St. Louis' America's Center locks out 3 audiovisual unions

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/03/24/d...

St. Louis Business Journal - by Lisa R. Brown

Effective today, the three audio-visual unions that supply services at America's Center are locked out from St. Louis' downtown convention center.

The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission notified the three audiovisual labor unions that supply services at the downtown convention center Monday that those who supply audiovisual services for conventions must serve as employees of America's Center.

"The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission has been meeting since December 2006 with representatives of the three different audiovisual unions who work within America's Center convention complex, but are not direct employees of the CVC," the CVC said in a statement. "The purpose of the meetings has been to reach an agreement that would allow the CVC and its partners to continue moving forward in positioning St. Louis as an attractive meeting destination, ending customer frustration, excessive audio visual charges, and duplication of work which places America's Center at a competitive disadvantage with other cities' convention facilities."

The move comes after negotiations over work rules led to a stalemate in talks, said Kitty Ratcliffe, president of the CVC. The CVC's board of commissioners voted on March 21 to approve sending the unions a memorandum of understanding that outlines significant changes. Changes include prohibiting shadowing, a long-standing practice which requires several union members to be present to perform a task.

The CVC planned to hold a press conference at America's Center at 11 a.m. to announce the changes. "The memorandum of understanding means audiovisual union workers will be, in effect, employees of America's Center, which is not currently the case," Ratcliffe said. "We've been working for 16 months to try to get the unions to recognize the need for changes and they refused to do so."

FULL story at link.