Two downtown Phoenix hotels are suing a union representing California public school employees for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Parent companies for the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown and Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel are suing the California School Employees Association for nearly $800,000 after the union canceled plans to hold its annual conference in downtown Phoenix this summer.
According to court documents, the union first booked the hotel rooms in 2019, and included Phoenix as the location of the conference in marketing materials published as recently as September 2023.
But, according to a post on a Facebook page associated with the group, the California School Employees Association announced it had moved the conference to San Jose, Calif., at its state board meeting in October 2023.
The lawsuit confirms that the group then canceled 3,565 room nights it booked at the Sheraton hotel on Nov. 9 and 1,531 nights it booked at the Renaissance hotel on Jan. 29.
But the lawsuit includes copies of contracts the California School Employees Association signed that stipulate it must pay for 100% of those rooms if it canceled the reservations after July 28, 2023.
Both hotels involved in the lawsuit have faced protests in recent months by Unite Here Local 11, a labor union representing hotel workers in Arizona and California, since collective bargaining agreements at the hotels lapsed on June 30, 2023.
The union accused the hotels of engaging in labor law violations and criticized major events like the NCAA Final Four for booking rooms at the hotels. It also distributed leaflets telling patrons to ask for their money back from the hotels if their experience was disrupted by the labor dispute.
The California School Employees Association did not respond to a request to comment on whether those protests factored into its decision to cancel its reservations and relocate its conference from Phoenix to San Jose.
Marriott, which operates both hotels, did not respond to a request for comment.
