in San Francisco, they apparently did little to hurt the hotel chain's bottom line.

Sub-Section Mini-Meetings

2004-11-03T09:20:00.000-05:00

Is your sub-section planning on hosting a mini meeting in Oakland or San Jose during the originally planned weekend in November? Let us know! I will update the list as we get more announcements.

The list so far:

Laura Miller of SEAA reports that SEAA "will have their meeting in Berkeley on November 20, and perhaps other dates, we are still planning "

Catherine Emihovich of CAE reports: "it is looking increasingly likely that we will hold some kind of mini-conference in either SF or Oakland. We may do it at SF State or the Chavez Institute in SF, or at UC-Berkeley. Depending on space needs, we may also consider a hotel that is not involved in the strike. One of our activities will be to hold an open forum to discuss CAE’s position on this whole affair, and then a delegation will go to Atlanta to meet with AAA leadership to express our concerns. I do not anticipate that we will hold any formal meetings in Atlanta, and most of our members will not present there. Instead, they plan to present at this mini-conference. We welcome the involvement of other sections, and we want to stay posted on their plans."

More from CAE here.
Latest is here.

A message sent out by Peter Biella to SVA members states: "As of this writing, the Visual Research Conference is still peopled and will still take place. Most of the original eleven panels and three poster sessions will take place. (Presenters are in the process of communicating among themselves.) The Film and Video Festival will be screened . The Board and Business meetings will take place." This will all happen in Atlanta, but "they are advising us not to eat at the hotel and to stay off site." Stay tuned for a second announcement from the Graduate Association of Visual Anthropologists by Tuesday night.

The AES issued an official statement: "Collectively, as a board, we have significant reservations about the Executive Board's decision to move the 2004 meeting to a non-union Hilton property in Atlanta, and we will be issuing a formal response to this decision in the near future. Individually, many of us have already decided we will not attend the meeting rescheduled and relocated at the Atlanta Hilton. However, even as we will be working to formulate an official position on what to do with the AES-sponsored sessions scheduled for the meeting, we believe it has become a matter of urgent importance that fair labor practice must now become a priority consideration for the planning of all future Association and section meetings. We hold ourselves and the Association accountable for having neglected this issue in the past."

The Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists (ALLA) says in an e-mail dated 10/26: "In the face of the continued lockout and in consultation with UNITE HERE organizers, I and the other members of the ALLA Board believe San Jose to be the next best option as moving the AAA Meetings to that city better ensures that the greatest number of AAA members can still participate.

... If at this time the AAA leadership is NOT considering San Jose as our alternate location, ALLA respectfully requests a verifiable clarification of your reasons.

Moving to Atlanta will most likely decimate our ALLA sessions and prevent us from conducting necessary section business at a time when we are needing to fortify our Section. ALLA has long worked in coalition with other Sections (and our members are members of other sections as well) and we have been stronger for these relationships. As many Sections have stated their intentions of holding meetings in different locations or canceling altogether, we are further weakened if the AAA Board decides again to move our Meetings to Atlanta."

The Society for Medical Anthropology (SMA) says: "the SMA board has decided to withdraw formally from the AAA meetings; that is, Executive Board and Business Meetings will not be held in Atlanta. However, SMA sponsored & invited sessions, as well as individual special interest group meetings, may go forward according to the wishes of organizers and participants. This is a decision that must be left to the individuals involved.

The SMA Board will meet in San Francisco on November 19 in order to conduct its business.

The SMA Board has several other matters and options before it. These include holding a public, "alternative" meeting in San Francisco, working with the Society for Applied Anthropology to move sessions which might otherwise be cancelled to their annual meeting in Santa Fe, April 5-10, and pressing the AAA to move its 2004 meetings to San Jose.

Before we reach decisions on these various matters, and in order to craft a statement to the AAA that is reflective of SMA members' sentiments, it is critical that we hear from you. I'm writing to ask that you complete a very short survey found at the following website. Please respond ASAP; we would like to move forward as quickly as possible."

The Society for the Anthropology of Work (SAW) says: " On behalf of the three hundred members of the Society for the Anthropology of Work, the Executive Board hereby resolves:

1. To boycott the Hilton in event of a lock-out or strike. This includes use of the hotel for any purpose whatsoever.

2. To seek alternative accommodations for society-sponsored meetings in San Francisco hotels and venues.

3. To authorize the President to spend additional funds necessary to cover the cost of alternative facilities for society-sponsored events."

The Society for Cultural Anthropology (SCA) says: " SCA Board recommends that AAA Meetings be moved to San Jose to recognize ongoing workers' strike against Hilton in San Francisco. See 'Meetings' for details."

The Anthropology and Environment (A&E) section issued an e-mail stating: "Based upon a poll of our members, the Anthropology & Environment Section of the AAA (539 members) has decided to hold its preliminary board and business meetings somewhere in the Bay area on Saturday, November 20, followed by email/virtual meetings in early December for members who won't be able to join us."

Read their full announcement.

The Society for Linguistic Anthropology (SLA) will go to Atlanta to hold its official meetings and sessions; however, SLA is also helping make arrangements for those sessions who wish to meet in Berkeley to do so. "However, there are some sections and some symposia who have already made the decision to meet in the Bay Area, and I would be willing to help any of those that are from SLA or otherwise language-related to gather here at Berkeley. It would not be possible to keep the sessions at their original times the whole week through; but I have tentatively reserved the Dwinelle Hall conference room for the times I could get it for, which are: Friday Nov 19 1-9 pm, and Sunday Nov 21st 8am-12pm; and we expect to have a lecture hall Saturday Nov 20. We might also be able to coordinate with some of the other sections that will meet at Berkeley to make a reasonably rich set of offerings."

The Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (SOLGA) issued an e-mail with the following statement: "1) SOLGA will hold its next board and business meetings at the AAA meetings in Washington DC in November 2005.

2) Christa Craven is elected as continuing Co-Chair until November 2005.

3) SOLGA will announce the winners of this year's Benedict and Payne Prizes on November 20, 2004 (the date of our original business meeting), and have an award ceremony for these prize winners as part of our November 2005 business meeting. [The idea here is that people can put the prizes on their CVs right away, and will still have an official award ceremony with a big audience later.]

4) SOLGA will install Rudi Gaudio as Co-Chair on November 20, 2004, on which date Tom Boellstorff will cease being Co-Chair and will take up his position as board member.

5) SOLGA hereby announces that SOLGA will not be holding board or business meetings at the Dec 2004 Atlanta meetings, and that the decision as to whether SOLGA panels or individual papers take place in Atlanta be up to the participants themselves. [We can all work together with the program co-chairs to gather information about what panels will still be happening, and advertise them to the SOLGA membership.]

6) SOLGA hereby announces that SOLGA takes no stance for or against any counter-meetings or conferences in the Bay Area in November 2004, but will not be holding a business or board meeting at any such counter-meeting or conference. [As with Atlanta, we can all work together with the program co-chairs to gather information about events that will take place in the Bay Area, and advertise them to the SOLGA membership]"

The NAPA (National Assoc. for the Practice of Anthropology) announcement is posted here.

NY Times article on lockout

2004-11-02T09:47:00.000-05:00

Full story here.

Classic bread-and-butter issues were on the table, including wage increases, costs of health benefits, pension changes, a right-to-organize clause and the length of the contract.

But talks stalled in September when the union balked at proposed health and pension concessions and hotels refused to discuss the concerns until Local 2 dropped its quest for a two-year contract, to expire in 2006. That is when contracts will expire in nine other cities, including Boston, Chicago and New York. The unions reason that if all 10 cities can negotiate simultaneously, it will give labor the kind of bargaining chip it needs to do battle with the multinational corporations that own the nation's best hotels.

"They are attempting to nationalize the unions," said Matthew Adams, vice president of both the hotel negotiating group and the Hyatt Regency here. "It would cripple our industry and we're simply not going to stand for it."

To protest the unbudging stance of the hotel group, union workers initiated a two-week strike at four hotels on Sept. 29. Two days later, the 14 hotels retaliated with a lockout.

The mayor called last week for a 90-day cooling off period but the hotels, now using replacement workers, refused to let employees return, even though the union strike ended as planned.

"We've never seen this kind of action from the hotels," Mayor Newsom said. "It sends a terrible message to the rest of the country that there is unrest here." The mayor, saying that the hotels were "putting a gun to the head of the city," called the lockout a "huge mistake."

Michael Casey, president of Local 2, called the continued lockout "indefensible and unconscionable."

"We have said repeatedly that all items are negotiable," Mr. Casey said. "The best thing for the big hotels, the members and the city is to accept a cooling off period and end the lockout."

Union workers on the picket line last week said they were particularly unhappy with proposed wage increases, calling it "insulting."

The union is seeking an increase of 55 cents an hour for each year of a two-year contract for untipped workers and an increase of 45 cents for workers who receive tips. Management has offered an annual wage increase of 20 cents an hour per year for five years, while employees who receive tips would receive an annual raise of 5 cents an hour.

The union contends the hotels' proposal would not compensate workers for the extra contribution employers want toward medical costs.

Medical contributions for most employees, who now pay $10 per person per month, would gradually increase to $40 per person per month over five years. And the proposed change in eligibility requirements would leave 1,100 families without health benefits, the union said.

... Workers on the picket line at The Fairmont and The Mark Hopkins last week said they were all too familiar with the high cost of living in San Francisco, especially on a wage of $14 to $22 an hour. Reva James-Frye, 53, a city resident and telephone operator at the Fairmont for 15 years, earns nearly $15 an hour, or about $33,000 a year. Roughly half of her paycheck goes toward rent.

"I can barely make ends meet now," Ms. James-Frye said. "What is the point of getting a little 20-cent raise if it's going to go back in their pockets to cover health benefits."

Guillermina Tremillo, 27, a single mother of a 2-year-old, works two jobs to make ends meet, both at the famed Top of the Mark restaurant. Ms. Tremillo also shares a home with her entire family, including her parents and five sisters, all of whom pool wages. But four of her sisters work at San Francisco hotels and they too have been locked out.

"My feelings are very hurt," Ms. Tremillo said. "I do two jobs so they save one person with me. They make money with me. You give and give the most you can and they just don't care."

Mr. Adams said, however, that management wanted the employees to return to work. "A contract can be had in fairly quick order if we can resolve the issue of term," he said.

AAAUnite demands full refunds - with option to donate $$$ to workers

2004-11-01T13:14:00.000-05:00

AAAUnite urges the AAA to immediately refund registration fees to any and all members who request the return of these funds. Members who are unable (either because of logistics or conscience) to go to Atlanta should not be penalized because of the AAA EB and staff decision to move the meeting across the country, during an extremely inconvenient week of most academic years.

Further, we urge the AAA staff to streamline the process by which individual members, if they choose, may donate their refund directly to the UNITE HERE Local 2 Solidarity Fund or the AAA Scholarship Fund.

Many of us called on the AAA to outright break the contract with the Hilton Corporation (in fact 56% of those in the AAA poll did so). As members and sections, many of us also pledged to defray the cost of such a move by making financial contributions. According to a widely circulated email, AAA EB member William Beeman calculated the per capita cost of the $1.2 million estimated cost at $150 per member.

The least that the AAA staff can do, barring a direct AAA donation to the Local 2 Solidarity Fund, is facilitate giving by setting up an electronic process for individuals to donate their registration fee directly.

Robert O'Brien and Kerim Friedman
AAAUnite Ad Hoc Committee

NAPA announcement

2004-10-29T20:36:00.001-04:00

Subject: NAPA at the Atlanta AAA Annual Meeting 2004

Dear NAPA Members:

During the past two weeks, the NAPA Governing Board and committee chairs have held several phone conferences and exchanged a good deal of correspondence concerning contingency plans based on the labor dispute involving hotel workers and hotel owners in San Francisco. As you know, the AAA Executive Board has decided to move the Annual Meeting to the Atlanta Hilton, December 15-19.

We are extremely grateful to the AAA staff, the all-volunteer AAA Executive Board, Section Assembly, and NAPA leadership network, and for the energy, time, and thoughtful consideration they have given to an enormously complicated situation, where each of the choices is bound to displease a substantial number of us.

We have received a number of emails from NAPA members, and we have been in touch with the heads of the other AAA sections. After careful consideration, the NAPA leadership network OPPOSED the following proposition:

If the UNITE/HERE Local 2 and San Francisco hotel owners fail to reach a cooling off agreement, and the AAA Executive Board elects to proceed with the annual meeting at the Atlanta Hilton, NAPA encourages its members to attend the meetings, and will work to organize exchanges that will advance our professions understanding of and meaningful involvement in resolving the fundamental issues that have led to this labor dispute. If a quorum cannot be achieved in person or by phone, the Annual NAPA Board and Business Meetings will be rescheduled for Santa Fe, NM in April. Professional development and skill-building workshops in the preliminary program will take place if a sufficient number of subscriptions are received. NAPA will make information regarding alternative housing available to its members.

At the same time that the NAPA Board opposed the Atlanta proposition, we voted overwhelmingly in favor of leaving the AAA 2004 Conference at the SF Hilton if a 90-day cooling off period had gone into effect. Since the hotel multi-employers group rejected the cooling off period, that position became moot.

No position was taken on boycotting the meetings. We will not dictate to people whether to hold NAPA-sponsored panels or present their papers in Atlanta. All panel organizers should make this decision in consultation with their panel members. If you were slated to make a presentation, please contact your panel organizer to make further plans. The AAA meeting organizers will soon provide further details regarding confirmations and withdrawals. We will work with the AAA Program Committee to make sure that paper presenters who find themselves without fellow panel members and wish to make a presentation in Atlanta can still do so.

The NAPA leadership network APPROVED the proposition that the NAPA board will actively seek to work with the Section Assembly and the AAA Executive Board to articulate a comprehensive policy statement concerning the criteria to be applied in selecting future AAA Annual Meeting venues.

President-Elect Micki Iris and I plan to attend the meetings in order to meet with AAA leadership and ensure that NAPA has a voice in the discussions that will surely take place. We believe that NAPA, as an organization, has much to contribute to a resolution of the short and long-term problems and conflicts that are likely to ensue as a result of this controversy. We also believe that NAPA members, with their breadth and depth of experience in real-world settings, can make substantial contributions to the ways in which AAA moves forward from this point. This is a critical time in the life of AAA and we welcome feedback from NAPA members, particularly suggestions and constructive proposals as to how AAA can "reinvent" itself.

The NAPA board and business meetings will NOT take place in Atlanta because a substantial number of members cannot be present. We will discuss our urgent business via phone conference and electronic correspondence, and hold our next Board meeting in Santa Fe in April.

In the absence of a full business meeting in Atlanta, we will hold an informational session with NAPA members in Atlanta. At this session, we will recognize the winners of NAPA Student Achievement Awards.

We will NOT host our annual networking event, since it seems prudent to save on the catering and room rental costs.

We will NOT hold the Local Practitioners' Forum that had been scheduled in the preliminary program because a substantial number of the people we expected to attend cannot be present. We will work with the SfAA LPO Liaison to see if we can schedule a more extensive forum in Santa Fe.

We will "let the market decide" about workshops in Atlanta - if there are not sufficient pre-registrations, the workshops will not be staged, and pre-registrants will have their subscription fee refunded.

You will be interested to know that in September, before this Annual Meeting relocation decision, the NAPA Board approved a budget measure whereby, starting with the 2005 Annual Meeting, all NAPA members will be eligible for a 50% discount on the price of one Annual Meeting workshop as a benefit of NAPA membership.

The Board will be considering ways in which we can create a resource pool to help individual members in need of financial assistance because of cancellation or change fees associated with the change in meeting dates and venues.

Please watch for a NAPA member web survey announcement soon. We will be seeking feedback from you on how events of recent weeks have affected member plans, finances, Atlanta meeting attendance, and other relevant matters. We also want your input on how to work with the Section Assembly and the AAA Executive Board to articulate a comprehensive policy statement concerning the criteria to be applied in selecting future AAA Annual Meeting venues, and what position NAPA should take on such matters.

Thanks to all for maintaining the generosity of spirit and civility of discourse that can only strengthen the impact we have on the world around us.

Ed Liebow
NAPA President

Anthropology & Environment Section Announcement

2004-10-29T20:36:00.000-04:00

A Message From Tom Sheridan, President, Anthropology & Environment Section

Based upon a poll of our members, the Anthropology & Environment Section of the AAA (539 members) has decided to hold its preliminary board and business meetings somewhere in the Bay area on Saturday, November 20, followed by email/virtual meetings in early December for members who won't be able to join us.

Anthropology & Environment would like to pool resources and coordinate our events with other AAA sections who also plan to meet in the Bay area.

I will be compiling an email list of A&E members who plan to attend.

I will also be compiling an email list of A&E members who want to join me in supporting UNITE HERE by walking picket lines and assisting the union in any way possible while we are in San Francisco. Once I know how many of us want to help, I'll coordinate our efforts with Neal Kwatra and other UNITE HERE organizers.

From this initial effort, I will also encourage the Anthropology & Environment Section to commit itself to a longterm strategy to assist UNITE HERE in its efforts to secure living wages and decent health care for union workers everywhere.

In Solidarity,

Tom Sheridan
President, Anthropology & Environment

Latest SCA Statement on Meetings

2004-10-29T18:03:00.000-04:00

October 28, 2004

Dear members of the Society for Cultural Anthropology:

Although AAA plans for the annual meeting are uncertain as I write, the SCA Board and I thought it would be a good time for an update. First of all I want to thank those of you who have communicated directly with us to express your views on the choices facing the AAA Executive Board: first with respect to the lock out at the San Francisco Hilton, then in its decision to move to a December meeting in Atlanta, and then to reconsider a San Francisco meeting in light of a possible cooling-off period. The SCA Board first passed a resolution in favor of respecting the picket line and meeting in San Jose; later we passed a resolution in favor of returning to San Francisco should a cooling off period ensue. I have also written personally to regional and national Hilton officials pledging to never schedule a meeting in a Hilton if the local consortium including the San Francisco Hilton did not agree to the cooling off period. All three statements are copied below, as well as what can only be called a non-reply from the Hilton Hotels Corporation.

The SCA Board has not yet taken a position with respect to the AAA plans to meet in Atlanta. We have, however, communicated with panel organizers and presenters on volunteered panels, asking them to let us know their intentions with respect to several possibilities (including deferral to next year's annual meeting). A copy of that e-mail is included below. We apologize if you should have received it and did not, and ask you to please communicate with SCA Program Chair Ana Alonso .

We are currently considering several options with respect to our annual Business Meeting. One of the options is an electronic meeting to be held either on the original meeting date, November 19, or on the new date assigned by AAA (likely December 17). We think that it is absolutely critical that the membership meets in some form to discuss the issues of labor relations, meeting structure, and governance that have been highlighted by this crisis. I would appreciate receiving any suggestions you may want to make regarding the scheduling, format, and agenda of the Business Meeting.

Thank you very much for reading still one more e-mail about this crisis. If you are interested in additional issue, I would refer you to the excellent web site of the American Ethnological Society. I welcome any and all messages from SCA members, and will share them with the SCA Board. I will also send the sense of the messages with Section Assembly Convener Dan Segal, who is our liaison with the AAA Executive Board.

Yours sincerely,
Polly Strong, SCA President

Poll: Staying in Atlanta?

2004-10-29T15:52:00.000-04:00

AAAUnite supports the UNITE HERE workers call to patronize the Hyatt Regency -- the only union hotel in the city.

We would like to know what members going to Atlanta are going to do. Please take the poll, then post comments to this post.

See also:
Going to Atlanta? Stay in a Union-Friendly Hotel
UNITE HERE Statement on AAA Efforts

2006

2004-10-29T00:23:00.000-04:00

One of the biggest issues in the "long term struggle" spoken of by Neal Kwatra, is that the AAA will return to SF in 2006. This is a problem. Much of the current UNITE struggle is a desire by UNITE to extend their contract for two more years - at which time the contract will again come up for renewal. The difference will be, and the reason management is fighting this so fiercely, that in 2006 the contracts of additional hotel worker's all over the country will also come up for renewal at the same time. This means that the management will have to fight unions all over the country instead of only in SF. By swapping Atlanta this year for SF in 2006 the AAA has essentially put the problem on hold for two years rather than really solving it.

If you want to be involved in discussions about how to deal with such long term problems, please join the AAAUNITE e-mail list. To join the list, send an e-mail message to this address. You will receive a confirmation message. Just reply to this message and your subscription will be complete.

UNITE HERE Statement on AAA Efforts

2004-10-28T23:06:00.000-04:00

I am Neal Kwatra, a coordinator in the Strategic Affairs Department with UNITE HERE, the Union that represents the locked out workers in San Francisco.

Leaders and members of the AAA have asked me to address some of the issues your organization has been debating over the last week.

We sincerely appreciate the AAA for not crossing the picket line and moving the convention out of San Francisco, however, we would have preferred a different outcome than the contract swap with Hilton in Atlanta.

Thank you for all your hard work on this issue, our members in San Francisco and throughout the country truly appreciate your support and solidarity. The best way to support our locked out members in this struggle and long-term, is to work with us and other organizations on a long-term program to level the playing field between multinational hotel corporations and their workers.

The link below will give you an opportunity to better understand the issues our members are so courageously fighting for in San Francisco.

http://www.unitehere2.org/issues.html

I think it is important to provide you with some of the history of our efforts to arrive at a solution that would work for the AAA, its members and for the thousands of locked out hotel workers on the streets in San Francisco, who are without livelihood for the duration of the lockout.

Our Union initially reached out to the AAA on August 30. We offered to work with your organization on alternative locations that would be of minimal disruption (San Jose). Because we have experience working with other groups, in the context of labor disputes, we offered to work with your staff on the liability issues as well. We offered to work in partnership to come up with a mutually beneficial situation for the AAA and our members in San Francisco. Unfortunately, we were never able to advance the conversation with your staff.

The first time anyone in the leadership or staff of the AAA reached out to our Union to discuss this situation was early last week when I received a call from President-elect Alan Goodman. He was very clear that his goal was to work with UNITE HERE in a constructive fashion to support our locked out members in SF, while simultaneously finding a viable solution for the AAA.

Despite good-faith efforts on his part to explore mutually beneficial options like San Jose, another school of thought prevailed. Alan Goodman has been a helpful partner in our collective efforts to support the locked out workers in SF and I look forward to working with him and others within the AAA as the struggle for hotel worker justice continues.

The AAA has an enormous amount of power in its relationships with corporations like Hilton. For the Hiltons and Marriotts of the world, what matters most is maintaining the AAA as a long-term client; they want your business year-after-year. They are too smart and savvy to risk severing a relationship with a key customer like the AAA over a situation like the one in San Francisco. In the big picture, $1.2 million is not what is important to them; a very long and very profitable relationship with the AAA and other academic organizations is more important to them in the long run than $1.2 million in the short term. Additionally, in a competitive marketplace they cannot afford a reputation as a company that sues its customers.

For an organization whose scholarship and research often focuses on power relationships, your organization made a decision, in my opinion, that did not take into account the power-you have as an organization-in your relationship with Hilton.

Having said that, we are especially grateful to the AAA members, leaders and activists who galvanized support among the membership and who lead the effort to convince the AAA's leadership that crossing a picket line in SF was completely antithetical to everything your organization stands for.

Many people have asked what the AAA can do moving forward to support the hotel workers struggle in SF and around the country. Given your unique relationship with the Hilton Corporation, concrete steps the AAA can take that would have a dramatic impact on the struggle of hotel workers in this country include:

· ensuring that your staff has strong "force majeure" language in your hotel contracts, to address labor disputes. You should never have to decide between the risk of litigation and crossing boycott or picket lines. We can work with the AAA on suggested ?force majeure? contract language.

· a wholesale reexamination of your relationship with Hilton Hotels. In order for there to be some lasting impact of your move out of San Francisco, Hilton needs to understand that a swap to Atlanta is not where the issue ends. It is my understanding that you are scheduled to be back at the San Francisco Hilton in 2006 and 2008, but you are not contractually obligated beyond that. We have very concrete ideas about what you can do with Hilton to have a broader impact on the current and long term struggle for justice for workers in the hotel industry and we would welcome the opportunity to work with all of you on those ideas.

We are working with many other academic organizations (Sociologists, Geographers, American Studies and others) and progressive groups (women's, civil rights, immigrant rights, religious) on a coordinated program to deal with the hotel industry. Your organization and others like it represent hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity for these hotel corporations. We need to work together as a cohesive, progressive movement to affect real change in the relationship between these corporations and workers in the hotel industry.

Si Se Puede!

FYI- for those attending the meeting in Atlanta, the Hyatt Regency is currently our only union-hotel in Atlanta.

Hyatt Regency Atlanta
265 Peachtree Street North East
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: (404) 577-1234

For those of you who want to make a contribution to our locked out members in San Francisco, here is the information:

Local 2 Solidarity Fund
UNITE HERE! Local 2
209 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102

In Solidarity,
Neal Kwatra
Strategic Affairs Department
UNITE HERE

CAE President Emihovich Message to Section Heads

2004-10-28T14:08:00.000-04:00

Colleagues,

I am writing to let you know where CAE stands on the question of moving the annual meeting to Atlanta in December, and what further actions we plan to take. This chain of events has been very stressful and intense for everyone, and speaking for myself, I want to express my sympathies to the AAA Executive Board for having to make very difficult and complicated decisions in a condensed time period. Once we all have time to sit back and reflect on how this whole affair unfolded, it will be easier to see where key decisions or communication strategies could have been handled differently. However, the one point that is highly commendable, and one that we should not lose sight of, is that a major professional organization has taken action on a labor issue in a manner that is unprecedented in my experience. While we may express disagreement over how the decision was made and the nature of the decision itself, I cannot think of any other organization that would have been willing to confront the issue of crossing picket lines head–on. Most would have continued business as usual, and hoped for the best in terms of member compliance. Reading the emails from other sections as well as my own about the need to maintain solidarity with struggling workers whose lives are so much more impoverished than ours has made me proud to be a member of AAA/CAE, and I hope we will keep that commitment alive as we sort through all the ensuing complications that will now follow from this year’s meeting.

Based on extensive polling of our membership, and the CAE Board of Directors, there is overwhelming support for the position that we will not hold our program in Atlanta. For many members, some of whom wrote long and passionate emails, their opposition was based on the principles of supporting equity and social justice, and also concerns over the way the decision process was handled. Many people felt they simply did not have enough information to evaluate fairly all the potential alternatives, and the speed at which information could be sent, without having any way to assess its accuracy, made the situation even more problematic. For others, the sheer logistics of having to change tickets, exam schedules, appointment deadlines, etc. were simply overwhelming, especially when the location seemed to change daily. Finally, the Board felt that given the strong feelings expressed by many members, and faced with the fact of our membership already declining, we realized that holding our program in Atlanta would only accelerate these losses. I should note that while we will not have a formal program there, we understand that individuals may still choose to attend to meet other section commitments, or go the job interviews. Our action should not be interpreted as a formal boycott, but as one that builds upon member consensus, while honoring individuals’ right to make their own choices relevant to their needs.

We have also decided to hold a sectional conference in SF at the November meeting time. We are doing this because many of our doctoral students and junior scholars need the opportunity to have senior scholars available to hear their work, and this would not happen in Atlanta. We are calling it a sectional conference and not a counter conference because we do not want to give the impression we are disconnecting from AAA. In fact, we see this sectional conference as very much in the spirit of AAA from its earlier beginnings that may auger a transformed model for doing conferences along the lines of an email that was sent earlier (I have received so many I can longer find it). We have already arranged hotel and meeting space, and we invite other sections who may be interested in partnering with us to share the space (and the costs). If you are interested in doing so, please contact Yuri Wellington at this address: ywelling@hawaii.edu. Please do so immediately since our plans are being finalized now. Even if you do not want to share space, we would like to know about other sections’ plan in SF so we can communicate across disciplines. Finally, we invite the AAA Executive Board to meet with us there so we can discuss how to move forward in the future. If you cannot attend in person, we will look into ways of setting up a conference call.

Our last decision is that we will send some representatives to the Atlanta meeting to attend the Section Assembly to give voice to our concerns and to participate in the broader decision-making process. Regardless of the choices other sections make, we will hope they will send their representatives to Atlanta so AAA can meet as a deliberative body. We need to process all the implications that will now follow from this chain of events, and even in a technologically advanced society, face-to face contact is still important. One lesson we can all take from what has happened is that the speed of communication has a power to shape the dynamics and outcomes of a situation far beyond what many of us could even have anticipated or imagined. Figuring out how to harness this power to accomplish the organization’s goals will be a central task in deciding how this organization will continue.

This has truly been an extraordinary set of circumstances, and I imagine we will be unpacking it, deconstructing it, or analyzing it for many years to come. An organizational ethnography of this process is likely to serve as a topic for dissertations to come. Strong feelings have been expressed in many emails, but based on what I am seeing in my section emails, there is an enormous energy level and sense of commitment that if channeled appropriately, can help transform AAA into the kind of organization that many of us believed it to be when we first joined. CAE looks forward to working with all our colleagues to help make this happen.

Catherine Emihovich

CAE President

Send a message to the hotel companies!

2004-10-28T13:12:00.000-04:00

S.F. HOTELS, STOP LOCKING OUT YOUR EMPLOYEES

A number of international hotel chains, including the Hyatt, Hilton, and Holiday Inn groups, have radically escalated a bargaining impasse in San Francisco by locking out 4,000 unionized hotel workers. Most of the locked out workers are relatively low wage people of color, and the lock out is imposing severe financial stress. The hotels are taking a very hard line, refusing mediation by the mayor and refusing to even appear before the county board of supervisors. The mayor is so concerned that he has announced he is going to start picketing the hotels himself! The primary issues in the impasse are health care benefits, wages, and the length of a contract.

In recent decades, many of the hotels locking out their workers have become part of international chains, so that decisions about working conditions in San Francisco are now made by CEOs in far off distant cities. The chains are able to use the continuing revenues of their other hotels to offset any losses in San Francisco, while the low wage workers being locked out have no where to turn.

Locking out workers is a cowardly way to resolve differences. The hotel CEOs should immediately cease their lockout and resolve their differences at the bargaining table.

Call on the San Francisco Multi-Employer Group, the group of 14 hotels currently running the lockout, to end their lock out and agree to the proposed 90-day cooling off period so they can get back to bargaining in good faith with their employees:

Click here to take action!

Latest San Jose CVB Offer

2004-10-26T19:29:00.000-04:00

Dear Colleagues:

As you are by now aware, the SF Multi-Employer Group (MEG) hotels have refused the offer of a "cooling-off" period. UNITE HERE and Mayor Gavin Newsome favored this effort to get
workers back on the job and the parties to the labor dispute back to the bargaining table.

As you are also aware, a vast majority of AAA members are emailing one another with one simple question, "Where is the 2004 American Anthropological Association Meeting going to be
held?"

As you may not be aware, the San Jose Convention and Visitors' Bureau claims to have been negotiating with AAA leadership over the past few days regarding holding the meeting in San Jose (see latest letter from them below. I will send it -- and the previous correspondence -- to you as an attachment if you email me offlist).

It is my opinion -- having spoken with many of you and with many UNITE HERE members, that this move would make sense for the following reasons:

1) According the David Glenn, the Chronicle of Higher Education reporter I spoke with yesterday, the AAA contract with the Atlanta Hilton has an "attrition" clause. If his conversation with me accurately depicts the situation, this makes the Atlanta contract very different from the one the AAA had with the SF Hilton. In essence, what this means is that the AAA is guaranteeing the Atlanta Hilton a certain number of rooms will be occupied. If this agreed-to occupation is not met, the AAA will be liable for any unsold reservations.

This is problematic for three reasons. First, it is a major blow to the locked-out workers of UNITE HERE Local 2, since we are guaranteeing revenue to the company that is denying
them access to their jobs. Likewise, any effect the effort by members of the AAA to "boycott" the Atlanta Hilton by not staying or eating there is therefore null and void. Second, it exposes
the AAA to the very costs we were, the members were told this move would be saving us. Finally, unlike the SF or SJ Hilton's the Atlanta hotel is corporate owned. The Hilton
Corporation realizes relatively little in profits from its franchised hotels like those in SF and SJ. In comparison, it receives all of the profit from the hotels, like the one in Atlanta, that it owns outright.

2) Speaking of costs, as several people have pointed out, the move to Atlanta -- rather than some locale nearby SF -- effectively removes economic exposure from the shoulders of
the organization and hoists it onto those among its members least able to afford it. Those who have purchased non-refundable tickets, who have paid huge conference registration fees to attaned a conference they cannot go to because of teaching, family, and scholarly obligations, and who have visas to negotiate are OVERWHELMINGLY grad students, adjuncts, part-timers,
and "marginalized" members of the AAA (I put this in quotes to refer to us -- I'm a grad student with a non-refundable ticket and an exam to give during the proposed December dates -- because I am loathe to equate my troubles with those faced by the locked-out hotel workers).

3) San Jose has waived the fee for using their Convention Center. They have guaranteed room rates at least as low as the ones in SF. The SJCVB and UNITE HERE continue to promise logistical support, including arranging transportation for AAA members flying in to SF.

4) UNITE HERE have communicated in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that, while they appreciate the pressure put on by a move to Atlanta, they would prefer the move to San Jose, since the
MEG hotel chains and the Hilton in particular will not realize the bulk of the revenue from hotel stays in SJ. Visit www.unitehere.org to see that they have approved the union hotels in San Jose for all travellers concerned about labor issues.

5) As the article in today's LA Times Business section entitled "U.S. Travel Business on Road to Recovery" makes clear the SF Hilton is entirely dependent on its massive profits from business like ours. Likewise, the Hilton Corporation, whose "earnings jumped 79% in the third quarter"
with the "company expect[ing] more good times ahead," would have its good times on our Atlanta dime and on the backs of the locked-out workers.

6) The move to SJ would accomodate the greatest number of registered members still able to go, facilitating face-to-face dialogue on the burning issues of ethics and governance
that this issue has made abudantly clear. Job seekers would be able to go to the conference with some assurance that anyone seeking applicants is actually going to be there. Several sections have already moved their panels to other sites in the Bay Area.

I fear that this issue is tearing our association apart. The discipline and its association have too great a value to me to quietly watch that happen.

In solidarity as an anthropologist, a dues-paying member of the AAA, and a labor activist,

Robert T. O'Brien

October 26, 2004
Ms. Elizabeth Brumfiel, President
Mr. Alan Goodman, President Elect
American Anthropological Association
Via E Mail

Dear Ms. Brumfiel and Mr. Goodman:

At your request, some final points in our bid to host the American Anthropological Association’s 103rd Annual Meeting in our city. Our community is ready and capable of welcoming
your attendees with little to no inconvenience to them. We will work with you and your team to make the transition from San Francisco to San Jose a smooth one. This letter
supercedes all previous offers extended and represents our most current proposal to the American Anthropological Association to host the 2004 Annual Meeting in San Jose.

I would like to point out a few benefits of bringing this program to San Jose versus another city:
• Proximity to San Francisco: Just 35 miles from San Francisco International Airport, airline tickets will not need to be changed. Shuttle service to/from San Jose is affordable and convenient. It is likely that your travelers have already booked flights into Oakland, San Jose or San Francisco for the November program so no flight changes will likely be needed. Main carriers into San Jose International Airport are Southwest and American, two stable and affordable airlines.
• “Big fish” in our city: The American Anthropological Association will take over the downtown area and be the sole focus of our community to ensure the success of your program.
• Our hotel rates will be confirmed not to exceed your highest contracted rates in San Francisco at our nationally recognized brands (Marriott, Fairmont, Hilton, Crowne Plaza,
Hyatt) all within 2 blocks of our Convention Center.
• Based up your sleeping room actualization of 6,000 total rooms (1650 rooms on peak nights) as communicated to us by your meeting planner, the American Anthropological Association will realize $300,000 from the hotel community and city. Historically, the American Association
Anthropological Association has utilized 7,400+ sleeping rooms when the program was in the Bay Area.
• The San Jose McEnery Convention Center, CenterPlate and Team San Jose are offering an additional $150,000 in cash value to the American Anthropological Association in the form
of waived convention center rental, Food and Beverage discounts, labor consideration and complimentary housing.

We are confident that this will be a most successful conference for AAA and await your “green light”. In fact, we look forward to bringing AAA back to San Jose in years to come after you have had a successful conference in 2004 in San Jose!

Sincerely,

Daniel Fenton
President and CEO
(408) 792-4107
dfenton@sanjose.org
cc: The Honorable Mayor Ron Gonzales

Hotels reject Mayor's proposed "cooling off" period

2004-10-26T19:24:00.000-04:00

Breaking news:

Facing a deadline and an ultimatum from San Francisco's mayor, the operators of 14 hotels at the center of a protracted labor dispute refused Tuesday to end their four-week lockout of unionized employees while contract negotiations proceed.

SF Chronicle: Back to the Hotels!

2004-10-26T15:48:00.001-04:00

It seems that "[o]ne professional association is weighing whether to move a 5,000-member convention to Atlanta in December unless calm is restored. This gathering is worth an estimated $3 million to local business. San Francisco cannot afford to start losing major conventions."

Chronicle editorial staff say:

All things considered, the hotels should drop this precondition and let the workers return. Doing so won't detract from the bargaining needed to settle a situation that has idled 4,000 workers and is threatening to chase away important business.

American Prospect Article

2004-10-26T15:48:00.000-04:00

This is a great piece about the lock-out and the effect we've had so far on moving UNITE HERE worker's struggles forward in The American Prospect

Mayor threatens to join picket line!

2004-10-26T10:20:00.000-04:00

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom threatened Monday to join hotel workers on their picket lines today unless hotel owners end a four-week lockout and allow employees to return to their jobs for a 90-day cooling-off period.

And guess whose in the news?

The dispute has already caused the organizers of one major convention to consider moving elsewhere. More than 5,000 delegates of the American Anthropological Association scheduled to meet Nov. 17-21 at the San Francisco Hilton might instead meet in Atlanta. Organizers of the convention said Monday they want to learn the response to Newsom's request. The Hilton is one of the four hotels where workers struck on Sept. 29 and one of the 14 where the lockout continues.

... The group sides ideologically with the union, and Brumfiel has written that "anthropologists cannot, in all good conscience, meet in facilities whose owners are using the lockout of low-wage workers as a bargaining tactic.''

There is a lot more the AAA needs to do to ensure that we can handle situations like this better in the future, but the SF Chronicle article makes it clear that we are already helping UNITE workers win this fight!

UPDATE: More in the Chronicle of Higher Educaiton:

Labor Strife at San Francisco Hotels Prompts Anthropologists to Tentatively Move Annual Meeting

Robert T. O'Brien, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at Temple University who maintains a Weblog about the meeting dispute, said in an interview on Monday that he would bring several resolutions to the Atlanta meeting. They would require the association to purchase insurance and negotiate opt-out clauses that would give it more leverage during similar disputes in the future.

Mr. O'Brien said that he was personally disappointed with the Atlanta arrangement, but he urged his fellow activists to have sympathy for members of the association's executive board. "They operated under a timeline, thinking about real issues, like whether we're going to be liable for $1.5-million," he said. "It's a question of picking one's battles. If we bankrupt the organization, then we won't be around to push the Hilton or the U.N. Commission on Human Rights or anyone else in the future."

UNITE HERE and Anthropologists Claim Victory, Vow to Continue Fight

2004-10-25T14:05:00.000-04:00

UNITE HERE and Anthropologists Claim Victory, Vow to Continue Fight

Last Friday, the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) Executive Board made the decision to move its annual meeting from the San Francisco Hilton, one of the 14 San Francisco Multi-Employer Group (MEG) hotels that have locked out UNITE HERE workers. The AAA acted on behalf of several thousand members pre-registered for the meeting, a majority of whom indicated in an email poll that they would prefer to move or cancel the meeting, rather than cross picket lines.

The AAA move represents a victory for the locked-out workers. In the past, more than 5000 professional and student anthropologists have attended annual meetings held in San Francisco. The financial loss to the city in conference business is estimated at over $5 million. This will likely give UNITE HERE greater leverage in convincing San Francisco politicians to intervene in the labor standoff that has paralyzed tourism and created economic hardships for 4000 low-wage, predominantly immigrant hotel workers. Additionally, Hilton Corporation faces a significant loss of revenue, as the relocated conference is likely to be substantially smaller than it would have been in San Francisco.

The lockout occurred after a two-week strike of UNITE HERE Local 2 that began September 29. Local 2 represents 85% of the employees at more than 60 San Francisco hotels and motels. Negotiations have deadlocked over health care benefits, pensions, fair wage increases, and the length of the contract. To date, efforts of the union and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to negotiate a 90-day “cooling off” period (allowing the workers to return to their jobs while labor talks resumed), have been unsuccessful. The local, which represents cooks, room cleaners, bartenders, bellmen, food and beverage servers, housemen, and dishwashers, is advocating on behalf of one of the most vulnerable employment sectors in the country. Some workers have said they are at risk of missing rent or mortgage payments if the lockout continues.

For the past two weeks, email boxes and websites of the AAA and its Sections have been filled with hundreds of comments on the labor dispute. Many anthropologists study immigration and work, some even study union struggles, and we have a long tradition of supporting marginalized groups. The recent rise of “public anthropology” represents the increasing trend within the discipline for anthropologists to apply their work to policy issues, and to speak out about people's real problems. The AAA’s Code of Ethics and its Statement on Human Rights further support the rights of workers to organize. Issues of cooperation between established and immigrant workers and access to benefits such as healthcare, pensions and employment security have been paid particularly close attention by recent anthropological work.

Many analysts see this as a crucial time for labor struggles, as workers in the US service industry are increasingly marginalized in an economy characterized by drops in purchasing power for workers, cuts to healthcare benefits, and an increasing gap between rich and poor. The UNITE HERE strike is a historic opportunity for this union to gain real bargaining power on two fronts: First, they are in the forefront of organizing for the rights of immigrants, and for hiring of more black workers, who today represent only 5% of the MEG workforce. Second, they are negotiating a contract that would end in 2006, which would put them in the same bargaining cycle as UNITE HERE locals in other cites, lending the union important leverage when negotiating with powerful transnational hotel corporations.

The decision to move the meeting is a clear victory for UNITE HERE’s local 2. It is also a victory for AAA members, who continue to work with their board to ensure that the Association supports the rights of workers in the future. AAA members will urge their board to move forward with plans to adopt “opt-out” contracts in the event of vendor labor disputes and to consider a freeze on dealings with the Hilton and other MEG hotel chains until the lock-out ends.

UNITE HERE has made clear that the best way to support their struggle is to cancel contracts and reservations with the MEG hotels that are locking out workers. While moving or canceling the conference at first blush may appear costly and inconvenient, the City of San Francisco’s loss is another city’s (and its hotel industry's) gain. This fact is not lost on the city of San Jose, whose Convention & Visitors Bureau went to great lengths to accommodate the projected hotel, meeting space, and travel needs of the AAA conventioneers, in hopes of luring the association’s meeting. And herein may lie a lesson for the hotel industry, other municipalities, and conference planners throughout the country - that in these times of renewed labor organizing, it may pay to support rather than lock-out one's employees.

Robert T. O’Brien, PhD Candidate
Adjunct Instructor, Temple University
AAAUnite Ad Hoc Committee

Why SF Hilton/MEG Hotels, and not AAA leadership are our primary target

2004-10-25T13:14:00.000-04:00

As my letter to the board makes clear, we need to continue to work together to reform the AAA. However, as the following makes clear, our primary target has to be the SF Hilton and the MEG Hotels that continue to lock-out experienced workers.

What follows is an email sent from President-Elect Alan Goodman to SCA President Pauline Turner Strong, in response to Polly's request for a report on Alan's conversations with UNITE HERE activists.

Alan included on the "cc" list Neil Kwatra of UNITE HERE, so Neil has seen this account of these conversations.

Dear Pauline,

I’m glad you asked. As you suggest, what others have reported directly or indirectly from UNITE/HERE is inconsistent with what I have been told. I agree with Dan that others need to do what I am doing, so that we can get a coherent take on UNITE/HERE’s position on our move to Atlanta. I apologize in advance for the haste in writing this letter. I am catching a plane this morning o William and Mary and Duke, where I will be all week. If any details are unclear, please ask and I will respond from there.

Last Wednesday (October 20), I called Francis Engler, someone I know who is an organizer, along with his brother, for UNITE/HERE in LA. I did so as an individual. Nobody asked me. I wanted to get his sense of what was possible from the perspective of his union. When I remembered that Francis was an organizer, I called him. Francis reinforced my understanding that this was an important strike (with national implications). He was the first to tell me that the SF pickets are fierce. He also promised to get me the name of the person who would be best to call, Neal Kwatra, a coordinator in DC (Neil is CCed on this email).

I talked to Neil the next morning, just before the AAA executive board teleconference, and since then we have talked about 4-5 times. During the first conversation, I asked Neil what he thought from the union’s perspective about a move to another Hilton (I may have even said Atlanta). He said, and I agreed, that it would not be as complete a victory as moving to San Jose, but nonetheless, it would be a big victory for the union and a major move in support of the union. Neil was respectful and lovely in that he expressed that Unite/Here would help with our move to San Jose, if we did that. He expressed that San Jose might be a better move for AAA. He thinks we have lots of clout with Hilton and is less concerned than our lawyer with a big lawsuit. The point is simply that his preference for San Jose was seemingly based more on his thinking it would be better for AAA. From his union perspective, I think it is safe to say he was extremely pleased, period.

Neil called me at home on Thursday night, after the board had voted. He somehow already knew of our actions, in some detail, but he did not know all the details. He asked me if I would confirm that we were not going to meet in SF (and cross the picket lines) because UNITE/HERE was meeting later that evening in SF and this would be just fantastic news for them. He seemed to know that we were going to a city other than San Jose. I did my best to keep the exec board decision in confidence. However, I did not deny the rumor.

Neil and I talked again on Friday and Saturday (October 22, 23). Neil had not known the detail that our contract specifies that we are to go back to San Francisco in 2006. He expressed concern that the contract was a bad move for AAA because it potentially puts us back in the same position two years from now. I again expressed that it was the executive board’s primary goal to move the meetings to another location in support of the union. I again asked him to state his approval of the move and again he expressed appreciation. I brought up the irony of going to a nonunion hotel. This did not seem to concern him. He did say that Hilton Atlanta is a “corporate” Hilton versus the one in San Jose (I’m still not clear on the difference). He told me that our meetings canceling would be a big deal! In the end, he said that of course the AAA canceling and moving to Atlanta is a significant victory for Unite/Here.

I expressed my thanks to Neil and as I have told others, I told him that the one bright spot of our canceling and moving is that I had gotten to know more about his union and what they are fighting for. We talked about continuing our relationship and other things that AAA could do to show support. One idea is for the membership to contribute to a large newspaper add in support of the union. As for 2006, I told him that as incoming president, I hoped we will work together long before the actual meeting date to make sure that something like what happens this year does not happen again and that it actually could be a positive experience.

Sincerely,

Alan

PS my father worked for 40+ years as a member of the National Union of Pipefitters and I was able to go to college, in part, because of a scholarship from his union.

Mayor asks for cooling-down period

2004-10-25T02:28:00.000-04:00

Breaking news:

Mayor Gavin Newsom on Sunday asked labor leaders and the management of 14 hotels embroiled in a nearly month-old dispute to resume normal operations for at least 90 days while the two sides try to negotiate a new contract.

In a letter requesting a 90-day "cooling off" period, Newsom said the dispute has caused "significant disruption" to San Francisco residents and visitors, threatening to harm the city's economic recovery.

That "disruption" is us!!! Way to go AAA!!!

Newsom wants hotel management to end the lockout from Oct. 27 through Jan. 25, while labor leaders agree not to strike during that span. He asked for a response by Tuesday afternoon.

The hotels plan to respond by the deadline, said Cornell Fowler, a spokesman for the San Francisco Multi-Employer Group.

The union will eagerly agree to a cooling off period, said Mike Casey, president of Unite Local 2.

Let's see what happens.

E-mail your support of the locked out workers!

2004-10-24T22:45:00.000-04:00

The following is the text of a campaign by LaborStart to have people all over the world write e-mails in support of the locked out workers.

Over 4,000 hotel workers are locked out of 14 downtown San Francisco hotels. The hotel companies have put a contract proposal on the table with miniscule pay increases and which would require hotel workers to make copays that would put health benefits out of reach for most workers. The workers are on picket lines 24 hours a day and fighting back, but they need your support.

On September 29th, Workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 2 went on strike in four downtown San Francisco hotels. The workers were seeking a measured step to move the hotel companies forward in negotiations that had been badly stalled. UNITE HERE Local 2 announced at the time of the strike that they would return to work after two weeks. The hotel employers in San Francisco responded by locking workers out in ten additional hotels. Later they announced that the lockout would last indefinitely.

Workers in San Francisco are seeking a contract that maintains their benefits, includes reasonable wage increases and a contract which expires in 2006 along with many other major hotel cities in North America. The companies have responded by proposing miniscule wage increases and benefit takeaways over the course of a 5-year contract. Hotel workers in Washington DC and Los Angeles, CA are locked in similar struggles with their employers.

Please support Hotel Workers in San Francisco and elsewhere by sending the message below to the Hotel CEOs.

Mailing List

2004-10-24T22:38:00.000-04:00

We are starting a mailing list to coordinate all the various activities being planned. To join the list, send an e-mail message to aaaunite-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. You will receive a confirmation message. Just reply to this message and your subscription will be complete.

Share your links

2004-10-24T22:37:00.000-04:00

For those of you not familiar with del.icio.us, it is a social bookmark service. It lets you bookmark web pages, assign "tags" to your bookmarks, and then see who else shares bookmarks with the same tag. Sounds complicated, but it is really very simple. For instance, anyone can join and add bookmarks with the tag "aaaunite" and then you can see all the bookmarks with that tag here:

del.icio.us/tag/aaaunite

This is a great way for us to all share useful links! Or, you can just bookmark that page and keep up with the links as they are added.

Changes

2004-10-24T20:51:00.000-04:00

As Rob said, "there is no call from AAAUnite to boycott the Atlanta meeting," as a result the wording of the poll has been changed to say "not attend" rather than "boycott." Similarly, whereas before it said "San Jose" now it says "Oakland or San Jose" as Oakland looks more and more likely as an alternative venue.

From the comments:

Several anthropologists from UCDavis have begun setting up a website, picketaaa.org, to organize a presence at any AAA meeting to take place in Atlanta.

This site is not operational yet, but once it is that will be a good place to organize any activities planned for the Atlanta meeting. This site will stay focused on organizing coordination among the various groups who are planning activities in Oakland and San Jose during the originally planned conference time slot in November.

Currently over 316 people have signed the petition. And 150 people have taken our poll (the vast majority of whom plan to attend the counter-conference and don't plan on going to Atlanta). Spread the word!

Everything is happening very quickly, so stay tuned!

Moving Forward

2004-10-24T16:01:00.000-04:00

I've composed the following quick synopsis of current thinking on the matter of counter-conference(s) and progressive attendance at Atlanta. Please forward as you wish.

What we do not want to do is 1) undercut the UNITE HERE claim of victory or 2) dissipate the bargaining power of the AAA any further by balkanizing it.

With regard to what a counter-conference should be, we plan a two-fold strategy of supporting UNITE HERE and, more to the point as AAA members, of convening to build a strong movement to reform the AAA at the Atlanta meeting. The option of San Jose is on the table, but many (including me) now believe that Oakland could be a better option. Many anthropologists at departments in Berkeley and SFSU have offered space. There are a critical mass of people coming to San Francisco. UNITE HERE has offered logistical support. We could hold the counter-conference in Oakland, thereby maintaining the union's economic pressure on SF.

Finally, there is no call from AAAUnite to boycott the Atlanta meeting. We need to have a progressive presence there so that reforms get made and regressive or watered-down positions do not dominate the Annual Meetings.

Those of us who can will go to Atlanta and demand change at the AAA, having first worked out our resoultions and tactics in Oakland.

Demands made (and to be discussed) thus far include: 1) The AAA staff cease all negotiations with hotel chains currently involved in labor diputes until the disputes have ended 2) To the greatest extent possible, the AAA must consider utilizing city and county-owned convention centers with union contracts in good standing, rather than hotels as meeting sites in the future 3) The AAA resolve to refuse any future business to the Hilton Corporation, 4) The staff insert an opt-out clause in the event of strikes of lockouts in all of our vender contracts. 5) The staff agressively negotiate with all vendors in a manner consistent with the guiding principles of the AAA. This must include reviewing the contracts in Virginia which preclude the possibility of extending domestic partner benefits. 6) The AAA immediately purchase cancelation insurance. 7) The AAA immediately make a substantial donation to support the locked-out workers' support fund. 8) The establishment of a forum linked to the AAA web site to will facilitate organizational-wide communication among individuals and across sections.

There remain serious concerns: the manner in which the Executive Committee initiated the survey; the lack of detailed information on the San Jose alternatives that so many members have decried; the utter disregard of the survey results once he tally was taken; and the cross- and missed communication among AAA Sections. These will require focused and ongoing effort to resolve and move to forward as a united organization.

Much of this has been watered-down because of the need for rhetoric at particular moments, but this is the long-term vision. I hope that you consider these thoughts.

Best, Rob O'Brien, on behalf of the AAAUnite Ad Hoc Committee

Online Petition

2004-10-24T14:42:00.000-04:00

Vanessa deKoninck has set up an online petition.

If you know of any other links, please send them to us!

Open Thread

2004-10-24T10:24:00.000-04:00

After you vote in the poll, please leave feedback in the comments to this post.

Would Atlanta even work?

2004-10-23T22:00:00.000-04:00

With the AAA executive board trying to convince members that Atlanta is the best of all possible worlds (even though it is in an non-union Hilton run hotel), posts to sub-section e-mail lists are making it increasingly clear that it simply won't work.

No matter what people feel about the ethical issues involved, many schools have their exam periods during that time, others have already booked trips to other parts of the world, and still others simply can't afford it. So even if there is no official boycott of Atlanta, it is unlikely that many people will show up. Some sections are already discussing moving their sectional venues to other locations. For instance, there is a proposal to move the SEAA meetings to the annual Asian Studies conference which most members already attend. This isn't a call for succession, but just a practical solution to trying to arrange SEAA business at a time that people will actually be there!

In choosing Atlanta the AAA board chose a solution that was convenient for two parties: them and the Hilton management. It is not a solution that is convenient for anyone else and it won't work for that reason.

San Jose would have be at the same time as the original event, and for that reason could really work.

See here and here for previous posts about moving the conference to San Jose.

It isn't too late to get the AAA to change their minds!

Snatching Victory

2004-10-23T16:54:00.000-04:00

UNITE HERE has won an incredible victory, which the AAA has helped them accomplish. The union estimates that the move costs San Francisco over $5 million and pressures elected officials to finally take a stand against the lock-out.

While we have to support this UNITE HERE victory, within the organization we need to press for:
1) Demand that the AAA staff cease all negotiations with hotel chains currently involved in labor diputes until the disputes have ended.
2) Demand that the AAA resolve to refuse any future business to the Hilton Corporation,
3) Demand that the staff insert an opt-out clause in the event of strikes of lockouts in all of our vender contracts.
4) Demand that the staff agressively negotiate with all vendors in a manner consistent with the guiding principles of the AAA. This must include reviewing the contracts in Virginia which preclude the possibility of extending domestic partner benefits.
5) Demand that the AAA immediately purchase cancelation insurance.
6) Demand that the AAA immediately make a substantial donation to support the locked-out workers' support fund.

This takes the pressure off of the board to deal with these issues and allows them to focus on other areas of governance. These issues, which include the manner in which the Executive Committee initiated the survey, the lack of detailed information on the San Jose alternatives that so many members have decried, the utter disregard of the survey results once the tally was taken, and the cross- and missed communication among AAA Sections.

In solidarity,

R

Reasons for continuing in San Jose

2004-10-23T16:52:00.000-04:00

I personally support a continued push for AAA or a counter-conference to be held in San Jose from 11/17-11/21.

The benefits of this are that
1) San Francisco still does not see financial gain from our conference,
2) San Jose CVB have increased the financial incentives involved,
3) San Jose CVB and UNITE HERE have pledged logistical support including space and travel considerations,
4) UNITE HERE have begun approaching internationally known labor and immigrants' right leaders to speak at the conference,
5) We can join the UNITE HERE pickets in San Francisco. An electronic signup sheet for continued organizing for the AAA or the Counter-Conference is at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/574391676

Latest Offer from the San Jose CVB

2004-10-23T16:32:00.000-04:00

October 23, 2004

To the Leader’s of the American Anthropological Association:

It is understood that your organization is leaning towards a decision to relocate your November 2004 conference to Atlanta. We understand the decision being made to be primarily out of financial obligation. It goes without saying that our destination is eager to host your conference. As further demonstration of our commitment, we offer to increase our financial consideration to $450,000.00.

We feel strongly that San Jose represents the perfect alternative and that our commitment and financial contribution will encourage you to rethink your position.

Thank you for you consideration. Let’s work together to provide your attendees and organization with a hugely successful program in 2004.

Sincerely,
Daniel Fenton
President and CEO

cc: The Honorable Mayor Ron Gonzales

A proposal from Sandy Smith-Nonini

2004-10-23T14:48:00.000-04:00

Rob -- Please post this on your blog site. Thanks -- Sandy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A proposal for discussion among sections that favored the Hilton boycott: I think that what this whole debacle shows us in part is the unwieldy nature of the AAA annual meeting, and the corporate environs in which it must be held by virtue of the AAA's sheer size. This issue is related to the enormous increase in registration fees we've seen in the last decade for the AAA meeting ($165 pre-reg, $195 regular reg. this year!)

My proposal would be to take advantage of this moment, and the inter-section dialogs over the Hilton strike, to consider options for a future alternative meeting strategy within the organization. I am cognizant that the AAA makes contracts with hotels years in advance, but this does not mean we cannot begin to plan for future changes. Some of the changes already proposed, such as strike clauses in contracts with hotels, and some living wage requirements for hotels with which we contract are good ideas. I would like to go further, and recommend that we revisit the whole concept of an annual meeting of 4000(+) members.

For example, one alternative would be to hold a biennial meeting, rather than annual; and during the interim year hold multi-section meetings, with the combinations of sections at any one meeting varying somewhat from one year to the next. This would allow us to make use of alternative and more affordable venues, including university campuses and public buildings, and some smaller cities, rather than bouncing back and forth between the Hilton and Marriott in expensive downtown settings of major cities. It would also make for more meaningful and less alienating meetings with perhaps longer sessions and more round-table and discussion opportunities. Such venues would also better enable collaboration with community organizations -- right now this is difficult to arrange at a AAA meeting. We could make a special effort to avoid the breakdown into the old 4-field categories by combining sections that cross over these lines in different years.

This is not unlike what happens with several sections already -- AES and SANA and many other sections hold separate meetings now, but due to the cost and organizational demands, it is difficult for smaller sections to do this alone. Further, many of us, whose institutions have limited travel funds, must already decide whether to attend the AAA meeting or a meeting more in line with our specialty areas, or pay out of pocket for the second meeting. In the strategy I am proposing, the sections would get more assistance than they currently receive from the national office in planning multi-section meetings in the interim years between national meetings. Special arrangements would be need to provide for AAA services, such as job search assistance and press rooms at smaller meetings in the interim years, and there would probably be a need for an executive meeting of officers in years when the whole AAA does not meet. I'd be interested to hear what people think of this idea, and other suggestions for developing an annual meeting strategy that is more people-friendly and democratic, and less beholden to corporate interests.

Sandy Smith-Nonini
snonini@elon.edu
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Elon University

Vote!

2004-10-23T14:37:00.000-04:00

We've added a poll on the side. Your vote can help us plan and organize. If you haven't read about the counter-conference yet, please read this post before voting.

We also have a dedicated e-mail address. You can contact us at aaa.unite@gmail.com. And feel free to leave comments here on the blog!

Thanks!

CAE Position on the Hilton

2004-10-23T14:27:00.001-04:00

Dear Liz,

Based on information we have learned as to what the move to Atlanta would mean in terms of accommodating the Hilton and not supporting the strike, I believe most CAE members (including this president) would refuse to attend. You can expect to receive separate emails from ourmembers on this issue. We understand a very viable option has beenpresented by the city of San Jose, and most members would support adecision to move the conference there. We will also help support anylegal costs that may ensue, although many of us believe the Hilton willback down given the possibility of losing the conference with all itsnegative publicity.

Catherine Emihovich
CAE president
"Whatever you must do, do it now: the conditions are always impossible"--- Doris Lessing

What's at stake?

2004-10-23T14:27:00.000-04:00

At the time of this writing, several sections of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) are calling for a boycott of the San Francisco Hilton. The boycott is being called because the AAA, which represents thousands of professional and student anthropologists, has scheduled its annual meeting to take place at the Hilton, one of the San Francisco Multi-Employer Group (MEG) hotels locking out UNITE HERE workers.

For the past two weeks, the electronic discussion groups of the AAA and its section groups have been discussing the labor dispute between UNITE HERE Local 2 and the MEG. Local 2 represents 85% of the employees at more than 60 San Francisco hotels and motels. Its members began a two-week strike against four MEG hotels on September 29th. MEG then locked workers out of 10 of its other hotels. Although UNITE HERE and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom attempted to negotiate a 90-day ?cooling off? period during which the union and MEG would resume labor talks, MEG has continued to lock 4,000 workers out. These workers are the cooks, room cleaners, bartenders, bellmen, food and beverage servers, bussers, housemen, PBX operators and dishwashers who are in one of the most vulnerable employment sectors in the country.

The UNITE HERE strike is an historic opportunity for this union to gain real bargaining power. In addition to fighting givebacks in healthcare and increased workloads due to layoffs after September 11, 2001, UNITE HERE is working on two issues of utmost importance to labor (and to the many anthropologists who are themselves union members). First, they have been in the forefront of organizing for the rights of immigrant workers, while maintaining a focus on the civil rights of the African American workers who have made up the union's base. Second, they are negotiating a contract that would end in 2006, which would put them in the same bargaining cycle as other UNITE
HERE locals. This would make it far more difficult for the major hotel chains to broker deals with individual locals one at a time.

Given the losses suffered by workers in recent years, the increased importance of defending collective bargaining and immigrants? rights, and the potential gains offered by this strike, those who support labor must support this effort.

There are genuine concerns for the AAA however. The AAA Executive Committee has been negotiating to hold its only annual professional meeting in a way that meets its members needs. It remains unclear which party to the AAA/Hilton contract is liable if the hotel cannot guarantee quality service because they have locked out their unionized employees. At stake, according to a researcher at UNITE HERE, is about $5 million of revenue for the City of San Francisco and the San Francisco Hilton.

Yet, the AAA Code of Ethics, its Statement on Human Rights, and the entire area of "public" anthropology make the case for supporting the rights of workers to organize, supporting cooperation between established workers and immigrant workers, and analyzing and addressing the issues of access to healthcare, employment, etc.

As members of this professional organization, we have duties as well as rights. We should not, on the one hand, take advantage of what the organization has to offer to further our careers and, on the other, ignore the ethical positions the organization has taken over years of deliberation and struggle. As anthropologists we have a duty to address people's real problems.

UNITE HERE has made clear that the best way to support their struggle is to cancel contracts and reservations with the MEG hotels. Moving or canceling the conference may be costly. It will certainly be inconvenient. However, it is neither so costly nor so inconvenient as a loss would be for UNITE HERE.

Letter to AAA President Re: Move to Atlanta

2004-10-23T14:24:00.000-04:00

Dear President Brumfiel,

I am deeply ashamed at this moment. Any acceptance of an offer from the Hilton Corporation to bait and switch the UNITE HERE workers and the AAA membership is completely unacceptable.

Despite the fact that 56% of the membership who were registered for the conference voted to move to San Jose or cancel, despite the fact that the remaining respondents wished not to cross a picket line, despite the wishes of the members of UNITE HERE -- who support the move to San Jose, even if some of us must stay in a Hilton there, you have decided to cross the picket line.

And to do it in a way that shames us as members of the AAA.

Even if one were only to consider the welfare of the AAA, this is outrageous.

First, we have an incredibly viable option to move the conference to San Jose. As you are aware, the San Jose Convention and Vistors' Bureau (SJCVB) has offered to negotiate airfare changes to San Jose and has secured incentives in the form of hotel discounts worth $150,000.

Second, all of the sections who have called on the AAA to move the conference have offered financial and logistical assistance. Breaking the contract with the Hilton - - even if they successfully litigate -- does not mean breaking the back of the AAA.

Third, given the choice between, on the one hand, increased dues, decreased publications, and similar measures and, on the other, crossing the picket line and doing it in a non-union corporate-owned Hilton, many of us have voiced preference for the former.

None of the progressive members of the AAA are fooled by the Hilton's crass attempt to subvert the union's efforts and help the AAA save face. As someone said in a recent email "we should all understand that this does not resolve the basic problem of the Hilton Corporation locking out its workers in San Francisco and refusing to negotiate with their union. It only moves AAA to another Hilton site so all of us, Hilton and AAA can continue business as usual. It brings no pressure to bear on Hilton to let its employees return to work and negotiate with their union. It changes cosmetics, not realities." In effect, we are taking a very long walk through the picket lines if we take this option.

I understand that you and the Executive Committee have worked long and hard to come up with a solution. But, with all due respect, you must reconsider this action.

With firm resolve,
Rob O'Brien
PhD Candidate
Temple University

See the original AAA letter here.

Hecky Villanueva on Transfer to Atlanta and the SF Lockout

2004-10-23T14:22:00.000-04:00

Posted at Hecky's Request:

A stakeholder's influence on a firm depends on the former's power to influence the latter, the legitimacy of the stakeholder's relationship, andthe urgency of the stakeholder's issues vis-à-vis the firm. Further,stakeholders mobilize to emphasize individual or group identify and/or protectvested interests. Overlapping membership across relevant stakeholder groupsaffect degree of mobilization. The presence, absence, and intersection ofthese stakeholder attributes determine the degree of stakeholder salience.

Could the AAA Board and officers, its members, and those attending the AAA 2004conference have leveraged its stakeholder salience vis-à-vis the SF hotelworkers lock-out? The future will hold us, as individuals and anthropologists,accountable for we how acted when minority, migrant, and women workerspractically asked for the institutional help of the anthropological communityin their struggle to protect their rights to organize, secure living wages, andhealth benefits.

If the hotels could organize the SF Multi-Employer group and lock out theirhotel workers when one hotel went on strike, then why cannot hotel workersalign their collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) nationally? If hotelchains can organize themselves internationally, why can?t workers organizethemselves nationally?

Hilton Hotels Corp. a publicly traded corporation (HLT) had revenues for thefirst six months of 2004 rising 9% to $2.06B, with net income rising 78% to$112M. It forecasts continued growth until 2010. Stephen F. Bollenback,Co-Chairman and CEO of Hilton earns $3.1 M a year with stock options of$34Million. Hilton's President and COO, Mathew J. Hart, earns $1.12 Milliona year with millions as well in stock options. They can well afford healthinsurance.

As I previously wrote, pressure should have been laid to bear on Hilton. Afterall, with an estimated 5,000 participants to the AAA conference, the AAA andthe anthropological community, is a formidable sector. It has national andinternational scope. It has credibility and some form of influence.Anthropologists have families, friends, and relatives who they can also request to support just living wages and benefits.

The AAA is an aggrieved party as the lock out compromises the integrity of theconference. Moving to a non-unionized hotel during the thick of a hotel labordispute that is becoming systemic nationwide sends the wrong message thatanthropologists, harbingers of society's norms and actions, are insensitiveto the plight of minority, women, and immigrant workers. A nuanced approachshould have been undertaken before reaching a decision. This is not a?win-win? approach.

As Cristine Holmberg noted, anthropologists could have been 'subversive?without AAA suffering a financial loss. For example, AAA could have clarifiedwith the Hilton what is the minimal usage allowed for it not to sue. Thefacilities could have been then turned over to labor organizers, activists, andanthropologists engaged with the labor sector to discuss the issues. Therented facilities could have been provided to activists and researchers to dotheir thing or even for press conferences, or debates and town hall meetingsbetween pro and anti lockout views. Paid for hotel rooms could have beenprovided to locked out workers, families who may be spending money shuttlingto and fro the ?war zones?. SF will be chilly in November.

The AAA then could have pressured Hilton to agree to the transfer to San Joseusing Hilton facilities. After all, the union agreed to the San Joserelocation proposal.

The AAA Board perceives a tight coupling between AAA and Hilton and otherconference sites. Hence it sees little room for strategizing. This tightcoupling should not have been set in the first place had human and labor rightsbeen in place in selecting conference sites. This tight coupling asrepresented by contracts should be loosened immediately.

Further, the silence of AAA, the Board and its officers, and the anthropologycommunity (as an institution) on this hotel worker lock out is becoming deafening.The decision to move the conference to a non-unionized Hilton hotel in Atlantashows how pervasive capital indeed is and how it can manipulate thetemporal-spatial continuum.

MAKI BAKA! HUWAG MATAKOT! (Join the struggle! Do not be scared!).
Hecky Villanueva
PhD program
Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 22:53:58 -0700
From: "Ronald Hector A. Villanueva"
To: Tom Sheridan
Subject: Re: Fw: AAA EXEC BOARD & LABOR SITUATION IN SF

Kudos to the AAA Ex. Board and others for their actions, thoughts, and suggestions. While I sympathize with AAA's looming legal and financial woesshould the conference be cancelled, I think the sober legal assessment ofAAA's lawyers need to be taken in context. We actually have more options than we think.

My comments:
1. Does the AAA-Hilton contract state that AAA is committed to uphold thecontract despite the negative publicity to AAA and the respective participantspersonally from crossing the picket line? In other words, in signing thecontract with Hilton, did it mean that the legitimacy of AAA as a ?moral,ethical organization? should be disregarded? Why should AAA take the flakfor the collapse of Hilton's labor-management relations?

2. The burden of upholding the contract lies with the Hilton and not the AAA. When AAA signed the contract with Hilton, it signed on the premise that thelatter would provide first-class service. It did not include negativepublicity, potential for interorganizational conflict (with labor and supportgroups), safety issues, and emotional distress for AAA and conferenceparticipants.

3. I would like to assume that AAA only does business with legitimatebusinesses. Does AAA have a standard or criteria for businesses it deals with? If there are ethical standards for anthropologists, green standards, etc.,then AAA should have one for business partners as well. Did Hilton violateany of these standards? If so, then the contract should be reviewed with thegoal of reneging.

4. Going back to legitimacy, does the strike now compromise the legitimacy ofHilton? If Hilton's actions on the strike are deemed immoral, unethical,illegal (by whom?), AAA, as a direct impact stakeholder, should immediatelywithdraw its relationship with Hilton.

5. AAA can demand that Hilton provide another suitable location without thestrike, but then this would weaken the moral stand of the AAA vis-à-vis theworkers. At this point, what exactly is the stand of the AAA vis-à-vis thestrike? If AAA is wary of taking a stand, it can express deep concern andanxiety to Hilton on the crisis, in effect, leaning on them to resolve theconflict in a mutually beneficial manner.

6. The point is, AAA which has a huge contract signed with Hilton is in aposition to pressure Hilton to deal fairly with the workers. Will AAA seizethis opportunity? AAA has the power, legitimacy, and urgency to do so(withholding the payments and counter-suing, asking all AAA members to boycottHilton, preparing a critical statement, and the other actions alreadysuggested) to do so. It can demand that Hilton do the right thing NOW.

7. There is no easy way out, with negotiations and conflict resolution. AAAshould look into appraising Hilton and the workers of these discussions. Hilton will be pressured while the workers encouraged. I?m sure otherconference clients of Hilton are doing the same. They are also direct impactstakeholders and are concerned at Hilton's actions.

8. Media will play a key role here. AAA's actions will be scrutinized. Should it concede to Hilton and cross the picket line, it's credibility andlegitimacy will be compromised. Is it worth the $1.3 M? I think AAA shouldlook at counter-legal actions and try to break the contract.

9. Lastly, most of the hotel workers are, aside from being from the lowereconomic class, mostly minorities, women, and immigrants. The Roman CatholicChurch as a preferential option to the poor, what's AAA's preferentialoption???

10. There are now 14 locked out hotels. Another 26 are on the strike watchlist. Is the crisis becoming systemic? UniteHere.org posted the SFExaminer's report that the SF Fashion Week conference has been scrapped. Surely, AAA wouldn?t want to be compared to the fashion industry regardingdoing what is right.

Here's the quote: "A dose of high fashion injected the ongoing hotel labor dispute Monday asworkers and owners clashed over the cancellation of The City's first-ever SanFrancisco International Fashion Week. Event promoters pulled the plug on the glitzy three-day event late Friday night,stating that the lockout at 14 major city hotels had "seriously affected" thehigh-fashion affair. Founder and producer Jacinta Law said picket lines would "compromise the integrity of the event" and instead she would focus on a spring season show inMarch. She said the lockout would affect "designer accommodations, eventheadquarters, pre-event publicity, press junket, awards luncheon, andpost-event parties that were planned in these hotels."

The pressure should be laid to bear on Hilton and not the AAA. In the meantime,another venue should be seriously considered. Anthropologists should be able to put up with the hassles. It's the least they could do. Cancellation orpostponement should be the last resort.Professors of anthropology should also have their students study this moralityplay and write about it.

Hecky Villanueva
PhD program
Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona

Board member response to my letter, with my reply

2004-10-23T14:21:00.000-04:00

Mr O'Brien,

Thank you for your note. What you neglect is that the Hilton chain is only ONE of ELEVEN chains among the 14 hotels that banded together to resist UNITE. The sad fact is that there is nowhere our very big meeting can be accomodated that isn't one of those chains.

Among the responsibilities we were elected to fulfill, the EB must somehow make certain that our membership is served (especially, in this case, our job-seekers) by the annual meeting and other services AAA provides for its members, which would have been compromised by both the extra outlay (for naught as regards solidarity, since one of the hotels in San Jose is a Hilton) and the exposure to the real threat of a lawsuit (with which the AAA lawyer has personal experience and has thoroughlyresearched).

We are working on ways that job-seekers and colleagues from South countries may be reimbursed, and also on creative ways to help UNITE. We have been working closely with UNITE's leadership, and while I amalso personally disappointed that we couldn't have done more, we sawno other viable alternative.

The EB is at least comforted that UNITE appreciates what we were able to do.

Sincerely,
Carole Crumley
(you are welcome to post this note to your listserv)

Dear Dr. Crumley,

I appreciate your taking the time to reply to my email. I cannot begin to imagine the amount of feedback you are having to deal with at this time, in addition to the logistical nightmare of having to move the conference.

Since the points you make are essentially those made to me by Dr. Beeman, I will reply by forwarding the email I sent to him.

Before getting to that, however, I would like to make an important suggestion to the board. It is clear from the current negotiations with the Hilton that we are in the weakest possible position for an organization of our size. There are several simply steps that must be taken to 1) address this situation and 2) place more responsibility in the hands of the AAA staff so that the board can conduct other business.

1) All of our contracts with vendors must include an "opt- out" clause in the event of a strike.
2) We must immediately purchase cancellation insurance. It is unimaginable that we are currently so exposed.
3) A member (or members) of the AAA staff must be tasked with aggressively negotiating with vendors on progressive issues consistent with the statements and governing principles of this organization.

My response to Dr. Beeman, which addresses the points raised in your email, follows.

Best regards,
Rob O'Brien

Dear Dr. Beeman,

I appreciate your taking the time to reply to my email. Im afraid, however, that we disagree as to whether your email addresses my concerns.

As I pointed out in my email to the board, the UNITE HERE folks are well aware that we were negotiating with MEG- affiliated hotels in San Jose. We worked with them, in fact, as they helped with the planning of San Jose as an option. Although these hotels are affiliated with the national chains that have locked out workers in San Francisco, UNITE HERE members are neither striking against the San Jose hotels, nor are they locked out of them. Further, unlike the Hilton in Atlanta, the hotels that the union helped us identify in San Jose are all union shops.

As to whether Local 2 or the national union were "only concerned that we not hold the meeting in San Francisco," this is simply untrue. While they appreciate the fact that the board decided against completely breaking their picket, my discussions with organizers and Local 2 President Mike Casey made it abundantly clear that a move to San Jose would have been much more powerful politically. It would have broken the contract, thereby giving the union much more support than the bait and switch of Atlanta for San Francisco.

Regarding the expense of breaking the contract, it is far outweighed by the ethical statements agreed to by the AAA, statements that are more than mere position papers to show to beaming undergrads for those of us who have fought to support the locked out workers. Further, as I pointed out in my email, many proposals were floated for creating a legal defense fund. To my knowledge, the board never seriously considered any of them.

I appreciate that the board has made an effort to accomodate those who will be unable to afford the change to Atlanta. As for me, however, I will be boycotting the AAA and attending a counter-conference on the West Coast instead. That way I can continue to struggle alongside UNITE HERE and put aside the shame that I felt earlier as a member of the AAA.

Sincerely,
Rob O'Brien

Counter-conference to Boycott MEG Hotels and AAA 2004

2004-10-23T01:03:00.000-04:00

Calling all boycotting sections: Let's work with the San Jose Convention Bureau to quickly pull together a smaller "counter-conference" on the same dates as the original AAA conference.

If people already had plane reservations, these would remain valid, and the only thing they might have to cancel would be their hotel reservations.

We could even try to organize it to keep paper sessions in the same time slots as originally scheduled, and instead of expensive keynote speakers, we could have periods to go out and picket with or otherwise support the union -- and invite some union reps to give a keynote speech or two down in San Jose!!

This would be an opportunity to continue to do good public anthropology. We would be able to support UNITE HERE Local 2, participate in a (media blitz over a) boycott of the MEG hotels, and boycott the AAA.

This latter point may be sticky for many of you.

Here are my thoughts: The labor dispute is not the only issue that AAA members need to discuss. The dispute – and the way that it has been discussed by members and addressed by the AAA Executive Committee -- also raise serious questions for AAA members about the ethics and democratic governance of the Association.

First, a particularly sticky point is the question of whose opinions the AAA leadership is considering in making decisions about the dispute. The initial announcement to members went only to those members registered for the conference. Several section board members have emailed to say that the Executive Committee is only considering the votes of registered conference participants in making their decision.

Yet, the issues involved affect all members of the AAA, not just those who are able and willing to go to San Francisco (Just to get my positionality straight, I have a registration and plane ticket for San Francisco). The AAA Code of Ethics, the Statement on Human Rights, the by-laws of many of the sections, and the entire area of "public" anthropology make the case for supporting the rights of workers to organize, supporting cooperation between established workers and immigrant workers, and analyzing and addressing the issues of access to healthcare, employment, etc.

As members of this professional organization, we have duties as well as rights. We should not, on the one hand, take advantage of what the organization has to offer to further our careers and, on the other, ignore the ethical positions the organization has taken over years of deliberation and struggle. As anthropologists we have a duty to address people's real problems.

Second, the situation calls into serious question the leadership of the AAA. The fact is that AAA leadership knew about the labor problems at the Hilton seven weeks ago and did nothing to alert the membership until the 11th hour. The initial response that most members saw came from AAA President Elizabeth Brumfeil, who expressed the hope that the situation would resolve itself before several thousand anthropologists showed up in San Francisco.

AAA members have been discussing the ethics of such a position without questioning the serious lack of judgment exhibited by the Association’s leadership. Independent of the AAA leadership, one member was able to work with the UNITE/HERE leadership and with the visitors bureau in San Jose to come up with a feasible alternative plan in just two days. This plan could have been set into motion weeks ago had the AAA executive committee or program committee shown similar commitment and resolve. Sections should discuss motions to call for the resignation of the executive board.

Lastly, the labor dispute points to the myopia that often affects anthropologists and activists both. We become so bogged down in our own work and struggles, we do not see our fellow workers and activists as they toil next to us. As one anthropologist posting to urbananth-l put it, too many of us were saying “‘Finally, I can express my convictions!’…But we needn't wait for a union to strike in S[an] F[rancisco] in order to find under-paid and poorly treated workers; they're all over the place.” In fact, UNITE HERE locals here in Philadelphia are negotiating with the same hotel chains, and workers are striking in Atlantic City.

This dispute presents many teachable moments. AAA members need to use this moment to discuss both the responsibilities and the benefits of their membership (and of “public” anthropology). In Philadelphia, several of us will be sending a delegation to Atlantic City to support those workers. We’ll be discussing this struggle in our classrooms, using it as an excellent opportunity for our students to gain an understanding of what’s at stake for us all in protecting workers' rights. If a counter-conference happens in an alternative location, presenters should consider giving papers on issues related to the hotel workers struggle.

In struggle,

Rob

AAA Memorandum -- October 19

2004-10-22T16:37:00.000-04:00

October 19, 2004 MEMORANDUM To: 2004 Annual Meeting Registrants From: Liz Brumfiel, President Bill Davis, Executive Director Subject: San Francisco Hilton Hotel Labor Dispute This is to make you aware of a labor dispute involving the San Francisco Hilton Hotel and its organized employees, and to seek your advice on behalf of the AAA Executive Board relative to our scheduled 2004 Annual Meeting. The AAA Executive Board is conducting an on-line survey to obtain your opinion relative to the decision before it. To participate, please read the following memo carefully prior to completing the survey. Because of the urgency of the issue, please send your reply by Thursday, October 21, 2004 at 8:00 am Eastern Daylight Time. We recognize this is an extremely complex issue, and appreciate your reading the memo carefully prior to replying. SF Hilton Hotel Labor Dispute The San Francisco Hilton Hotel and thirteen other hotels in San Francisco are currently in a labor contract standoff with Local 2 of UNITE/HERE, the union representing cooks, dishwashers, bellmen, servers, room cleaners and switchboard operators. Union members struck the hotels several weeks ago and subsequently have been locked out. There are currently picket lines at the entrances to the Hilton, and there is every likelihood that contract negotiations between the union and the multi-employer group representing the 14 hotels will not be settled by the time of AAA's Annual Meeting. Understanding the discomfort that many members may have crossing picket lines, AAA's Officers and staff have been working steadily over the past two weeks to determine what possibilities might exist to move the meeting out of the Hilton, and the likely consequences of doing so. On Monday, October 18, AAA's Executive Board held a teleconference meeting, during which Board members decided to solicit the views of potential meeting attendees concerning our options. AAA Contract with SF Hilton Hotel The SF Hilton is the only hotel property in San Francisco able to accommodate under a single roof, our meeting both in sleeping rooms and in function space. AAA has had a signed a contract for the 2004 Annual Meeting with the San Francisco Hilton since October 29, 1996. The contract provides that, absent a failure on the part of Hilton to provide the services specified, AAA does not have the right to cancel its meeting in the Hilton without facing exposure to potential damages in excess of $1.2 million plus legal fees. Our contract with the SF Hilton provides that, to the extent that the hotel is unable to operate, meet its obligations and perform the services it is contracted to perform, we have cause to sever our contract without suffering a financial penalty. The hotel's management indicates that they have brought employees in from other properties and the hotel is operating as normal. Union representatives say that the hotel is not. Since the job action began, conferences and events have continued to be held in the Hilton. To determine the situation, we contacted representatives of other organizations that have conducted meetings in the Hilton since the beginning of the labor dispute to get their assessment of the Hilton's performance. Based on their reports, it appears that the Hilton has provided adequate services to those organizations. Thus, AAA cannot cancel its meeting in the Hilton without facing potential damages in excess of $1.2 million plus legal fees. Alternative Locations for the 2004 Annual Meeting Despite these contract provisions, we have been exploring other potential options for relocating the 2004 Annual Meeting to another property (outside San Francisco) or rescheduling it to another time period. Unfortunately, the requirements for AAA's Annual Meeting (sleeping rooms, meeting rooms, exhibit, job placement and registration service space, general session space) make it an unusually difficult meeting to site. In order to secure adequate space sufficient to accommodate our meeting, we schedule and contract for that space between 5 and 8 years in advance of the meeting. With only a month before the meeting is scheduled to begin, finding any optional space to move the meeting has been even more difficult. Several potential alternatives have been explored. These included moving our function space from the Hilton to other locations in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the Moscone Convention Center is tied up with an auto show and can't accommodate us. No other hotel property can be found which would accommodate all our meeting room needs. We explored other city venues for the 2004 Annual Meeting, including Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago, Oakland, Philadelphia and San Jose. While we felt we should consider all possibilities, moving the Annual Meeting to another city or to totally different dates appears to be a completely impractical alternative at this late date because many meeting registrants have already bought airline tickets, would incur a financial loss in rebooking their tickets and likely would nota be able to change their schedule of obligations on such short notice. The only possible alternative location within driving distance of the San Francisco airport for the meeting is San Jose, CA. For those of you who don't know the geography, San Jose is about 45 miles south of the San Francisco airport. A combination of eight hotels within 3 miles of the San Jose Convention Center could accommodate as many as 1,770 sleeping rooms each night of our meeting. (We currently have a hold on 1,850 hotel rooms in San Francisco.) A combination of the San Jose Convention Center, Civic Auditorium and Parkside Hall (both adjacent to the Convention Center) and all available meeting rooms at the Hilton Hotel and Crown Plaza hotel (a block from the Convention Center) could probably accommodate our need for function space for the scholarly program, general sessions, exhibit space, placement service and business meetings. However, renting this space would cost AAA approximately $100,000. A final option would be to cancel the 2004 Annual Meeting completely. Major Considerations: If picket lines are still up at the San Francisco Hilton during our meeting, there are really no good options for AAA. It appears likely that we will have reduced attendance whether we conduct it in the SF Hilton or move it to San Jose. If we have it at the Hilton, and there are picket lines around the hotel, some potential attendees (numbers uncertain) may cancel their attendance. If we move the meeting to San Jose at this late date, others may cancel. At least five major considerations are likely to be involved in an Executive Board decision on whether to hold the meeting at the Hilton as scheduled, cancel the meeting or attempt to change its location to San Jose. 1. Logistical Considerations After a year of planning, changing our meeting location with only four weeks before the meeting starts will be a mammoth logistical undertaking. There will be 450 sessions, 250 special events plus the exhibits program and placement service to relocate, and once relocated, they will end up in at least 5 different locations. Sleeping rooms for over 4,500 people will have to be secured, and it is likely that they would be in a minimum of 8 different hotels in San Jose. Since two of those hotels are three miles from the San Jose Convention Center, shuttle bus transportation would have to be secured. Since the meeting program is already at the printer, an addendum with newly assigned rooms will have to be prepared. It is likely that every registered attendee (4,579 people have registered thus far) will have to be contacted directly and walked through the process of alternative arrangements. On site in San Jose, it is likely there will be glitches and lots of confusion; attendees will undoubtedly find it difficult to navigate the meeting; some events will probably not occur; some individuals will not be able to get to sessions they expected to attend; and things will certainly not go as smoothly as attendees have come to expect from AAA. 2. Financial Risk Another major consideration in moving our 2004 Annual Meeting is of course the financial cost to AAA. According to a report from ConferenceDirect, the firm that AAA contracts with to advise on site location and hotel contract negotiation, the San Francisco Hilton will claim damages of $1,125,975 if we cancel the contract with them. While that amount may be mitigated by certain terms of the contract and Hilton's ability to resell some of its rooms, the potential damages owed to Hilton would be very substantial. Breaking other contracts with overflow hotels in San Francisco, according to ConferenceDirect's calculations is likely to cost AAA an additional $66,379. Renting function room space in San Jose is estimated at $100,000. Assuming the cost of Shuttle Bus service in San Jose will be borne by the San Jose hotels and Convention and Visitors Bureau, and that our costs can be held at about current budget levels, the potential financial loss to AAA as a consequence of a move to San Jose is calculated by ConferenceDirect is approximately $1.3 million not including legal fees. 3. Ethical and Economic Implications Were we to move the meeting out of a hotel that is being struck by its employees, many of our members would consider AAA to be on the right side of an issue that is probably quite dear to their hearts. Over the course of the past two weeks, we've engaged in several discussions with representatives of UNITE/HERE in an attempt to identify ways that our members and/or the Association could support the strike effort. The union's position is that the only thing they want us to do is to cancel our meeting in the SF Hilton. The media and public relations benefit to the union in our canceling the meeting is perceived as being very significant. Cancellation of our meeting at the Hilton would cause only limited economic loss to the hotel for two reasons. First, under the terms of our contract, AAA does not pay a fee for the use of function rooms. The meeting space in the hotel is provided to AAA free of charge in order to get our sleeping room and food and beverage business. Thus moving our meeting does not deny the hotel any income for the rental of function room space. Second, if we cancel our meeting at the SF Hilton, under the terms of our contract, the Hotel will make a claim against AAA for recovery of anticipated income from sleeping room and food and beverage business which is lost as a consequence of our canceling the meeting. To the extent that the Hilton succeeds in recovering from AAA any or all of the $1,125,975 in estimated losses it incurs as a result of the contract cancellation, the hotel will not suffer that loss. The loss would accrue to the AAA which would be forced to compensate the Hilton for its lost income. 4. An Additional Consideration: The "Attrition" Clause An additional, very important point should be made. There is no "attrition" clause in our contract-which means that, as long as AAA does not cancel its contract, it would not be liable if the Hilton didn't fill the rooms that we have blocked off and if the Hilton did not receive its anticipated food, beverage and other income. Under the terms of our contract with the SF Hilton, individual members could exercise their own personal choices on whether to maintain or cancel their sleeping room reservations at the Hilton and to use or refrain from using the hotel's restaurant and cocktail lounge facilities without exposing the Association to financial damages or loss, so long as AAA does NOT cancel the location of its meeting. 5. Demonstrating Support for Striking Hotel Employees We have attempted to identify ways in which, were we to keep our meeting in the San Francisco Hilton, our members and/or the Association could provide help in support of the strike effort. The union's position is that the only thing they want to see us do is to cancel our meeting in the SF Hilton. They have been unwilling to discuss any other possible actions that AAA or our members might take to be of assistance or show support to the striking/locked out employee's efforts. Clearly, the media and public relations benefit to the union in our canceling the meeting is perceived as being so great that it is politically unwise for them to discuss other possible assistance the AAA might provide. A number of suggestions have been put forth by AAA's Executive Board and members, however, of ways that individual members and the Association as a whole might demonstrate support for striking hotel employees short of canceling or moving our meeting from the SF Hilton Hotel. These include: 1. Sending a letter to the hotel requesting they settle the strike before we arrive and letting the hotel know that we support striking/locked out employees. 2. Sending a letter to the president of UNITE/HERE to let him know that we have a contract with the Hilton and have arranged a schedule with several thousands of people that we cannot now change, but which expresses support for the workers on strike and requests permission for AAA members and visitors to cross the picket line. 3. Inviting the union to address our annual business meeting to explain their situation. 4. Providing a table for the union in our conference registration area for the distribution of information on their situation. 5. Inviting the union to our receptions to explain the situation and to collect funds to support the workers. 6. Conducting the organized session on the anthropology of unions (organized by Paul Durrenberger) to meet on the sidewalk across the street from the hotel or on the picket line rather than cross it and offer the union an opportunity for some supportive press coverage. 7. Securing a parade permit from the City of San Francisco and organizing a parade from the hotel to Union Square and a demonstration in Union Square. 8. Conducting a teach-in at the hotel or in an adjacent location which members of AAA would be asked to participate in and /or attend. 9. Organizing and conducting an effort to collect financial contributions from AAA members to support union members. Express Your Opinion The AAA Executive Board is conducting an on-line survey to obtain your opinion relative to the decision before them. To participate in this survey, please click on the following link (or copy and paste the URL into your browser window). http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB223VBLTXFXC Thank you very much for participating in this survey.

AAA Sections Support UNITE HERE Struggle

2004-10-22T16:25:00.000-04:00

October 21, 2004
To the AAA Executive Board:
The undersigned members of the Executive Board of the Society for Cultural Anthropology have asked me to strongly urge the AAA Executive Board to relocate the annual meetings to San Jose. We believe that important principles are at stake, including adherence to the AAA's Declaration on Anthropology and Human Rights. We understand the financial sacrifice involved, and are prepared as individuals and as a Society to help AAA meet the costs incurred by a decision to cancel its contract. Several of us have submitted individual comments on this issue; we write as a group to underscore our investment as a Section in the annual meeting program and in the reputation of the Association.

Yours sincerely,
Ana Alonso (SCA Program Chair)
Ann Anagnost
Robert Foster
Bruce Grant
Michael Fischer
Lisa Rofel
Pauline Strong (SCA President)

The leadership of the Society for the Anthropology of North America strongly urges the AAA Executive Board to relocate the annual meetings to San Jose. In solidarity with striking workers, while there is a union-sanctioned strike or lockout in place, we will not cross picket lines to attend any AAA function. We understand the serious financial risks the AAA is currently facing. Nevertheless, any solution involving any meeting inside a struck facility is unacceptable to us. We are prepared as individuals and as a Society to help AAA meet the costs incurred by a decision to cancel its contract.

The following resolution was passed unanimously by the Executive Board of the Society for the Anthropology of Work:
On behalf of the three hundred members of the Society for the Anthropology of Work, the Executive Board hereby resolves:
1. To boycott the Hilton in event of a lock-out or strike. This includes use of the hotel for any purpose whatsoever.
2. To seek alternative accommodations for society-sponsored meetings in San Francisco hotels and venues.
3. To authorize the President to spend additional funds necessary to cover the cost of alternative facilities for society-sponsored events.

Yours truly, Michael Blim President, Society for the Anthropology of Work American Anthropological Association

Links to UNITE HERE struggle

2004-10-22T16:24:00.000-04:00

Information regarding the strike, especially in relation to civil rights issues, can be found at the following San Francisco Chronicle link. http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgifile=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/19/EDGAB9B1851.DTL

Other articles and information on which hotels the dispute affects may be found at the union's web site: http://www.unitehere2.org/index.asp

or at Labour Start ("Where Labour Starts its Day!"): http://www.labourstart.org/usa/hotel.shtml

Nation Article on the Strike

2004-10-22T16:23:00.000-04:00

Union Makes Its Bed
by KELLY CANDAELE & PETER DREIER [from the October 25, 2004 issue of The Nation]

On September 29 in San Francisco, 4,000 hotel employees--all members of the newly merged union UNITE HERE--walked out on strike or were locked out of their workplaces after their contracts expired. Other lockouts or strikes are expected shortly in Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Critical of the labor movement's fragmentation and weakness in the face of increasing corporate concentration, HERE's John Wilhelm and UNITE's Bruce Raynor, the two leaders who orchestrated the merger of their unions in July, are seeking to provide a model of what a stronger, more militant union can accomplish. This strike is the first major test of their strategy. The decentralized structure of most national unions is a disadvantage in a world of gigantic national and international corporations. Earlier this year, for example, 60,000 United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union members in Southern California ended a five-month strike against three national retail food chains, forced to accept what many viewed as an unfavorable deal. The local unions were successful at keeping their members and customers out of the Los Angeles-area stores but failed to hurt the stores' business elsewhere. In San Francisco, UNITE HERE is resisting the hotels' demands to remove health coverage for more than 1,000 workers. It is also battling to keep fully funded pensions and to reduce heavy workloads. But the ongoing conflict is also about changing the balance of power between the union and employers. The union locals in San Francisco, LA and DC want their contracts to expire on the same timetable as those of locals in New York, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu and Toronto, which are set to bargain again in 2006. The locals will be in a far stronger position if they can negotiate their contracts with the national hotel chains simultaneously. The hotel chains, of course, want to keep the union at a strategic disadvantage with staggered contracts. Today, few hotels are locally owned. The four largest companies--Marriott, Hilton, Starwood and Hyatt--account for 22 percent of total room sales in the industry nationwide. The union argues that there is no good reason why workers making beds and cleaning toilets in Los Angeles should make $11.02 an hour while their San Francisco counterparts make $15.09 an hour at the same chain. According to Maria Elena Durazo, president of UNITE HERE's Local 11 in Los Angeles, "We can't take on national corporations hotel by hotel, city by city, area by area." UNITE HERE has spent several years preparing its members for this conflict. It patiently developed rank-and-file leadership cadres at each hotel, educated them about tourism industry economics and brought union workers from other cities to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington to express their solidarity. Margarita Rubio, one of those rank-and-file workers, is not afraid of this fight. A housekeeper at the Regent Beverly Wilshire in LA, she made her way to California in 1981, fleeing what she calls "persecution from both sides" during the Salvadoran revolution. Rubio, a single mother, says she is "willing to sacrifice everything so that my daughter can go to college." Local 11 members recently voted by an 83 percent margin to authorize a strike. The current three-city strategy is part of a bold plan by a new generation of labor leaders to mobilize their members through political action, community coalition-building and street protests. UNITE HERE's membership is composed largely of immigrants who are not afraid to struggle for a broad view of "citizenship" that includes workplace rights. Wilhelm--who is often talked about as a possible successor to John Sweeney as AFL-CIO president--wants to see more consolidation of unions and more union resources spent on organizing new workers. The outcome of his high-stakes strategy may determine whether he can project himself as someone who can re-energize a diminished labor movement, which now represents only 13 percent of the nation's workforce. To win this strike, it won't be sufficient for the workers simply to withhold their labor. The hotels can hire strikebreakers. The union is working to get customers to cancel reservations at targeted hotels because of concerns about poor service, fear of crossing a picket line or solidarity with the cause of helping low-wage workers. The national union and its local affiliates have worked for several years to forge alliances with a wide variety of religious, social justice and community groups, many of which have already canceled meetings and conferences, as have a number of trade associations and businesses. Many labor experts view strikes as a last resort, an act of desperation after negotiations and compromises have failed. But UNITE HERE leaders know that powerful business and political forces rarely make significant concessions willingly. After being battered by plant closings, declining membership and political defeats, the American labor movement recognizes that if it does not grow, it will wither away. Unions must re-learn how to battle effectively. The new members and idealistic organizers who have flocked to UNITE HERE and other activist unions signed up for a good fight. They, and their religious and community allies, have now got one.

A lock out is not a strike

2004-10-22T16:08:00.000-04:00

The San Francisco Hilton has been telling callers that the UNITE HERE strike against them is over.

They're technically right.

UNITE HERE! Local 2's members began a two-week strike against four San Francisco Multi-Employer Group (MEG) hotels on September 29th. MEG then locked workers out of 10 of its other hotels. Although UNITE HERE and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom attempted to negotiate a 90-day “cooling off” period during which the union and MEG would resume labor talks, MEG has continued to lock 4,000 workers out.

These workers are the cooks, room cleaners, bartenders, bellmen, food and beverage servers, bussers, housemen, PBX operators and dishwashers who are in one of the most vulnerable employment sectors in the country. The MEG hotels -- including the Hilton -- continue to keep these workers from their jobs.

The strike is over, but the struggle continues.

Where we stand now

2004-10-22T16:04:00.000-04:00

Dear Colleagues:

I have been in conversation with UNITE HERE in San Francisco and Washington, DC. We've discussed the offer that Hilton has made to the AAA -- which is to move the conference to a non-union corporate-owned Hilton in Atlanta. Barring any worst-case scenario which would keep the conference at the San Francisco Hilton, this is unacceptable. The reasons are simple:

1) AAA has an incredibly viable option to move the conference to San Jose. See the memo text from the San Jose Convention and Vistors' Bureau (SJCVB) below. The SJCVB has offered to negotiate airfare changes to San Jose and has secured incentives in the form of hotel discounts worth $150,000.

2) The union has made it clear that the best way to support their efforts to get locked out workers back in and to get the Multi-Employment Group hotels back to the bargaining table is with our move to San Jose. UNITE HERE estimates that the potential loss of business to San Francisco is over $5 million, which would put significant pressure on politicians who have stayed neutral up to this point.

3) None of the progressive members of the AAA are fooled by the Hilton's crass attempt to subvert the union's efforts and help the AAA save face. As one of you said in a recent email "we should all understand that this does not resolve the basic problem of the Hilton Corporation locking out its workers in San Francisco and refusing to negotiate with their union. It only moves AAA to another Hilton site so all of us, Hilton and AAA can continue business as usual. It brings no pressure to bear on Hilton to let its employees return to work and negotiate with their union. It changes cosmetics, not realities." In effect, we are taking a very long walk through the picket lines if we take this option.

4) Atlanta will not be well attended -- particularly by graduate students and others like me, who cannot afford the costly changes to airfare. SJCVB's offer to negotaiate airfare changes makes attendance possible.

5) All of the sections who have called on the AAA to move the conference have offered financial and logistical assistance. Breaking the contract with the Hilton -- even if they successfully litigate -- does not mean breaking the back of the AAA.

Given the above, I am calling on you all to pull out all the stops to get your sections to stop a move to Atlanta, pushing instead for the move to San Jose. We have to bring public pressure to bear on the AAA to support the members of the AAA Executive and Program Committees who have been fighting the good fight. Section resolutions to the AAA leadership, letters to the editor, Op- Eds to local papers (and to the SF Chronicle and the Washington Post), and solidarity actions with your local unions are all called for at this time.

In hope and solidarity,

Rob O'Brien
PhD Candidate
Temple University

Text of the SJCVB letter follows:

October 21, 2004 To the Leaders of the American Anthropological Association: In a continued effort to provide you with an alternative solution for your 2004 Annual Meeting, the San Jose hotel community has committed to 1,650 rooms per night. This commitment represents 100% of your guest room requirement, all within two blocks of the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. This eliminates any transportation requirements for attendees to and from the Convention site. The hotels in downtown San Jose are just 3 miles from the San Jose Mineta International Airport, 36 miles from San Francisco International Airport and 32 miles from Oakland International Airport. Super Shuttle, Cal Train and Taxi Service would be most convenient for your attendees. All hotel rates proposed thus far include a financial consideration estimated at $150,000 that will help to offset any cancellation fees and costs to conduct the convention in San Jose and is payable to AAA. Additionally, the San Jose Convention and Visitor’s Bureau has strong relationships with American, United and Southwest Airlines and will work with you to reduce change fees and fare variations. Again, we thank you for your consideration and look forward to welcoming the American Anthropological Association to San Jose next month. Sincerely, Daniel Fenton President and CEO cc: The Honorable Mayor Ron Gonzales