Will labor issues hurt New Orleans or Denver's bid?

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The DNC usually wants all its hotels to be union, and New Orleans may not have enough union hotels to host a full convention.

Democratic events usually are held only in union hotels, Dean said, but with the only available venue for the event being the nonunion Sheraton Hotel the party was able to get labor officials to give the party "a full pass on this one."

From Harry Shearer's New Orleans Journey in early November:

WWL radio is reporting that a Democratic Congressman from Maryland, Elijah Cummings, is proposing holding the 2008 Dem convention in New Orleans. The radio hosts noted that, though this is an historically Democratic town, only the Reps have ever held a convention here, the “Read My Lips” conclave of 1988. The reason, one of them alleged, was that the Democratic organizers insisted on more rooms in unionized hotels than the city could provide.

Denver could have a problem also. Colorado Luis comments on Daily Kos:

I understand there is only one unionized hotel in downtown Denver -- the Executive Tower Inn. I'm a big union supporter (live in a union household actually) and I understand the preference for unionized cities. But unfortunately we are at the point where the union hotel preference limits the convention possibilities to a few of the usual suspects (Boston, NYC, SF) plus Las Vegas.

I would recommend a deal where the convention can go to a city like Denver and yes, N.O. where the hotels aren't unionized and in exchange there are organizing efforts in conjunction with the convention.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.