SF hotel operators refuse to end labor lockout-SF Mayor joins picket line

[Shakespeare]

One more reason to love Mayor Newsom!

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.

Newsom on Monday threatened to call for a boycott of the hotels if they didn't agree to his request for the cooling off period that would have allowed locked out workers to return to their jobs while talks on the contract affecting room cleaners, bellmen, cooks and others continue.

Expressing frustration that the dispute was tarnishing the city's image and hurting its workers, Newsom said he would join hotel employees workers on their noisy picket lines and encourage mayors in other cities to play hardball with the properties' corporate owners.

The mayor would make good on his angry vow by showing up at the posh St. Francis Hotel on Tuesday afternoon, where he was enthusiastically greeted by the picketing workers.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/10/26/state1741EDT0103.DTL

[bluestateguy]

1. Thank God's he's mayor

That Matt Gonzalez was such a tool.

[Ardee]

20. huh?

What a silly thing to say.....especially an East Bay denizen commenting on an SF politico (Gonzalez) that is far better than your sophomoric epithet would suggest.....now as to the current mayor (which ,by the by, was the topic here) I applaud his stance vis-a-vis
the locked out workers .

[nodehopper]

2. omg this is like an ongoing nightmare

I really feel the workers plight, I am just at my wits' end because our huge conference was supposed to be in the Hilton in less than three weeks and our organization is handling it terribly.

[Paulie]

5. MIS?

:-)

[nodehopper]

10. AAA :(

[mulsh]

8. stay in the east bay

you can stay in a hotel in Oakland that isn't on strike and take BART over to SF. There are also hotels in SF that aren't part of this strike.
lots of options. check oakland and sf tourist web sites.
right on newsom

[nodehopper]

12. believe me, I and everyone else in our organization would love to

stay in Oakland or San Jose or wherever. But no, they've just been jerking us around for the last week and a half. I was really hoping this cool-off would happen, because that would mean us broke grad students wouldn't lose hundreds of dollars in plane tickets.

[realcountrymusic]

22. Me too

I wonder if it's the same organization? We're going nuts dealing with it. But my colleagues are quite united, it seems, in refusing to cross the picket line.

Newsom rocks. He threatened to withhold trash collection from the hotels. Now that;'s a mayor.

RCM

[demokatgurrl]

3. I just love that mayor. n/t

[proud patriot]

4. Right On Mr Mayor

:D

[Shakespeare]

9. When was the last time you saw a mayor join a picket line?!

I think it's SO great!

[BattyDem]

6. Newsom rocks!

I hope he goes far in politics ... he's a good guy. We need more people like him. :-)

[BayCityProgressive]

7. If he was the

Conservative in that race...WOW the green must have been really far left lol.

[Xithras]

11. That's what I find hilarious about Newsom

There was some pretty serious opposition to him when he was running for mayor, and many people were shocked when he won because he was perceived as a conservative, and they were genuinely furious that a "right winger" could gain control of San Francisco. There were even people who, with a straight face, declared that Newsom was a Bush administration plant to take over the city and destroy leftism.

This nation would be a LOT better off if all "conservatives" were more like Gavin Newsom :)

[fishwax]

15. I remember reading similar comments about Newsom

some of them probably here on DU. :)

But man it is fantastic to see him standing square like this. Living in a right-to-work state (ugh), the thought of an elected official walking the picket line is pretty much inconceivable ...

[Robbie67]

13. Gotta give Newsom some props on this one

:bounce:

[Krupskaya]

14. Forget the picket line attendace...

...which, granted, is awesome, but for a mayor of a major metropolitan area to call for a boycott of his own city's hotels? HUGE. HUGE-ASS. This guy ROCKS and I want to see MORE LIKE HIM!

[RevolutionStartsNow]

16. I think he's the real deal

Amazing that he's joined the picket lines.

[Amigust]

17. Let Mayor Newsom know you appreciate him.

http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/site/mainpages_form.asp?id=18611

[RevolutionStartsNow]

18. Thanks for the link

I sent him a nice email.

[FredScuttle]

19. My admiration for my mayor grows with each day

Forgive me for a little payback, but I have clear memories of some Green dilettantes on this board who called Newsom a conservative, a winger, a soulless GOP plant during the SF mayoral election....I voted for him with confidence but I never expected the progressiveness he's exhibited in his term in office.

I call it courage...he could have played it safe as a pro-business, centrist Democrat, but he has shown the City (and the nation) that he is a New Democrat. I'm proud to call him my mayor.

[Ardee]

21. Why such insecurity?

Whether or not the criticisms of Newsome prior to his election came entirely from Greens is unknown to both you and I,as is the question of them being dilletantes. In fact I am not a Green but supported Gonzalez, in large part due to Newsome's awful stance on the homeless.....The mayors political history did not start with his stance re: the locked out hotel workers and his political history is yet to be written.

The real question is why are you so very insecure that you, and others, needs make a Green bashing event out of a thread supporting one of the mayors acts?