[Linganth] FWD: Move to Atlanta

[P. Kerim Friedman]

Dear Linganth members,

I tried sending this to the list yesterday, but it didn't go through. A
lot has happened since then, but I believe this is still worth reading.
Sorry about the delay.

Robert O'Brien has written a thoughtful letter critical of the AAA
Executive Committee Decision to move the AAA to Atlanta. It is a
complicated issue, and I think it is important to discuss it some more
rather than simply accept the AAA decision as set in stone. I hope
everyone can take the time to read Rob's letter.

Rob has also set up a blog where you can go for updates and information
about this issue, as well as leave comments. Please don't reply
directly to me, but contact Rob, leave a comment to his blog, or post
to the list as a whole if you have further comments.

The blog can be found here:

<http://aaaunite.blogspot.com/>

Thank you.

Kerim

-----------------------------------

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Robert T. O'Brien" <robrien at temple.edu>
Date: October 22, 2004 8:08:00 PM EDT
Subject: RE: AAA move to Atlanta

I intend to shop this around to newspapers for Sunday or Monday. Please
consider signing on and distributing this.

Best,

R

Despite Member Support, AAA Executive Committee Decides to Cross Picket

At the time of this writing, several sections of the American
Anthropological Association (AAA) are calling for a boycott of the San
Francisco Hilton. The boycott is being called because the AAA, which
represents thousands of professional and student anthropologists, has
scheduled its annual meeting to take place at the Hilton, one of the
San Francisco Multi- Employer Group (MEG) hotels locking out UNITE HERE
workers.

Despite calls from its members’ sections – including the Association of
Feminist Anthropologists, the Council on Anthropology and Education,
the Society for Cultural Anthropology, and the Society for the
Anthropology of North America – to pull out the stops to support UNITE
HERE workers, the AAA Executive Committee and Hilton have brokered a
deal to swap the scheduled meeting in the locked-out hotel for one in a
corporate-run, non-union Hilton in Atlanta. This was made possible
because the AAA has agreed to hold its scheduled 2006 meeting –
formerly slated for Atlanta – in San Francisco.

This move to another Hilton allows Hilton and AAA to continue business
as usual. It changes cosmetics, not realities. In effect, the AAA is
taking its membership on a very long walk through the picket line.

For the past two weeks, the electronic discussion groups of the AAA and
its section groups have been discussing the labor dispute between UNITE
HERE Local 2 and the MEG. Local 2 represents 85% of the employees at
more than 60 San Francisco hotels and motels. Its members began a
two-week strike against four MEG hotels on September 29th. MEG then
locked workers out of 10 of its other hotels. Although UNITE HERE and
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom attempted to negotiate a 90-day
“cooling off” period during which the union and MEG would resume labor
talks, MEG has continued to lock 4,000 workers out. These workers are
the cooks, room cleaners, bartenders, bellmen, food and beverage
servers, bussers, housemen, PBX operators and dishwashers who are in
one of the most vulnerable employment sectors in the country.

The UNITE HERE strike is an historic opportunity for this union to gain
real bargaining power. In addition to fighting givebacks in healthcare
and increased workloads due to layoffs after September 11, 2001, UNITE
HERE is working on two issues of utmost importance to labor (and to the
many anthropologists who are themselves union members). First, they
have been in the forefront of organizing for the rights of immigrant
workers, while maintaining a focus on the civil rights of the African
American workers who have made up the union's base. Second, they are
negotiating a contract that would end in 2006, which would put them in
the same bargaining cycle as other UNITE HERE locals. This would make
it far more difficult for the major hotel chains to broker deals with
individual locals one at a time.

Given the losses suffered by workers in recent years, the increased
importance of defending collective bargaining and immigrants’ rights,
and the potential gains offered by this strike, those who support labor
must support this effort.

There are genuine concerns for the AAA however. It remains unclear
which party to the AAA/Hilton contract is liable if the hotel cannot
guarantee quality service because they have locked out their unionized
employees. At stake, according to a researcher at UNITE HERE, is about
$5 million of revenue for the City of San Francisco and the San
Francisco Hilton.

Yet, the AAA Code of Ethics, its Statement on Human Rights, and the
entire area of "public" anthropology make the case for supporting the
rights of workers to organize, supporting cooperation between
established workers and immigrant workers, and analyzing and addressing
the issues of access to healthcare, employment, etc.

As members of this professional organization, we have duties as well as
rights. We should not, on the one hand, take advantage of what the
organization has to offer to further our careers and, on the other,
ignore the ethical positions the organization has taken over years of
deliberation and struggle. As anthropologists we have a duty to address
people's real problems.

UNITE HERE has made clear that the best way to support their struggle
is to cancel contracts and reservations with the MEG hotels. Moving or
canceling the conference may be costly. It will certainly be
inconvenient. However, it is neither so costly nor so inconvenient as a
loss would be for UNITE HERE.

Robert T. O’Brien
PhD Candidate in Anthropology
Temple University