UNITE HERE seeks City’s help dealing with Vancouver Hilton

Union employees of the Hilton Vancouver Washington are asking for help from the City of Vancouver to improve their health coverage.

The hotel and adjoining Vancouver Convention Center are owned by the City and managed by the Hilton Hotels Corporation. About 140 hotel and convention center workers belong to UNITE HERE Local 9.

Their first union contract, ratified in June, has a wage and benefit “re-opener” clause, meaning that the two sides will reopen bargaining to determine the wages and benefits for the final years of the contract.

In a letter to the council, the union said currently 54 members of the bargaining unit make the state minimum wage and get no help with health insurance. Under the contract, the Hilton will offer a bare-bones employee-only Kaiser health plan starting in January to workers who pay $40 a month. The union argues that’s substandard compared with other unionized hotel workers in the region, who pay as little as $35 a month for full-family coverage that costs their employers $605 a month. And the City’s own employees have a comprehensive benefits package, including family and domestic partner medical, dental and vision benefits, with a choice of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield or Kaiser Permanente.

Local 9 says involvement by the Vancouver City Council could make a difference. The union is asking the Council to make funds available through the budgetary process, if necessary, to achieve affordable health care for the hotel workers, or to require the Hilton to adjust current spending.

The Vancouver City Council is now working on its budget, and is anticipating tough times ahead thanks to a deepening recession. But the union plans to make its case at a Nov. 10 public hearing on the budget.

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