HTC accepts Starwood’s apology

As we reported in Hotel Voice last week, a March 11 New York Daily News story contained untrue information about our union. Knowing that the Daily News would never knowingly print something untrue about any individual or organization, the union immediately suspected that a representative of Starwood was probably responsible for the misinformation that was published. And that is indeed what turned out to be the case. The union responded by forcing Starwood to issue a retraction to the media and compelling management at each Starwood property in New York to apologize.

The Daily News story concerned an employee's successful lawsuit against the Starwood Corporation. In commenting to the News on the jury decision, the company issued a blatantly false statement about the union. The story had reported that part of the reason the jury awarded $3 million to the Westin Times Square employee was because the hotel had installed a hidden camera over his work station after he complained about harassment. The story quoted Starwood's lawyers as defending their use of the camera and saying it was approved by the union.

"I almost fell over when I read that," said Local 6 Vice President Hazel Hazzard. "I knew it was completely untrue." Not only was it untrue, it was the exact opposite of what had actually occurred. Once the union received a call from a delegate in the Westin Hotel reporting the camera's existence, Hazzard called the hotel and demanded its immediate removal. The hotel complied.

"In reality, we forced Westin management to remove the hidden camera right after we learned of its existence," Hazzard told Hotel Voice.

While those were the facts about the presence of a hidden camera over the work station of an employee who had complained of harassment, Starwood responded to the jury's decision by issuing a statement that bordered on fiction. The statement called the camera "union-approved," and later in the same statement added, "the camera was approved in advance by the union."

The union responded to the false comments by demanding a retraction and an apology. Delegations of workers and union representatives met with top Starwood management at the W Court Tuscany, the Sheraton NY, the W Times Square, the St. Regis, the W union Square, the Westin and the W New York.

In each case management issued both a retraction and an apology. In addition, a statement containing the retraction and the apology was to be included with the employees' paychecks this week. The company also issued a retraction to the media. Both the Daily News and the television news station New York 1 (NY1) contacted the union to say that the matter had been cleared up by Starwood.

"Regardless of why and how this utterly false statement to the media occurred, we felt we had no choice but to demand that management correct it," Hotel Trades Council President Peter Ward told Hotel Voice. "Our feelings about the use of hidden surveillance cameras are as well known as our feelings on the use of spotters, and we had no choice but to set the record straight on this matter."