Who will negotiate employee affairs?  What is the hotel’s history regarding labor relations?

    As this will be one of the first Shangri-Las to open in North America, predicting the behavior of hotel management vis-à-vis UNITE HERE Local 1, the union representing the majority of hotel workers in downtown Chicago, is not easy. Despite attempts by Local 1 to establish a cooperative relationship, no dialogue has taken place between the developer and the union, so it is unclear if there will be a labor dispute between the two parties if an organizing drive takes place.

    Shangri-La’s own history overseas is adding to this uncertainty. In 2003 the company was forced to pay out the largest settlement in Indonesian dispute resolution history when they were forced to give compensation to hundreds of illegally fired union workers.¹ The 81 workers were dismissed en masse in 2000, and the ensuing three-year lockout resulted in the International Labor Organization of
Geneva finding that Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts violated internationally recognized standards of workers’ rights.²

    Did the developer explain what types of authority and responsibilities the condominium association would have? Could the association be responsible for handling labor issues, or could it intervene in the case of a labor dispute? 

Notes