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The most important conference of political scientists, scheduled for this weekend in Los Angeles, poses a real-world political dilemma for teachers who’re booked into accommodations the place staff are on strike.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Los Angeles is on the epicenter of a summer time storm of labor unrest. Greater than 100,000 staff, from actors and screenwriters to lodge housekeepers, are on strike. As NPR’s Danielle Kaye stories, these labor actions pose a real-world political dilemma for political scientists, whose conference this Labor Day weekend is an affront to placing lodge staff.
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DANIELLE KAYE, BYLINE: It is a Thursday morning on the JW Marriott lodge in downtown LA. The scene is a standard one within the metropolis this summer time – staff carrying their brightly coloured union T-shirts, holding indicators that learn boycott in daring print.
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KAYE: This Marriott is certainly one of about 60 unionized accommodations the place staff have been with out a contract since late June. They have been staging rolling strikes, demanding larger wages to afford the excessive price of dwelling in LA. Their union is asking conferences to boycott LA in solidarity. One of many large teams they’ve focused – the American Political Science Affiliation, also referred to as APSA, which is holding a gathering right here this Labor Day weekend.
KURT PETERSEN: We requested them to cancel or relocate their occasion on-line or someplace else.
KAYE: That is Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Native 11, the union that represents some 15,000 lodge staff.
PETERSEN: They’ll, you recognize, mince phrases about what they did, however they’re coming. And we requested them not to do this.
KAYE: So the 6,000 political scientists who usually attend APSA have a giant political resolution on their palms. The convention is an annual spotlight, a spot for them to share analysis and community for jobs. Beneath stress from the union, APSA leaders moved all panels and occasions away from the JW Marriott to the close by Conference Heart. However numerous individuals will keep at accommodations just like the Marriott which might be topic to strikes, and others will merely keep away.
PETER DREIER: I would not be shocked if lower than 3,000 individuals truly present up.
KAYE: Peter Dreier is a political science professor at Occidental Faculty. He is speaking contained in the Marriott foyer as staff picket simply outdoors.
DREIER: I believe there’s going to be a major decline.
KAYE: He will not be on the assembly this weekend. The Latino Caucus of Political Science has withdrawn from this yr’s convention as an indication of solidarity with the bulk Latino lodge staff. Different teams are additionally urging their members to not attend.
ERIN PINEDA: We actually have to avoid APSA and from Los Angeles over Labor Day weekend.
KAYE: That is Erin Pineda, a professor of presidency at Smith Faculty. She’s skipping the convention too. APSA did not reply to requests for remark. Its govt council has stated in statements that it is met union calls for by transferring occasions out of the JW Marriott and that canceling the convention fully could be too expensive. In line with its web site, the affiliation nonetheless has room blocks at a number of accommodations topic to strikes. Pineda says meaning the burden is now falling on particular person members to navigate the difficult community of picket traces.
PINEDA: Now, you recognize, the membership is polarized. The sort of battle traces are those that cross pickets and people who do not.
KAYE: Amongst these nonetheless touring to LA is Jack Zhang, a political science professor on the College of Kansas. Zhang says the overwhelming majority of college are sympathetic to the lodge staff, himself included.
JACK ZHANG: I help them and I hope they get the elevate that they are searching for, however I am there to attend an expert convention.
KAYE: Zhang says canceling the convention altogether would come at too large a value to APSA financially and to his graduate college students who depend on the occasion for networking. As of final week, lodge staff are calling for all conventions to boycott Los Angeles till the accommodations meet their calls for, and that’ll possible take some time.
Danielle Kaye, NPR Information, Los Angeles.
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