The council last month had approved the subsidy. The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, or HERE, is fighting the approval because it didn't get a promise of "strict neutrality" from Hyatt. The union wants Hyatt silenced as it tries to organize employees, a condition Hyatt has found untenable.
HERE has another acronym for its latest effort - CASH or the Citizens' Alliance to Stop the Hyatt Hotel Handout. If CASH gets the required 2,458 valid petition signatures, the issue will go into a referendum for November balloting.
Mayor Wellington Webb worries that killing the hotel will cost the jobs of thousands of union construction workers and will deal a blow to the downtown's future economic well being.
A city councilwoman, who had voted to make a 500-room Westin hotel at the Denver International Airport into a union one, says she might fight to change that council decision if HERE persists in its battle over the Hyatt. The Westin, unlike the Hyatt, would be owned by the city.
Denver developer Bruce Berger plans to build the $218-million Hyatt downtown. Some fear the union's battle could make it more difficult for him to raise the necessary financing.
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