Union boss: ‘High time for contract’

Thursday, Jan. 29, 1998 | 11:32 a.m.

First published April 23, 1992.

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland is calling for national mediation to settle the bitter 7-month-old Frontier Hotel strike.

Kirkland issued that plea Wednesday as he donned a blue Culinary Union jacket and walked with picketers in front of the hotel.

"That's how a number of long and difficult disputes have been brought to a successful conclusion," he said. "The (New York) Daily News strike was resolved that way."

In town for the Service Employees International Union convention, Kirkland told an estimated 150 strikers that "the eyes of the whole labor movement are on you."

"Human beings work better on their feet than on their knees," Kirkland said. "Only a damn fool would want to run an establishment with workers on their knees.

"In the interests of the community and of the families that work in this community, it's high time that a serious effort be made to reach a contract. The best way is to proceed with the services of a national mediator."

Kirkland told reporters he was impressed by the solidarity of the strikers, who represent five I local trade unions, including Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165. Workers are seeking better pay and insurance, and contributions from the hotel to the employee pension fund.

"Everybody in the trade union movement is in support of the strikers," Kirkland said. "It is high time that this employer show a little concern for the community as well as its workers."

Telephone messages left with Frontier general manager Tom Elardi and hotel attorney Steven Cohen were not returned.

Kirkland, who presides over more than 14 million union members, was accompanied on the picket line by Tom Donahue, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, and Jim Arnold, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Local 226.