Going Non-Local | Crowne Plaza decision irks unions
Right now, Worcester’s Crowne Plaza Hotel is spending several million dollars modernizing half its guest rooms, three suites and a lounge area, but the cost of the renovation may not end there.
Local unions that have used the hotel for years are incensed that the hotel hired a Maryland-based contractor to do the work rather than looking for someone local, and they say they won’t bring their business back there again.
On May 22, union members, local politicians and other allies showed up at the hotel, holding signs and shouting “Down with the Crowne!” But Jack Donahue, business representative for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters Local 107 in Worcester and a leader of the protest, said the issue isn’t about union versus non-union workers but about local versus out-of-state jobs and loyalty to groups that have been good customers in the past.
Donahue said his union has been holding an annual New England-wide weekend event at the Crowne Plaza for the past 10 years, typically renting the whole place and dropping $150,000. So he was upset that he didn’t know about the renovation until it was already underway — and contractors that the union works with were never offered a chance to seek the job.
“I just think it’s just egregious, not having the opportunity to bid on it,” he said.
Donahue said the situation is especially stinging for local workers because there are already so few construction jobs to go around in the continuing real estate slump.
Go-To Contractor
The hotel is owned by Lodgian Inc. of Georgia. According to spokesman Dan Ellis, the company bid out the project competitively and ended up giving it to First Finish Inc. of Colombia, Md. Because Lodgian has an ongoing relationship with First Finish, he said, it’s often able to get better deals working with it.
Ellis said the contractor is using some non-union workers from the Worcester area, though he did not know how many.
Ellis said he’s sympathetic to the union but that the company has a duty to its shareholders and customers to get the best work possible at the best price.
“That’s kind of our paramount obligation,” he said. “It’s something we take very seriously.”
That’s not how the Carpenters see it, and the same goes for more than half a dozen other unions that joined the May rally, as well as politicians like state Rep. James O’Day, Worcester County Sheriff Guy Glodis and U.S. Rep James McGovern, who threw their support behind the cause.
Donahue said AFL-CIO events like the Labor Day breakfast held by the Central Massachusetts Central Labor Council, as well the Carpenters’ weekend event and various unions’ pension and health fund meetings have pulled out of the Crowne Plaza; and the unions are asking their political allies to stop holding events there, too.
Ellis said he’s sorry to see that business disappear, especially during a recession.
And he said the company tries to be good to the Worcester area. During the renovation, for example, it donated 15 rooms worth of old furniture to the Massachusetts Veterans Shelter on Grove Street in the city and gave the rest to the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. Ellis noted that the Crowne Plaza also employs 150 locals on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, the hotel is still in the planning phases of additional renovations that would cover the remainder of its guest rooms and other areas. Ellis said Lodgian would be open to talking with local companies and unions about bidding on that work, though he’s not making any promises.
“We would certainly consider it,” he said.
Got news for our Labor Pool column? E-mail WBJ Staff Writer Livia Gershon at lgershon@wbjournal.com.
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