The term of Local 784’s contract with Shorenstein Hays-Nederlander expired at the end of November, 2009. We entered into negotiations for a new term agreement at the beginning of October and had several negotiation sessions as well as regular meetings with the contract committee through November.

On SHN’s side of the table were their CEO, Vice President of Operations and the managers of the Curran and the Orpheum Theater. Our negotiating team consisted of Business Agent Besser, President Fusco, Secretary/Treasurer Pelous, Vice President McGlone and Sister Kathy Phillips. At the end of November, we reached a tentative agreement which came before the membership at a Special Meeting January 8, 2010. At the Special Meeting scheduled for discussion and ratification vote on the tentative agreement, the members present heard a presentation on the negotiation process and talked about the terms of the deal.

When the tentative agreement came up for vote, it was not ratified. Business Agent Besser announced a meeting for January 15, the following Friday, for the membership to discuss their goals and reasons for not ratifying the agreement so that the Local 784 team would have a better idea of the membership’s priorities when we return to negotiations.

Thank you to all the members who came to the meeting on January 15. We had a good discussion of the failed deal and where to go with future negotiations. The members present will be the contract committee and will be contacted for future meetings as negotiations progress. Several of the members present also expressed interest in attending negotiations and we hope to include two members at our meetings with SHN.