TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute any and all documents necessary for a Seventh Amendment to Management Agreement No. 21667 with SMG, a Pennsylvania joint venture, for a one-year extension expressly conditioned on an SMG subsidiary, SMG Food & Beverage, LLC, entering into a Labor Peace Agreement with UNITE HERE Local 11 for operations at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center. (District 2)
DISCUSSION
In 2013, when the City Council adopted Long Beach Municipal Code (LBMC) Chapter 16.58, regarding Labor Peace Agreements, it specifically exempted the existing concession contracts at the Long Beach Airport and the LBCEC from labor peace agreements until the expiration of the agreement. Execution of labor peace agreements with the respective applicable labor unions during the original term of the contract would need to be a voluntary decision by SMG.
Additionally, on February 19, 2019, the City Council directed the City Attorney to review Labor Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) for convention center facilities in comparable cities. It was further requested that the City Manager and City Attorney meet with the City’s current contract operator of the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center (LBCEC), to discuss entering into a similar agreement at the LBCEC. Additionally, the City Council requested that the City Manager require a Labor MOU in future contracts for the operation of the LBCEC.
LBCEC utilizes a significant amount of union labor including engineers, decorators, install/setup laborers, and electricians. Food and beverage operations are not currently represented.
The current agreement with SMG, which does not expire until September 30, 2022, does not include any provisions requiring SMG to enter into such a Labor MOU. Over the course of several months, City staff and management at SMG have engaged in thoughtful discussions to explore ways to accommodate labor relations at the LBCEC. It was appa...
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