Reports: Strike Cancellations Hit Detroit's Westin Book Cadillac Hard
JC Reindl
Detroit Free Press
7:52 p.m. ET Nov. 2, 2018
Striking workers enter day 27 marching in front of The Westin Book Cadillac hotel in downtown Detroit. They are asking for a fairer wage.
Union officials claim that the strike at downtown Detroit's Marriott-operated Westin Book Cadillac — now in its fourth week — has had a devastating impact on business in the upscale hotel with many guests and some sports teams canceling reservations to avoid crossing their picket line.
The Book Cadillac's nightly occupancy rate, normally about 90 percent, has collapsed to between 30 and 40 percent, union members said.
"Everybody's been cancelling," said Zinnia Patcas, an organizer with Unite Here AFL-CIO Local 24, the union representing the hotel workers. "It's dead in there."
Late Friday, sources told the Free Press there could soon be a resolution to the labor disagreement that would end the strike that began Oct. 7.
The workers have been seeking better wages and benefits from Marriott International, the world's largest hotel company.
Specifically, they want the same pay rates as workers at Marriott's hotel in the Renaissance Center.
The Book Cadillac is more profitable than the Renaissance Center hotel, union workers said, yet they earn on average $2 to $3 less per hour for similar jobs. Marriott workers in the Renaissance Center hotel also contribute less of their paychecks for employer-sponsored health care.
"They should pay everybody the same across the board," Patcas said.
The 418-room Book Cadillac, 1114 Washington Blvd., has managed to stay open during the walkout with help from managers, replacement workers and hotel workers who didn't join the strike. The strikers, although noisy, have let hotel guests enter and exit the hotel unimpeded.
About 90 percent of Book Cadillac's 160 unionized workers joined the strike, according to the union. That includes staff at the hotel's Starbucks. However, the hotel's restaurants Michael Symon's Roast and 24 Grill are separate businesses and not involved in the labor dispute.
Marriott also does not operate the 62 condominiums on the hotel's top floors.
Who canceled?
The following groups have canceled banquets and/or hotel rooms at Book Cadillac since the strike started:
NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs
CityLab urban-issues conference
Great Lakes Restoration Conference
The forthcoming Financial Times' "Future of the Car Summit USA" on Nov. 8
Additionally, musician Elton John changed his hotel plans last month to avoid staying at the Book Cadillac during his tour visit in Detroit, union members said.
"So we’ve had a lot of support," said Kirsten Bednarczyk, who has worked in the hotel since it reopened in 2008. “Just this morning, a guy came and said ‘I was going to stay here but I didn’t know that you were on strike.' He (took out) his phone and he went on Expedia."
Some groups have kept their reservations. The union's Twitter account has an Oct. 8 video of strikers on the picket line chanting "shame on you" to members of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets outside the hotel.
Representatives for the Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Maple Leafs declined comment for this article.
Neither the Book Cadillac nor Marriott International responded to comment requests. And the owner of the Westin Book Cadillac, Cleveland-based The Ferchill Group, also didn't respond.
The Book Cadillac strike is one of 23 strikes taking place at Marriott-operated hotels across the country under the banner "One Job Should be Enough." The other hotels are in Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, California, San Jose, California, and Hawaii.
The Book Cadillac is among the former Starwood Hotels and Resorts-managed hotels that Marriott acquired with its 2016 purchase of Starwood for $13 billion. The hotel workers' last labor contract pre-dated the Marriott deal and expired June 30.
Emotions run high
Emotions have run high at times on the Book Cadillac picket line, where Detroit police have permitted the strikers to make noise and beat drums from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
On a drizzling morning earlier this week, a well-dressed woman approached the hotel and saw wooden posts with "On Strike" signs and the picket line of men and women in rain ponchos circling the entrance.
She turned and asked whether the hotel was open.
"They're open to scabs and leeches," replied Patcas, the union organizer, referring to replacement workers and to workers who had not been paying union dues and did not join the strike.
Patcas, speaking to a reporter, said the union workers' replacements should not get too comfortable in their new jobs.
“People can cross over our line and think they're getting jobs that’s gonna last, but they're not gonna last too long, because we’re coming back in," she said.
Detroit City Council passed a resolution last month in support of the striking Book Cadillac workers. The resolution called on Marriott's managers to recognize "that economic fairness for the workers benefits the entire community, including the hotel as their employer and a member of the local community."
The Book Cadillac hotel first opened in 1924 and closed in the mid-1980s, eventually deteriorating to a near-ruin. It reopened in 2008 following an extensive $180-million redevelopment that involved multiple layers of complex funding.
The hotel's owner, The Ferchill Group, refinanced the property last summer.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.
Detroit Free Press
7:52 p.m. ET Nov. 2, 2018
Striking workers enter day 27 marching in front of The Westin Book Cadillac hotel in downtown Detroit. They are asking for a fairer wage.
Union officials claim that the strike at downtown Detroit's Marriott-operated Westin Book Cadillac — now in its fourth week — has had a devastating impact on business in the upscale hotel with many guests and some sports teams canceling reservations to avoid crossing their picket line.
The Book Cadillac's nightly occupancy rate, normally about 90 percent, has collapsed to between 30 and 40 percent, union members said.
"Everybody's been cancelling," said Zinnia Patcas, an organizer with Unite Here AFL-CIO Local 24, the union representing the hotel workers. "It's dead in there."
Late Friday, sources told the Free Press there could soon be a resolution to the labor disagreement that would end the strike that began Oct. 7.
The workers have been seeking better wages and benefits from Marriott International, the world's largest hotel company.
Specifically, they want the same pay rates as workers at Marriott's hotel in the Renaissance Center.
The Book Cadillac is more profitable than the Renaissance Center hotel, union workers said, yet they earn on average $2 to $3 less per hour for similar jobs. Marriott workers in the Renaissance Center hotel also contribute less of their paychecks for employer-sponsored health care.
"They should pay everybody the same across the board," Patcas said.
The 418-room Book Cadillac, 1114 Washington Blvd., has managed to stay open during the walkout with help from managers, replacement workers and hotel workers who didn't join the strike. The strikers, although noisy, have let hotel guests enter and exit the hotel unimpeded.
About 90 percent of Book Cadillac's 160 unionized workers joined the strike, according to the union. That includes staff at the hotel's Starbucks. However, the hotel's restaurants Michael Symon's Roast and 24 Grill are separate businesses and not involved in the labor dispute.
Marriott also does not operate the 62 condominiums on the hotel's top floors.
Who canceled?
The following groups have canceled banquets and/or hotel rooms at Book Cadillac since the strike started:
NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs
CityLab urban-issues conference
Great Lakes Restoration Conference
The forthcoming Financial Times' "Future of the Car Summit USA" on Nov. 8
Additionally, musician Elton John changed his hotel plans last month to avoid staying at the Book Cadillac during his tour visit in Detroit, union members said.
"So we’ve had a lot of support," said Kirsten Bednarczyk, who has worked in the hotel since it reopened in 2008. “Just this morning, a guy came and said ‘I was going to stay here but I didn’t know that you were on strike.' He (took out) his phone and he went on Expedia."
Some groups have kept their reservations. The union's Twitter account has an Oct. 8 video of strikers on the picket line chanting "shame on you" to members of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets outside the hotel.
Representatives for the Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Maple Leafs declined comment for this article.
Neither the Book Cadillac nor Marriott International responded to comment requests. And the owner of the Westin Book Cadillac, Cleveland-based The Ferchill Group, also didn't respond.
The Book Cadillac strike is one of 23 strikes taking place at Marriott-operated hotels across the country under the banner "One Job Should be Enough." The other hotels are in Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, California, San Jose, California, and Hawaii.
The Book Cadillac is among the former Starwood Hotels and Resorts-managed hotels that Marriott acquired with its 2016 purchase of Starwood for $13 billion. The hotel workers' last labor contract pre-dated the Marriott deal and expired June 30.
Emotions run high
Emotions have run high at times on the Book Cadillac picket line, where Detroit police have permitted the strikers to make noise and beat drums from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
On a drizzling morning earlier this week, a well-dressed woman approached the hotel and saw wooden posts with "On Strike" signs and the picket line of men and women in rain ponchos circling the entrance.
She turned and asked whether the hotel was open.
"They're open to scabs and leeches," replied Patcas, the union organizer, referring to replacement workers and to workers who had not been paying union dues and did not join the strike.
Patcas, speaking to a reporter, said the union workers' replacements should not get too comfortable in their new jobs.
“People can cross over our line and think they're getting jobs that’s gonna last, but they're not gonna last too long, because we’re coming back in," she said.
Detroit City Council passed a resolution last month in support of the striking Book Cadillac workers. The resolution called on Marriott's managers to recognize "that economic fairness for the workers benefits the entire community, including the hotel as their employer and a member of the local community."
The Book Cadillac hotel first opened in 1924 and closed in the mid-1980s, eventually deteriorating to a near-ruin. It reopened in 2008 following an extensive $180-million redevelopment that involved multiple layers of complex funding.
The hotel's owner, The Ferchill Group, refinanced the property last summer.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.
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