Now that a labor agreement has been made between UNITE HERE Local 11 and the Los Angeles Hotel Employers Council, Los Angeles is making plans to host the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC) next week, June 20-23 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The agreement is in response to a 14-month labor dispute which came just in time to call off a scheduled lockout of 2,500 hotel workers from seven of Los Angeles` most famous hotels.

We are pleased that all parties involved have come together to form a satisfactory agreement, said Frank Wolfe, CEO of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) * producers of HITEC. We had been working for months to ensure that HITEC 2005 would not suffer due to the ongoing boycott. However, we will gladly retire those plans in favor of this positive resolution. Now the hospitality community can look forward to the high-quality education program and exposition featuring over 640-booths offering hospitality technology products and services, instead of being concerned with the issues surrounding an employee lockout.

According to a June 12, Associated Press article, Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa helped broker negotiations that ended at 4:55 a.m. on Saturday morning * five minutes before the scheduled employee lockout was to begin. Los Angeles cannot afford a lockout or a strike, Villaraigosa said. We had to find an agreement that was a win-win for both sides.

This is a wonderful day in Los Angeles. Good jobs and benefits make strong families and communities, and thanks to our new mayor, our members and the Employers Council, we are creating a better Los Angeles, says Maria Elena Durazo, president of UNITE HERE Local 11. Because of this agreement, both local workers and the visitors who fill the hotels and count on their service will get what they need.

We are delighted to see a resolution to this dispute, said Mark S. Lieberman, president and CEO of LA INC., The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. We believe that it lays the foundation for a new era of cooperation and partnership that will benefit our visitors, the LA visitor economy and all those whose livelihoods depend on its prosperity.

Key agreements include a 65 cent wage increase over the life of the contract, maintenance of free family health care benefits and a new provision which will allow workers to use sick time to deal with family issues. Workers will get some of their raise retroactively, and the agreement will expire in November of 2006. The contract still needs to be ratified by union members.