The ELI Annual Meeting and Union Activity

EDUCAUSE wants you to be aware of a labor action involving The Westin Horton Plaza Hotel in San Diego, site of the 2006 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) Annual Meeting, January 29-31, 2006.

The Westin is NOT a union hotel, and workers at the hotel are not currently on strike, but a union representing workers at other Starwood hotels that are in a labor dispute has engaged in a campaign of active information dissemination to organizations holding events at the San Diego hotel.

A number of EDUCAUSE members have received e-mails and phone calls from representatives of the union (UNITE HERE). The union has violated our member directory acceptable use policy, and, consequently, we have sent them a forceful cease and desist message. Our contract with the conference hotel was concluded well in advance of any labor dispute, and we sincerely hope that it will be resolved before January.

One measure EDUCAUSE has taken to protect the privacy of registered attendees at all our conferences is to lock down the registration lists, making them available only to other registered attendees.

The ELI conference will take place as scheduled. If the dispute is not resolved in time, we will notify all registrants, as is our normal practice in such situations, alerting them to the circumstances and offering a full refund to anyone not wishing to cross a picket line, though we certainly do not expect one at The Westin.

With this heads-up, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative looks forward to a dynamic, thought-provoking, and professional rewarding annual meeting. We hope you will join us!