battling the boycott blues

Music: David Gilmour and The Orb: Metallic Spheres (2010)

My professional organization, the National Communication Association, is having its annual meeting in San Francisco. It begins tomorrow. As I’ve detailed on Rosechron previously (here and here and here and here), I’m ambivalent about going. I have decided to go, as one of my rockin’ advisees is on the market and I am on a friend’s panel that I would hate to miss.

Unfortunately, however, the main conference hotel is currently under a boycott spearheaded by the city’s service worker union, Unite Here. For over a year the city’s service workers have gone without a contract (which means a settled benefits package), and so they have called for boycotting a number of hotels in San Francisco (presumably the most managerially abusive). Because they cannot picket all of these hotels at once, they are staging moving pickets.

There will be a picketing of the Hilton Union Square on Tuesday, November 16th at 4:30 p.m. with a press conference. They have invited all NCA members who wish to stand with them in solidarity to join.

Many months ago I signed a petition and pledged I would not patronize the Hilton Union Square, and I intended to keep my pledge. Of course, I have also never crossed a picket, nor do I ever intend to. My professional obligations are less important than a service worker’s right to health care and a living wage.

I have spoke with a number of colleagues and friends about the boycott. Many are troubled by the thought of going into the Hilton; they have professional obligations, but they would also like to honor the union’s request to not patronize the Hilton. What to do?

One way you can battle the boycott blues is simply to honor the boycott. Don’t go into the Hilton. Half the conference is in another hotel across the street. Conduct your business there. You’ll sleep better at night, still have a good conference, and a clear conscience.

The best way to battle the boycott blues is to avoid the Hilton.

Of course, my solution sounds rather easy. And, I confess, it is: I hold no leadership positions; none of my panels are in the Hilton; I can do without my conference program; I don’t have to see the keynote lecture. The one thing I really, really would like to see is Karlyn Kohrs Campbell receive a lifetime teaching award, which she justly deserves. I hope to see her and tell her in person how happy I am to see her honored, and to apologize for not being there “in person.”

The ease with which I can honor the boycott---and with which I can call for others to do so---is likely irritating to those who have professional obligations and feel ethically conflicted. It is easy to make arguments in the abstract, but I recognize being an ethical person may mean one has to go into the hotel. For example, members of the Legislative Assembly are meeting in the Hilton to pass policy, by-laws, and so forth. Perhaps the L.A. will take up policies that dictate what NCA should do in the event of a boycott or picket of a conference hotel? I can see how it would make sense to enter the hotel to help avoid this problem in the future.

Indeed, I can think of lots of scenarios in which folks need to enter the Hilton hotel to be ethical. Those of us who are honoring the boycott and who are calling for others to do so should not issue any summary judgments. If you must enter the Hilton, here are a number of modest things that you can do which will make a difference:

• Think critically about why you must go into the Hilton. (I’m surprised, frankly, by those who profess they just don’t give a shit.)
• Do not buy anything while in the Hilton
• Talk to others in the Hilton about how uncomfortable you are to be there.

The absolute worst thing that can happen is that no one discusses the issue. Silence is the most ethically suspect political stance one can take.

All this said, I still think it is a shame that the leaders of the National Communication Association have put its membership---for the second time in recent memory---into this rather unfortunate situation. They argued that it was too costly to move the conference elsewhere, however, I think tunnel vision (or a trained incapacity in the organizational culture) may be to blame. It seems the American Political Science Association managed to move their conference without financial hardship. So why couldn’t we? The national office admitted to knowing of the APSA story, but had ho comment. Hmm.

One of the luxuries of having tenure is that the national conference is now “optional” for me---not a requirement. I go because we have students on the market and because I would like to see my friends, most of whom are strewn widely across the United States. It’s good to see so many of them in one place---and it’s kind of like a battery recharge. I also very much like national conferences because they remind me that my academic world is not reducible to my department; I get confirmation (or disconfirmation) that my judgments about “where the field” is correct.

Still, for junior folks and graduate students, the national conference is a must. This is the contingent that the national office, I think, routinely forgets when it decides “the show must go on” because it would be too costly to change the stage. But what does it cost our younger members, in addition to the service workers who labor without guarantees?

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ADDENDUM: The Department of Communication Studies of the University of Texas at Austin is having its annual reception in the Parc 55 "Market Room" (note: not the boycotted hotel!) from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 16th. Y'all come: we usually have free beer and food.