Hotel plans draw complaints

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - The Bloomington City Council has approved giving up some city property for construction of a $27 million Hyatt Hotel near the downtown courthouse square despite protests that low wages in the hotel industry aren't consistent with the city's living-wage ordinance.

Council members voted 8-1 Monday night to vacate an alley in the middle of the project site after a 2-1/2 hour discussion surrounding the pay to hotel workers, The Herald-Times reported (http://bit.ly/U0E94B ).

Jeremy Stephenson, vice president for development of REI Investments, said hotel operator White Lodging will pay competitive salaries but won't commit to the city's living-wage standard of $11.66 an hour.

The city ordinance sets that as the minimum wage for certain vendors and organizations that do business with the city but it doesn't apply to private businesses and couldn't be made a condition for the city giving up the alley.

Mike Biskar, an organizer for the Unite Here union that represents hotel and food service workers, told council members that White Lodging was one of the companies that regularly use temporary workers to staff its hotels.

"We have seen in Indianapolis what completely unregulated White Lodging working conditions look like," Biskar said.

Several Bloomington business leaders spoke in favor of the project, saying it will bring needed hotel rooms, visitor spending and tax revenue to the city that's home to the main campus of Indiana University.

Stephenson said construction of the 168-room hotel should start next spring and be finished by the summer of 2014.

Council members said they sympathized with the low-wage workers and that they would listen to any concerns from employees of the new hotel.

"We want to hear their stories and experiences," Councilman Dave Rollo said.