IAEE Board of Directors Says San Jose Exclusive Labor Program is Detrimental

Calls on Mayor Reed and the San Jose City Council to Set the New Program Aside

DALLAS -- 15 September 2009 -- Calling Team San Jose's recent seizure of all Teamster labor at the McEnery Convention Center a plan primarily designed to generate new revenue for that convention center, the board of directors of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) is calling upon the city's Mayor and City Council to rescind the program immediately.

IAEE says that the new program eliminates competition and like most exclusive in-house services, is very likely to drive customers' costs much higher while driving down service levels. It also tramples upon an already existing collect bargaining agreement that was negotiated by the general service contractors who service most of the business in the McEnery Convention Center with Teamsters Local 85 that runs through the end of March 2011. General service contractors who refuse to agree to the new exclusive labor program are not permitted to work in the building. If they do accept the terms of the new agreement they face grievances from Teamsters Local 85 who has already warned at least one contractor who has worked an event in the building under the new plan that they have violated their agreement.

To make matters even worse, says IAEE, the new plan exposes exhibition and event organizers, exhibitors and general service contractors to serious liability exposures because San Jose's exclusive labor agreement renders them third parties not covered by the exclusive remedies of workers compensation insurance.

The new exclusive labor plan also improperly intrudes into the business contracts of general service contractors and their organizer and exhibitor customers, some that run for many more years. Team San Jose's new program also assaults key provisions of its own existing building leases with customers who have already agreed to bring their events to San Jose.

IAEE President Steven Hacker, CAE communicated its concerns directly to Mayor Chuck Reed and the San Jose City
Council on 15 September 2009.