are taking care of themselves as well. congratulations, everybody. congratulations to the city of san francisco, too. >> we'll have the team members. i just like to say on behalf of the mayor and local team members, this deal is good for city of san francisco. it takes care of our team members, it takes care of our guest. but what's going on, the building, construction, the new companies coming to the city, our goal is to welcome them and if we have labor peace, we have a positive contract for our team members, they will feel comfortable coming in time and time again. if anyone hasn't seen the cranes coming into the city, we want to welcome them as well, the hilton san francisco union

square. we want to welcome them and be a part of it and the city. thank you. >> i'm mike casey, president of the united local, i want to thank you mayor for the leadership in not just creating and bringing new jobs to san francisco but making sure they are good jobs, quality jobs, where workers can retire in dignity for their families. mr. mayor you have been showing that leadership since you have been appointed. we want to encourage you in advancing those principles. thanks very much. and then to the hilton, mike an did dunne and the leadership who took a chance here. they took quite a rest while the rest of the industry was actually preparing for a major war with our union over the course of the next, what

would have been probably the next year or two, the hilton corporation said maybe there is a way we can avoid the drama and turmoil that is brought to this city all too frequently because of concessionary bargaining that some employers try to impose on the union. so, after several months we have reached an early agreement, our contract doesn't expire until august 2013, so the hilt on and our union reached and agreement. i think this shows a commitment to go the highroad. often there are too many hotels in this city that want to go the low road, the meridian and the hyatt corporation have been

notorious for the way they treat their workers. mike dunne has shown corporations there is a better way of guaranteeing customer service and for workers that provide that customer service. this contract provides three things: no. 1, addresses food and beverage issues that is going to be an issue with this hotel where we have to get some of those under control and make sure those restaurants are successful. no. 2, this agreement strengthens and secure our job provision in the contract. strengthens the language called success or ship

which guarantees the workers keep their contract and jobs. no. 3, most importantly what it does is provide within the term of the contract in each of the next 5 years, the right for the union and the hotel to make sure that workers are going to get fully paid health care, pension, spare wages. the way that that will come about is we have negotiated $6.92 for the term of the contract that averages about 4 percent each year of the agreement. the way the agreement operates is the union will convene meetings with our rank and file leadership each year and prior to july 14th of each year, the leadership after following up on meetings with our members will determine how much money is appropriate for health care, how much money is appropriated to other benefits, how much

money will be appropriated for pension and how much money will be allocated for wages. so, this contract secures all those things, but above all else what it does is it allows our union in 6 cities toronto, boston, chicago, los angeles, hawaii and san francisco, it gives those 6 cities where we have labor peace. this is a 6-city coordinated effort where we have negotiated with the hilton corporation for a 5 year agreement that will allow all those cities and elsewhere to focus on the unorganized. there are thousands of workers that do this work. unfortunately those workers don't have health care for their families, those workers don't have a pension or

retirement security and are often minimum wage. this allows to us focus our energies and resources to give them the kind of voice that workers and union properties have. that's the main reason why this local too has embraced this effort and i want to thank the rank and file hilton.99 percent workers voted to ratify this. thank you for being here. [ applause ] >> what i want to do is introduce amy wong who is a room cleaner, she's one of the leaders of the hotel, jacob is going to speak, he's a doorman and guadalupe chavez who is a

room cleaner and a member of our executive board. >> hello, my name is amy win. i have worked as a housekeeper for many years. health insurance is the most important part of the contract for all of us. first this contract we can keep our family health care. now that we hilton workers have a great contract, we are going to start with the other hotel workers in san francisco to make sure their union is strong. thank you. >> my name is jacob, i'm a doorman for the last 22 years. thank you for all coming for this great event. thank you,

mike, for putting this contract, finish earlier than we thought. thank you very much. we appreciate that. as you know our health care, now the health care is available with other benefits so we can have our time to organize our members which can make us stronger without any problem. thank you. we are really happy. it's very important now we are going to stand the same idea which is our goal to improve our service. we have no problem over this. thank you for all coming here. [ applause ] >> hi, my name is guadalupe chavez. i have been working here for 32 years. as a worker

in the local too, we have a lot of struggles, many long struggles to have a good contract. that's the reason to have a standard for another hotels. that is today i'm happy to have a good contract and with our contract, it benefits security wages we have a vision and we can organize another union hotels. this is going to be the no. 1 because they have the same right to have the same benefits and rights that we have. thank you very much to be here and thank you, mike. we appreciate it. thank you mike casey. we love everybody. [ applause ] i would like to thank

everybody for coming today. especially the team members. we truly appreciate it. we are going to open up for questions. if anyone has any questions? >> we are in the process of talking to other hotels right now. we've already initiated some talks with the fair mount corporation and we are optimistic about that and we are also going to be reaching out very soon to the star wood corporation which has 4 hotels and marriott which also has 4. we are going to be starting with marriott, fair mount and star wood and the other corporations that have large

presence here in san francisco. >> this is a pattern that we have set and hopefully they will see what we have without a struggle. over the course of 2004-2011 during that 7 year span, the members of local 2 were engaged in constant struggle for those years, we had strikes, lock outs, boycotts, the industry was in quite a turmoil. it's quite a turn around when you look at those years, we had fights with almost every hotel in this city for 4 of those 7 years. in 2011 when we settled, that started to set a different pattern. the

hilton showed leadership at that time and we are still dealing with the contract from the 2007 settlement. this will start us on the next phase. >> i thought it seemed familiar. >> the workers packet, where it goes [inaudible] >> we have several unions that that's the way it works at this point. it's not unique to say. it's something different that we've done . i think over the last years with our contract between the hotels and here in the city but other unions that work in this building and in

the city, that's a pretty common practice. in our union, we have not used it very often. we've only used it with a handful of employers in san francisco. but, kind of industry wide city agreements we have not done this except maybe if you go back 15-20 years ago there might have been handful. the reason that it's so critical right now is because of the uncertain nature of what's going to happen with health care. with the affordable care act coming in next year and the exchanges which will provide that health care for millions of californians who don't have health care right now, it's expected that the health care industry is going to be changing quite a bit and we are not sure exactly, it's very impossible to predict what

that's going to do. if you poll our members, the number 1 issue is health care for our members and retirees. that is the no. 1 issue in our considerations in our discussions over the course of each year and our members will make those determinations as to what the priorities are and whether or not more money should be allocated to health care or wages or pension or health care, wages come first. that's going to be their decision. >> can you talk about the success or ship language? >> yes. what it does is two things. it improves our security when a hotel transfers with relation to

subcontracting. new owners can't come in and subcontract which we've got problems with other cities outside of california. although increasingly it's happening in california too. the hyatt corporation is a champion of this. they contract subworkers. they through in boston a hundred workers out on the street and replaced them with temporary workers at minimum wage. this is a problem we sometimes see some hotel companies doing when a company changes hands. so a, it protects us against an event of a sale and strengthens the language with regard to bankruptcy. it suspends the no contract law. if we need to fight a company or hotel and

strike in the middle of the contract to protect our jobs, we have the ability to do that. the no strikes clause notwithstanding. >> okay. if there are no other questions, i would like to thank everyone for coming today. we look forward to the next five years, mike. [ applause ] >

>> good morning everyone. we would like to thank you to our station. our members moved into in station and became operational march 19th. we thank you for being here today. it could not have been done without the help of many people. i want to welcome you all to this station. it's a beautiful firehouse, a new firehouse. i was 6 years old in 1st grade on moscow street. we are delighted to be here. it's also a creative and unique

collaborative effort. something we have never done before. it a partnership all the way. we want to thank and acknowledge the museum of modern art. we talked about the concept of the museum of modern art which if you have not been to, it's a wonderful place to visit. their needs and desires to expand for educational programs and for more of their collection. the property at 676 howard, we identified it was a place not seismic ready for our members. it's as fire safety it's of paramount importance. when they talked to us about the ideas, they came together and decided to change properties. it's a total win win situation. we are combraet -- grateful for the

efforts of the museum of modern art. we want to say thank you very much and would like to acknowledge mr. charles swab, thank you, sir. board president, mr. bob fisher, dennis wong and michael are here with us today. and a man that worked hard long hours with us and that is neale, the director of the museum of modern art. thank you so much. so we talked about this unique partnership. it became a real thing in 2010. lots of meetings and discussion, last year march 2012, we had ground broken on this station and # 12 months later we are here to celebrate the official opening. i'm going

to mention other people, but without further a do i'm going to mention the first person i'm proud to work for is an innovative thinker who said yes, let's try this and that for better efficiency and safety. i can't thank this man who has been in several aspect of city government. he understand the types of collaborative efforts necessary to conclude and project like this. now it gives me great pleasure to introduce our great mayor, mayor edwin lee. >> thank you, chief. i want to thank former mayor gave some for having reached this incredible agreement with museum of modern art. i just thought it was such a win win for everybody. not easy by any stretch of the imagination

because it takes a lot of resources even when we talk in terms of gifts, but let me first of all start with saying thank you chief white to you and to the whole fire department's administration to local firefighters union as well for being an incredible part of our city. your mission has always been about saving lives. we see it everyday and sometimes when there are events we can't control happen but you are there without regard in many cases for the things that are occurring, but just there to save lives. i think this gift if anything reflects the value that we place on our fire department. so thank you for your incredible sacrifice all the time. we recognize, i know

that mr. swab and the entire museum recognize that this gift does reflect that sentiment because not only are you getting a replacement of a fire station, you are getting a more modern fire station. it is state of the art. it has equipment we have not seen in a long time and i like to idea that it has a generator that in case that big one hits you have three days there to really help us recover quickly. you have a number of other things, i was going to make a joke about mr. swab and i maybe testing each other on the pole, but i think you are going to beat me because you are in better shape than i am. but, again it's just a testament that we do value our fire department and leadership and all the men and with i am -- women that serve it and this gift is another

reflection of that. having said that, i want to pay attribute that this would not have happened but for the incredible expansion that the museum is doing and that expansion comes with another recognition of the fisher family and their incredible collection of art which this city really still needs to talk about it's deserving of it. i know that the effort that is being made by mr. swab and all the trustees that have made that expansion, it is a serious amount of money to do that. yes they did have to have that expansion. we got that gift out here and the tune of $12 million for the station for the land and design and construction by the fund raising efforts that have gone on. but part of that is lose the make way for a really

wonderful collection that for generations years and years to come will appreciate it. i must say that mr. swab has entered into this effort knowing that it was going to take a lot of resources to do. at a time when there are so many other competing interest to be able to talk to people about the collection, about what it means and then about the fire station in addition to that and the public private partnership, i want to again, thank mr. swab for your leadership in doing so and also benny, i know he's a personal friend of yours, i wish i knew mr. fisher better as well but we are going to enjoy this wonderful collection and so thank you for the modern art and bob for all your leadership for doing this. this would not have happened without that occurring. it is a win win

for the city. this station, supervisor kim has just arrived. i want to please welcome her up. we have been doing a lot of openings in your district, supervisor. we just did another one at the entrance transbay center. it's a gold standard, lead gold, i want to thank webcor for their leadership in getting this built and making a smooth transition. i want to thank the fire fighters because it's really the home of the alley cats and they are proud of it and they are proud of the family that they have built here because this is one of the busiest fire stations, firehouse 1, will get those calls, you know that. in fact don't be surprised if a call is made even during a time we are here because there is so much

activity going on. but we know they are in a safer place a better performing aspect place, more modern and they will get the level of safety the city defrsz -- deserves. we have to prepare for those unknown but predictable accidents natural and otherwise that will occur in the city of san francisco. i want to thank the chiefs, the city administrator, victor, your work here as well, our real estate department, as well, thank you, john for being here. all the city family, our city engineer, figuring out things for being here as well. investing in our infrastructure, investing in our fire stations has been a main stay of my administration, working with a capital planning group. we want to ensure that our infrastructure always

reflect the highest level we need and situating this station here is will is an incredible gift to district 6. i want to thank all the entities for getting together and making this happen and but for a very special circumstances this might have not occurred and we would be incurring another obligation $6. i want to thank all the entities for getting together and making this happen and but for a very special circumstances this might have not occurred and we would be incurring another obligation of 9-and-a-half million from our general fund. this is a gift that is going to keep giving. i want to recognize things that happen in this city we are a very incredible lucky city for all the things that happen to us. this is one of the moments that recognize all of these special elements that come together modernization, this brand new station, and the firemen and women who will be

here and take care of this city as you always have. thank you for making this happen. appreciate it. [ applause ] >> thank you, mr. mayor for your leadership and unwavering support. the next speaker has also been very supportive. our district supervisor, jane kim. [ applause ] >> the mayor said it but i think we have a ribbon cutting almost twice a day now in district 6. this is an exciting one. the first constructed fire station in san francisco since 1950. it's pretty amazing considering when the fact that the mayor brought up is the busiest station in san francisco. in my time at the

distribution, unfortunately i got to know a lot about the fire department. we have had 13 working fires, several which were very significant and displaced or injured our residents. i learned how hard the fire department works, how important their speedy response is in terms of saving lives and of course our possessions but also how they build relationships with their constituents at a time of intense loss, anxiety and fear and they do it with a great deal of compassion and dignity. i think that's the most important aspect of the work they do on behalf of our city. it's truly incredible to have a department to be able to get that type of feedback from our constituents. it's great to welcome our fire department to district 6. yes, it's a block away from my hous