Reprinted from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Thursday, April 13, 2000:
by Andrew Petkofsky
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia — The Internet address ColonialWilliamsburg.com could soon belong to the union representing hotel and restaurant workers now battling the internationally known resort over contract terms.
Gilinda Rogers, a Williamsburg businesswoman who controls more than 1,000 Internet domain names, has agreed to transfer her ownership of ColonialWilliamsburg.com and Colonial-Williamsburg.com to Hotel & Restaurant Employees Local 25, she said yesterday.
Rogers, the daughter of City Councilman and former Mayor Gilbert L. Granger, said she decided to donate the Web addresses to the union as a public service, and because the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation had repeatedly
turned down her offer to turn over the addresses in return for the money she spent to register them.
"If Colonial Williamsburg wasn't going to accept it," Rogers said of the two nearly identical Web addresses, "the best use I could come up with was to give it to the employees union . . . this is one way for their voices to be heard."
Rogers is a Web developer who says she owns, personally and through her company, Williamsburg Broadcast Agency, 1,200 domain names. Such ownerships are common among Web entrepreneurs. Her father, in addition to being a politician, is a businessman who owns, among other things, the Hotel John Marshall in Richmond.
John Boardman, chief negotiator for the union, said that as the formal transfer takes place this week, union lawyers specializing in
trademark and cyber issues have been engaged to help the union protect its right to set up Web sites using the Colonial Williamsburg name. He said the address could be used to inform workers about contract and grievance issues, and to keep the public informed.
"We hope to have the site deployed within the next 10 days to two weeks," he said.
Tim Andrews, a Colonial Williamsburg spokesman, said late yesterday that he could not immediately comment on the union's acquisition of the Web addresses but added that he might have a comment today after looking into the matter. Colonial Williamsburg's web addresses are www.history.org or www.colonialwilliamsburg.org.
Boardman said the union already had received a fax from a Colonial Williamsburg lawyer contesting the union's right to the addresses and directing the union to turn over
the domain names to Colonial Williamsburg.
The union planned to hold a vote today allowing the workers covered by its contract with Colonial Williamsburg to vote on management's proposal for a new contract. The old contract expired Dec. 31 with workers and management far apart on wages, benefits and other issues.
If the contract is rejected, Boardman said, the union will ask management to return to the bargaining table. If the invitation is turned down, he said, a second strike vote would follow. The union claims the contract covers about 600 workers, but management said the number is nearly 1,000.
Call Andrew Petkofsky at (757) 229-1512 or e-mail him at apetkofsky@timesdispatch.com
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