<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2737.800" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>----- Original
Message -----<BR>From: <</FONT><A
href="mailto:asteiner@mail.utexas.edu"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>asteiner@mail.utexas.edu</FONT></A><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>><BR>To: <</FONT><A href="mailto:EANTH-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>EANTH-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>>; <</FONT><A
href="mailto:urbanth-l@lists.ysu.edu"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>urbanth-l@lists.ysu.edu</FONT></A><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>><BR>Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2004 11:40 PM<BR>Subject: Fwd: Re:
Advice of SF Labor Lawyer on AAA Contract<BR><BR>>Dear
Colleagues,<BR>><BR>>I hestitate to share the following after the fact,
but do so at the<BR>>urging of others who, like yourselves, were not be
knowledgeable<BR>>about one of the options I believe the AAA Executive
Board did not<BR>>have time to fully consider. I do not know how strict
yesterday's<BR>>Oct 22 deadline was, but if there was any flexibility, I
think the<BR>>AAA Executive Board might have made more time to consider
the<BR>>information I provided Liz Brumfiel and Bill Davis with
yesterday<BR>>afternoon.<BR>><BR>>1) On Oct. 21 I contacted a
nationally reknowned and internationally<BR>>known labor lawyer I have worked
for the last 12 months on two<BR>>different (labor and human rights) cases.
This lawyer has argued<BR>>labor cases in the Supreme Court and won Public
Interest Law's<BR>>Litigator of the year Award for his role as one of
the lead<BR>>attorneys in the landmark Doe v. Gap sweatshops
case.<BR>><BR>>2) On the morning of Oct. 23 the laywer e-mailed back to
say that he<BR>>could work in a quick conference call to consult on this
matter. I<BR>>phoned and left messages with both Liz Brumfiel and Bill
Davis<BR>>asking whether there was any chance that they could join the call;
I<BR>>also e-mailed them and let them know that this lawyer thought
AAA<BR>>could minimize financial loss if the contract was broken. At
about<BR>>12:45 CST I spoke with the lawyer who said (based on the
AAA<BR>>description of the terms of contract):<BR>><BR>>-- San
Francisco is a pro-labor town, and in the event of any<BR>>litigation, the
verdict would likely be in favor of labor.<BR>>-- He thought we could make a
case for breaking the contract based<BR>>on a) newspaper reports of spotty
service and most importantly b)<BR>>that any guest's implicit contract with a
hotel is based on the idea<BR>>that a peaceful, stress-free environment would
be provided. The<BR>>presence of noisy picketers in a labor dispute which the
hotel had<BR>>escalated from a strike into a lockout severely compromises
the<BR>>hotel's ability to provide this basic service.<BR>><BR>>--The
lawyer however, advised us to negotiate a "walkout fee" based<BR>>on the AAA
being able to show that a majority of its members would<BR>>stay away from
the venue, so that the hotel would not make anywhere<BR>>close to 1.2
million. By negotiating a walkaway fee of perhaps<BR>>$100,000 with a month
remaining for the scheduled meetings, the<BR>>hotel would have a chance to
recoup its bookings from normal<BR>>tourism. This lawyer has successfully
negotiated such a walkway fee<BR>>in another hotel labor dispute a couple of
years ago. He offered his<BR>>services at a reasonable fee to serve as
outside counsel, and<BR>>stressed that he would need to read the contract
before making a<BR>>clear determination.<BR>><BR>>3) I communicated the
results of this conversation to Liz Brumfiel<BR>>and Bill Davis at about
1:45/2 pm CST. After I sent this msg, I<BR>>noticed that I had received at
1:41 an e-mail from Liz Brumfiel in<BR>>response to the first msg. thanking
me for providing the contact<BR>>with the lawyer which she thought would be
useful in case of a suit.<BR>>I received no response from the second, or
third e-mails sent to her<BR>>and Bill Davis regarding the specifics of the
lawyer's advice.<BR>><BR>>The letter the AAA sent out yesterday at 5: 44
pm EST makes it seem<BR>>as if there were no reasonable legal alternatives to
an implied suit<BR>>by the Hilton. In fact, it seems clear that with a
skilled labor<BR>>lawyer, the Hilton would have been on the defensive, the
AAA<BR>>could've negotiated a minimal walkout fee that could have
been<BR>>absorbed by raising the membership fee by $5-$10 for one year,
and<BR>>our principles would have been intact. Instead, not only has the
AAA<BR>>decided to give the Hilton its business, but we have been
made<BR>>complicit with its union-busting tactics.<BR>><BR>>I wish I
had been able to reach this lawyer in a more timely<BR>>fashion. While it is
possible the AAA made a bad decision, it may<BR>>also be the case that it
made the best decision based on the<BR>>information it had. It is quite
possible the rest of the AAA<BR>>Executive Board did not know alternate legal
advice was available,<BR>>and/or that Liz and Bill didn't have enough time to
deliberate on<BR>>this, and/or that the deadline of October 22 had some
legal<BR>>implication with the Hilton of which I'm unaware. So this
e-mail<BR>>should not be construed as criticism of either Liz or Bill, to
whom<BR>>I will forward this e-mail. Given the fact that the AAA has now
been<BR>>set for dates in December (again at the convenience of the
Hilton,<BR>>and not that of the AAA), I am not sure whether it is feasible
to<BR>>revisit the decision that the AAA has reached with much thought
and<BR>>deliberation, but perhaps without adequate proactive legal
advice.<BR>>So I wanted to share this with those of you who have been
following<BR>>the issue, in case any of you think it makes sense to pursue
this<BR>>further with the AAA Executive Board.<BR>><BR>>If so,
I will be happy to share the e-mails I sent to Liz Brumfiel<BR>>and
Bill Davis if appropriate; and also to put you directly in touch<BR>>with
this labor lawyer who has impeccable integrity and is more than<BR>>willing
to help if we ask him to.<BR>><BR>>With best
wishes,<BR>><BR>>Kamala<BR><BR><BR>----- Original Message -----<BR>From:
Kuppinger, Petra<BR>To: </FONT><A
href="mailto:urbanth-l@lists.ysu.edu"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>urbanth-l@lists.ysu.edu</FONT></A><BR><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2004 7:27 PM<BR><BR>Jamila,<BR>And all!<BR>At
a point in time when getting a visa to the US is increasingly hard, I<BR>think
the issue that Jamila addresses is very important and should have
been<BR>thought over!!!! If anthropologists think of themselves as a truly
global<BR>tribe, they need to recognize the difficulties that their peers face
in<BR>crossing national borders!<BR>Petra Kuppinger PhD<BR>Associate Professor
of Anthropology<BR>Monmouth College<BR><BR>----- Original Message -----<BR>From:
"Zoë Reiter" <</FONT><A href="mailto:zr23@columbia.edu"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>zr23@columbia.edu</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>><BR>To: <</FONT><A
href="mailto:urbanth-l@lists.ysu.edu"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>urbanth-l@lists.ysu.edu</FONT></A><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>><BR>Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2004 9:02 PM<BR>Subject: Re:
[URBANTH-L]AAA Meetings moved to Atlanta<BR><BR>I appreciate what the AAA has
tried to do given a very difficult situation.<BR>However, as a grad student
doing my field research in Europe, I in fact<BR>will have to pay about $315 for
my change fee, not the $100 quoted by the<BR>AAAs. I have no doubt that
there are many more in my situation. If the<BR>conference had been moved
to San Jose, I would have been able to fly in to<BR>San Francisco and taken a
cheap regional train to San Jose. Is the AAA<BR>willing to consider help
off-setting the costs of a ticket change for<BR>graduate students? If not, can
we push petition them to do so?</FONT><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>