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Political Scientists and Education Researchers Move Meetings to Avoid Labor Dispute in San Francisco

The American Political Science Association has announced that it will relocate its 2006 meeting to Philadelphia to avoid a labor dispute affecting hotels in San Francisco. The same labor problem has prompted other scholarly groups -- including the American Educational Research Association just last week -- to move their meetings as well.

"The current and future labor disputes compromise the association's ability to do the advanced planning needed for the 2006 meeting," according to a statement posted on the political-science group's Web site. "In addition, the prospect of disruptions during the meeting meant the association could not guarantee it would be able to deliver the quality meeting its members expected."

On the academic blog Crookedtimber.org, Henry Farrell called the move "a minor victory for San Francisco hotel workers." In his posting on Friday, Mr. Farrell, an assistant professor of political science at George Washington University, wrote that the association's decision "is the result of a deliberate strategy by the hotel workers' union, which has been working on persuading academic organizations not to host conferences at the hotels in question, while they continue to try to hold out."

"Union officials figure that it's time for academic lefties to put their money where their mouth is," he wrote.

http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/08/2005080803n.htm