Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 25, 1993 TAG: 9307250045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.VA. LENGTH: Long
"If I had to make a choice, I don't know what I would do," said the secretary-treasurer and business agent for Local No. 863, Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union.
Local No. 863 represents 770 employees of the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs and stands to gain the 800 or so Homestead workers as members.
"I'd be honored to represent them," Bland said.
This is her third term as business agent for the union, which has represented Greenbrier workers since 1949 in a relationship that has resulted in only one strike. There are seven other unions that represent Greenbrier employees.
The Homestead in Hot Springs, Va., and the Greenbrier in Greenbrier County are almost always talked about together. They are only 40 miles apart, compete for the same business and have had generations of families work for them. Workers sometimes move between the two, although one is union and the other isn't.
Bland's family is a Greenbrier family, although she has never worked there. Her husband, Jack Bland, a banquet busboy and president of the union, has worked at the Greenbrier more than 30 years. A son also works there.
The Greenbrier is owned by CSX Corp., the national rail system. Ted Kleisner, president of the Greenbrier, said last year that the resort had been able to reinvest $25 million in the property since 1987.
The Homestead is owned by Virginia Hot Springs Inc., a closely held public company in which the Ingalls family holds the majority interest. The Ingalls family has been involved in The Homestead since the late 1800s.
The Homestead has been losing money for several years and its president, Dan Ingalls, says it will take $30 million to $50 million to cover the resort's debt and pay for needed renovations.
Until last year, both resorts held the prestigious five-star rating from the Mobil Travel Guide. The Homestead lost its rating because it was not prepared to do needed renovations.
Johnny Gazzola, The Homestead's longtime public relations director, said losing the rating "hurt employees the worst."
"They were told the reason was a change in the philosophy of management and that they were going to hold off on repairs needed," Gazzola said.
Gazzola recently became the resort's historian and will retire next year. He says he "loves the Ingalls family" and considers them to be the reason The Homestead still exists. But, he says there, is uncertainty among workers at the resort, mainly because of turnover in management and the constant need to adjust to different management styles.
Since the union issue arose, five top management people have been forced to leave. After they left, Albert Schnarwyler, the popular executive chef who had taken early retirement after being pushed aside, returned to his old position.
Ingalls said Friday that he thought the resignations of the management people and the chef's return had put the resort "in a period of relative stability."
"People seem happy," he said.
Homestead workers have held union elections three other times, and the union lost each time. Last year, the union campaign was highly visible and included a visit from civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.
Bland has a picture on her desk of her, Jackson and Ron Richardson, international vice president for the union.
This year's union effort has been low key and handled by Homestead people, Bland said.
She has had little involvement in the campaign. She said she was in Hot Springs Friday for the first time since the campaign began.
Better communication and job security seem more of an issue for Homestead employees than benefits or wages, which many say aren't that different from those of the union workers at the Greenbrier.
Greenbrier workers, who pay around $23 a month in union dues, average from $18,000 to $33,000 annually, Bland said. A dining room server at The Homestead could make $25,000 a year, a worker estimated.
Housekeepers at The Greenbrier clean 13 rooms a day; Homestead workers may have to do more.
Bland is careful not to comment on The Homestead's management, but she praises the management at the Greenbrier. She said the union and management have a good relationship. She recently was asked to participate in a quality management program with Greenbrier supervisors.
Bland's job as business agent for the union is to settle differences between workers and management. The union also guarantees the resort that it will have an adequate labor supply and that people will return after layoff periods.
"The Greenbrier people treat me with respect and I treat them with respect," she said.
Ron Richardson, the union's international vice president, is not as gentle as Bland when he talks about The Homestead.
Richardson says the Greenbrier and The Homestead are "mirrors" of each other, but "one is clouded and cracked and not kept up. The backing is peeling off it. That's The Homestead."
"They treat workers like trash and let it go to hell," he said in a telephone interview from his Washington, D.C., office.
"If you looked in everyone's heart, there would be about 95 percent support for the union," Richardson said. "The problem is you don't just vote with heart. A number of them are scared."
In each of the previous union elections, Richardson said, management convinced the workers a vote for the union would mean the resort would go out of business.
"The place is going bankrupt without a union," Richardson said. "They say if they get a union, it will go bankrupt sooner.
"The union would just force it to be run by professional operators and not by the overseer of the plantation anymore."
by CNB