Comments on Norwescon Saturday: Report Four

A fucking Ghostbuster? If that's not at the bottom of the nerd pecking order, I don't know what would be. Might as well be dressed up like Martin Landau in Space: 1999.

I went to my 8th grade graduation in the ecto mobile. I am very proud of that. Mostly that I talked some guy into giving me and my friends a ride to graduation in the freakin ecto mobile. I would NEVER be seen in public now in anything ghost busters though. Yikes.

A gnome sponsored party, huh?

Well, I'd imagine that it might be interesting if they were tinker gnomes.

(letting my nerdosity slip out slowly so as not to frighten everyone)

What is this, the fucking EIGHTH post on this social retard convention? Are you quite through?

Question one : Why were you on the underside of your bar table?

Question two : Why have these post gone from "hey I'm at Norwescon and LOVING IT" from "hey I'm at Norwescon and look at what all these other people are doing...gnome-sponsored party...am I right?"

gee, i'll wear a fucking pro-union button on my ass, but i won't let it ruin my geeky need to play dress-up before halloween and traipse around in a scab hotel. not on your life. get real.

Misrule, It's one of the very few hotels in Seattle that is actually a union hotel, so it's not a "scab" hotel. Besides, The employees aren't striking - they are just without a contract.

It would be nice if we had more union hotels. They tend to be better run with more experienced employees. But hotels don't want to pay the wages, and they don't want older employees. They'd rather just have some clowns they can string along for a few years.

If you want to talk scab hotels, look no further than the shiny new downtown Sheraton. Or the Olympic. Or the Hyatt....

You can name plenty of nonunion hotels, but I can name plenty of union hotels. Fact is, the convention chose one of the only TWO hotels on UNITE HERE Local 8's "Do Not Patronize" list, and that's pathetic disregard for the livelihood and wellbeing of hotel workers.

Why is the Stranger so utterly opposed to labor? It will post videos with fond comments of Malcolm X, of Martin Luther King, Jr,. It will even Suggest the mediocre Chicago 10 movie--but god forbid it involve Stranger staff walk off Pike/Pine, because labor rallies aren't cool hipsters with skinny jeans. They're populated by working class people, and I have a feeling that has something to do with it.

That said, here's a patronize/do not patronize list of hotels in the Puget Sound region:

http://www.herelocal8.org/?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&HomeID=12651

I work for a union hotel (though not in a union position myself) and in my opinion it is certainly better run and our employees are more experienced... except that has absolutely nothing to do with the union. Unite Here is excellent at staging protests and preying upon the insecurities of non-English speaking employees, but are shit when it comes to actually doing anything for them.

"Non-English speaking immigrants?" Oh, you must mean the ILLEGALS. I have a quick, easy solution to that problem: send their wetback asses back where they came from.

Norwescon has been at that hotel for years. Hotel mgts, hotel owners and hotel names come and go. The convention is one community tradition that carries on over time.

A fan-run con is not an easy event to fit into the life of a hotel that runs on business trips and airline personnel lay-overs; the SF fans running such a con cannot just pick up and move to another hotel of their choice. Maybe many years ago that was possible; but this is the post-80s Material World and SF fans are not necessarily the most sought-after patrons. They don't travel on expense accounts and their ability to maintain a sense of wonder -- with all the exotic manifestations that such wonder inspires -- often frightens the less imaginative patrons.

At least the SF fans are aware of the labor disputes, and their actions end up getting the attention of (and mention by) a reporter to a newspaper. That is a Good Thing. Now more people know about the problem than did before, which is one small victory.

In the meantime, the tradition continues, which also is valuable.

"Unite Here is excellent at staging protests and preying upon the insecurities of non-English speaking employees, but are shit when it comes to actually doing anything for them."

Because immigrants have no agency themselves... but yes, UNITE does put on a hell of a party at demonstrations. There's nothing quite like walking through a convention chanting and seeing a worker smile and raise their fist...

As for "doing nothing" for them, the last contract signed at these very do-not-patronize hotels gave covered employees over $3.00/hr wages and benefits raises.

If the convention staff had attempted to move the con to a different hotel when the union brought it to there attention it would have bankrupted the convention.