NEWS FLASH: AALS Moves 2007 Conference from San Francisco to Washington D.C.

Just in from Carl Monk, executive director of AALS, via email:

The AALS Executive Committee has decided to move the 2007 Annual Meeting from San Francisco to Washington, DC.

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Many of you will recall the labor problems that threatened to cause strife during the 2005 Annual Meeting. Those problems have not been resolved, and there is currently a public union boycott of all of the major properties in San Francisco. Based on many discussions with both labor officials and hotel management over the last few months, we have concluded that there is a reasonable possibility that the current boycott could result in a strike during the time of the AALS Annual Meeting.

AALS has not investigated the merits of the San Francisco labor dispute and takes no position on that dispute. It is clear however that the quality of the Annual Meeting, and attendance at the meeting, would be negatively affected in the event of a strike. Some speakers would decide to cancel and, in all likelihood, it would be too late for Sections to substitute equally well qualified speakers; some potential registrants would also choose not to attend the meeting. Thus, the single most important AALS professional development program of the year would suffer significantly.

Of course, we here at the Workplace Prof Blog pointed out the potential looming issues surrounding holding the annual conference in San Francisco given the current labor climate (here and here). 

Kudos to Cindy Estlund and the rest of the Section of Labor Relations and Employment Law who added their voices to the chorus asking that the conference be moved if the on-going hotel labor dispute did not appear to be coming to a resolution.

Look forward to seeing everyone in D.C. in January!

PS