Published: April 07, 2008 10:26 pm            

Resort reports business slump

Reservations drop at The Greenbrier

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Officials for The Greenbrier say a “significant amount of revenue” has been lost this year due to the possibility of a union walkout and several longtime clients have canceled their meetings.

This cooling of the county’s primary economic engine — which normally boasts an annual payroll of $86 million — has resulted in widespread economic uncertainty among the resort’s 1,600 employees, local businesses, organizations and others fiscally linked to The Greenbrier. Some in the area say the impact won’t be as great.

Lynn Swann, the resort’s director of public relations, said Greenbrier officials and the Council of Labor Unions are “continuing to negotiate to achieve a collective bargaining agreement.”

The union’s nine labor contracts and master agreement all expired Jan. 31 and about 1,100 union employees have been working under the terms of their old agreement after a 28-day contract extension ended in February.

Swann said several top clients have already canceled their usual spring and summer bookings, which also means less work for resort employees. The hotel is owned by the Jacksonville, Fla.-based railroad giant CSX Corp.

Swann declined to specify how many employees are currently working or how much revenue the 229-year-old resort has already lost. However, County Commissioner Lowell Rose said he has heard reports the hotel is down about $9 million in revenue so far, and that number is increasing daily.

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Harold Bock, spokesman for the Council of Labor Unions, which represents all nine hotel unions, confirmed that talks have continuously been bogged down over The Greenbrier’s insistence to roll back health insurance and pension plan benefits.

Bock said, “the company is trying to eliminate insurance for large numbers of employees, freeze their pension plans and also eliminate all their fringe benefits that employees have accrued over the years with holidays and vacations.”

He also attempted to debunk what he characterized as “rumors” that union members were unreasonably asking for more than their fair share at the table. “The struggle is not about the union asking for too much,” he said. “But the struggle is to maintain what we currently have.”



The downturn in business has already hurt Duane Zobrist, president of Greenbrier Limousine and Greenbrier Outfitters, both located in the Spa City.

“I’m scared to death. I’ve sacrificed a lot to build these businesses that are tied to The Greenbrier and the current state of affairs scares me,” Zobrist said.

The resort’s biggest client, the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, confirmed Friday its cancellation of two large May bookings with the hotel and transferred them to The Homestead, in Virginia.



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