HOTEL IS PICKETED AS TALKS BREAK OFF

The union representing 5,000 workers at 17 major District hotels appeared to begin what they said would be "selective strikes" against the hotels early today after bargaining for a new contract with the hotels broke off.

Union leaders said they began picketing about 1:45 a.m. at the Sheraton Carlton Hotel at 16th and K streets NW. However, they said it was still possible that negotiations could resume early this morning and a settlement be reached.

The contract between the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C., and Local 25 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union expired at 12:01 a.m. today. Wages and health benefits were issues in the bargaining.

Late last night, union officials said they asked management to consider what the union called its final proposal. Management's response led to what a union official called a "drastic impasse."

Management representatives declined to comment.

While bargaining was under way at the Capital Hilton Hotel, across the street from the Sheraton Carlton, managers of some of the city's largest hotels were preparing to use supervisors and temporary help in the event of a strike.

A confrontation between the hotels and the union has been brewing for months. The Washington tourism and convention business has been strong, industry officials said, but "overbuilding" of Washington area hotels has caused declining occupancy and profits for some hotels, prompting management to take a tough line on labor costs.

Union officials decided in recent weeks not to risk attempting the first citywide strike here in 40 years because it would have quickly depleted the union's strike funds.

In addition to selective strikes, union officials have said they might employ civil disobedience tactics until agreement is reached on a new contract.

Large hotels such as the Mayflower, Madison and Shoreham are among the 35 unionized hotels here, but they do not bargain their contracts as part of the 17-hotel bargaining group, and therefore would not be immediately affected. Other hotels, such as the Marriott chain, Willard Intercontinental, Vista and Four Seasons, are nonunion hotels.

The Teamsters union and the Operating Engineers have agreed to support the hotel workers and will not make deliveries or operate equipment at strike-bound hotels, according to Ron Richardson, secretary-treasurer of Local 25.

Pressure from new nonunion hotels in the District and its suburbs has prompted new cost-control demands from the Hotel Association. The hotels are seeking a 25 percent cut in the pay scale for newly hired first-year employes, an increase in the employes' share of health care costs and a wage increase of about 2 percent yearly.

The union, representing housekeepers, waiters, waitresses, dishwashers, bartenders and other service workers, is seeking pay raises of about 8 percent yearly, and is strongly resisting management attempts to cut pay and eliminate benefits for new hires and to increase health care deductible payments from $100 to $200.

Richardson had strongly criticized what he called the "corporate greed" of the District hotel industry. He said hotels lobbied city officials for tax breaks, zoning changes and authority to expand the number of rooms, "and after spending years making sure they have more hotel rooms, they now want the people who can least afford it to pay for their mistakes."

By cutting pay and eliminating health coverage for first-year workers, the hotels want to create "an underclass" of employes who could be used to replace veteran employes, Richardson said.

Peter Chatilovicz, chief management negotiator, had said management "bent" during weekend negotiations and moderated its previous demands, but characterized the union as being inflexible on the wage and benefit issues.

The selective strike strategy, which has been employed recently by unions in the automobile, steel and other industries, is intended to pressure individual companies to settle with the union, which then would strike other firms to win the same settlement.

"Civil disobedience training" for hotel workers was conducted Saturday at the District Building by Mitch Snyder, the community activist whose past tactics have included sit-down protests and scattering cockroaches in public places as a method of dramatizing the problems of the homeless.

A union official said a federal mediator attended last night's talks but did not participate in the bargaining.

The union's action came as the city's hotels were in their busiest season of the year.

A union official said about a hundred persons took part in the early-morning picketing. She said that if no settlement had been reached by 6 a.m., arriving day shift workers would not report to their jobs.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.