| Last week we wrote about the lack of union hotels in Charlotte and a claim that a top reason to visit Charlotte is the non-union facilities. Tim Newman, the CEO of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority sent us this response: Meeting planners regularly tell us that having a non union convention center is a factor for them in choosing to do business here. That said, as we have indicated from the beginning on our efforts to bring the DNC to Charlotte, we will work to accommodate the desires of the DNC and any union that wants to try to do business with the Convention in Charlotte should we be selected.
The DNC wouldn't have picked Charlotte as a finalist without considering the union issue. Denver was in a similar situation and went on to host an amazing convention. Charlotte news channel WBTV did a story on our post last week. A blog site that tracks information on the Democratic Convention is the latest outlet to suggest the DNC remove Charlotte from the list of cities that could host the convention in 2012. DemConWatch, an online blog points said the Queen City is not a viable option to host the convention because of its lack of hotels with union employees. Charlotte currently has no unionized hotels. The site said conventions have been won or lost based on the issue. In one posting, the blog suggested the city of Charlotte is proud not to have any union hotels, and pointed to a "Visit Charlotte" spokesperson's push to attract the DNC, which included the fact that Charlotte has non-union hotels.
If you read our stories, we never suggested Charlotte be removed from consideration. The closest thing that could be considered is my writing that it won't help their cause. You can read all of our Charlotte posts and will find that a majority of them are very positive. |
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