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Tenders of bar win a round
By KATHRYN WEXLER
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- Posted by the time cards on a wall of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center is a remarkable notice to employees, and it has nothing to do with a call for tap-dancing extras. It is a 26-point declaration of dos and don'ts that the center pledges to uphold. "WE WILL NOT fire employees because of their union activities or because they act together with other employees for mutual benefit and protection," reads one notation. The notice comes as part of a settlement over allegations by bartenders that the center's management fostered a threatening work environment for those trying to unionize. To some, the dispute is odd, given the traditionally cozy relationship between theaters and unions. Three out of four playhouses at the center use union talent. But bartenders were kicked to the curb when they started making noise about organizing several years ago, said John Beatty, state organizer for Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, Local 355. "They created a total atmosphere of fear and intimidation, and employees had absolutely no sense of freedom of assembly or of speech at that facility," Beatty said. "It's amazing that a publicly funded facility that takes taxpayer money violates these labor laws." Management at the center denied that it had tried to stifle efforts to organize. The National Labor Relations Board sided with the bartenders, and drew up the agreement between the center and the local restaurant employees union that included the declaration, signed in June by Judith Lisi, the center's president. The agreement didn't stop there. It also called for the center, the Tampa Bay area's premier performing arts venue, to give two bartenders back pay after they were either fired or had their hours reduced in 1999, when they were trying to organize. Darlene N. Phillips recently got a check from the center for more than $4,000 after her work hours were cut back, she says, in retaliation for trying to organize the bartenders, all part-time employees. "We make $5.15 an hour, we have no reviews, we get no sick leave, no vacation time, no overtime for working a holiday and no health benefits." Lisi, who has been at the center of the dispute from the beginning, back in 1998, said the center did not intimidate organizers or retaliate against them. The union, she said, "would very much like to get a foot in the door here in Tampa. I have no problem with it." The union in 1999 won enough signatures among the approximately 20 bartenders to take a vote to bring in a union. It failed. Last year, the bartenders voted again, and the results of that election were impounded by the NLRB after it found voting irregularities. Yet another vote is expected in the coming months, Beatty said. In the meantime, bartenders still have no benefits. "Part-time people don't get health benefits," Lisi said. David Jones was another bartender awarded nearly $4,000 from the center for lost wages. Jones was a strong union backer and was fired in 1999. He was reinstated a month ago, according to the terms of the settlement. Christy Pleus, the center's human resources director, said Jones was fired for other reasons and that Phillips did not have her work hours reduced. The center paid the claims, Pleus said, because it "didn't want to incur any more publicity or legal fees." The declaration, posted throughout the center for the requisite 60 days, is vindication for Beatty. He wants it to swing votes for unionization. "I hope that they see that what America has put on paper holds true at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center," Beatty said. -- Kathryn Wexler can be reached at (813) 226-3383.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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