As I'm sitting in Las Vegas, ready to start the last prep day for Netroots Nation 2010, we must address an open question regarding Netroots Nation 2011....
You may recall a few months ago when Netroots Nation made the unprecedented decision to go public with our venue search in the hopes that we could show the management of the Providence Westin that being good to your workers is not just the moral thing to do, but it also makes good business sense.
Sadly, things at the Westin have gone from bad to worse. In June, the owners of the Providence Westin, The Procaccianti Group, announced that they would be cutting 50 union jobs (of the 200 at the Providence Westin) and that those jobs would be outsourced to a (presumably non-union) subcontractor. It's clear that the Procaccianti Group has no interest in bargaining in good faith and, in my personal opinion, it's end goal is to break the union at the Providence Westin altogether.
So, in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in UNITE HERE Local 217, we will honor the boycott and we will NOT be holding Netroots Nation 2011 in Providence, Rhode Island.
This is sad to me because Providence is such a great town, filled with warm people who would have certainly embraced Netroots Nation over the next year and helped to host a great convention. But Netroots Nation is voting with it's dollars and we're voting to support decent wages and dignity in the workplace.
We would like to thank those who helped us along the way, Providence-based Rhode Island State Representative David Segal, INMEX (INMEX are our partners in finding a venue that matches our commitment to social justice), the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Rhode Island's Future Blog, ProvidenceDailyDose.com and even the good folks at the Providence Convention and Visitors Bureau who are personally great and having to deal with a mess not of their own making (they hold virtually no power over the management decisions of their members). We would all love to have this convention in Providence in some future year, AFTER the Procaccianti Group wakes up and negotiates a fair contract with it's employees.
If you'd like to help, you can join the Facebook group "Boycott The Westin!!!!!! Providence, RI" (there is, apparently, no boycott of exclamation points!)
Stayed tuned to Netroots Nation throughout the weekend and we'll be announcing our location for 2011 at the closing keynote session on Saturday. That session, and literally dozens of others, will be streamed live online. Check here for the details.
I'll try to stick around the comments as much as I can, but I'm a little busy today, so forgive me if I'm not able to respond