We are writing to you to request that the APSA Council take action on an important labor issue that is likely to significantly affect the 2023 Annual Meeting. As you are probably aware, since June 2023, employer intransigence has forced hotel workers at dozens of Los Angeles hotels to undertake collective action during negotiations over renewing their contract. Workers organized with the labor union Unite Here Local 11, which has 15,000 members in the LA area, have picketed and struck multiple hotels, including the JW Marriott Los Angeles LA Live, which is currently scheduled to host this year’s Annual Meeting. The labor dispute remains ongoing.

On Wednesday July 19th, Unite Here Local 11’s negotiating committee released a letter requesting that APSA stand with workers by canceling, relocating, or changing the conference to a virtual format. We are asking the APSA Council to honor Unite Here Local 11’s request and relocate all events associated with the Annual Meeting, and to support APSA members in finding alternative accommodations. 

As an international association bringing thousands of guests to LA’s flagship hotels, APSA’s actions matter. Moreover, it is clear that organized labor is important to APSA’s more than 11,000 members, who voted to include language in our Meeting Siting Policy which stipulates that meeting locations should be accessible and welcoming to all APSA members, and to “give preference” to venues where workers are represented by unions. We urge APSA to take this principle seriously with respect both to this year’s meeting and decisions about the location of future annual meetings. 

This is not the first time APSA has had the opportunity to stand up for labor rights. In 2011, facing a labor dispute in San Francisco, APSA relocated the Annual Meeting to Seattle. In 2018, labor action targeted the venue hosting the Annual Meeting in Boston during contract negotiations between hotel workers and hotel owners. President Kathleen Thelen, along with President-Elect Rogers Smith, Past President David Lake, and Executive Director Steven Rathgeb Smith, issued a public statement indicating their concerns regarding the labor dispute. In addition, they noted that APSA has “language in our contracts about the possibility of canceling in the event of labor disputes.”

We, the undersigned, members of APSA, call upon the APSA Council to act on our collective commitment to dignified working conditions for all workers, including those who make our Annual Meeting possible.

The signed letter can be viewed here.