Hotel workers, teachers rally in favor of union
Santa Monica’s school board asked the management of a local hotel to stop ignoring labor unrest and come to a compromise with its workers.
“The board of education... believes that an amicable, timely mediation of any possible labor dispute would be to the mutual benefit of all parties,” states a resolution passed unanimously by the seven members of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.
The district leases the land to the Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel, which is located on Fourth Street just west of Santa Monica High School.
In a press release Thursday, Doubletree general manager Francois Khoury reiterated the hotel’s stance that most of its employees have told management they don’t want to be unionized.
3C2,“We are unaware of any ‘labor dispute’ at our hotel,” Khoury said. “The fact is that a few outsiders are attempting to impose the union on the hotel without allowing the employees to choose for themselves.”
Hotel management would like to wage their own campaign against unionization, but union members want a vote by ballot, which prevents a campaign, and the results cannot be challenged.
More than 100 Doubletree Guest Suites hotel workers and union organizers rallied Thursday in support of the school board resolution.
“The hotel has been pretty intimidating and they have a lot of security guards watch us,” said Alex Angel, a pro-union Doubletree worker. “They follow me to the break area and into the restroom, and they try to keep track of who I’m talking to.”
“The hotel has been pretty intimidating and they have a lot of security guards watch us.” — — ALEX ANGEL Pro-union Doubletree worker
Georgene Acosta, a Santa Monica High School teacher who helped organize a student protest in support of the union last month, asked the board to intervene in the worker’s struggle to unionize.
620,“Members of the Samohi community are concerned about the alleged behavior of the hotel management,” Acosta said. “As a teacher, I am very proud of the students that have come forward and become activists and leaders.”
The union filed charges earlier this week with the National Labor Relations Bureau accusing management at the Doubletree of threatening, interrogating and discriminating against employees for trying to organize workers into a union.
Doubletree workers claim hotel managers have followed them around the hotel, inquiring about their union affiliation. Workers also claim that hotel management discriminates against organizing leaders by changing job assignments and duties.
According to a report by the union, the 253-room Doubletree paid $367,029 annual rent in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 — much less than rent the city of Santa Monica received from the 148-room Pacific Shore Hotel, 1819 Ocean Ave., which is leased under a similar arrangement.
The city has helped unions become established in hotels leased on publicly-owned land.
They hope the school district will be able to re-negotiate its lease with the hotel, and in the process help settle the long-standing labor dispute.
Currently, the Pacific Shore Hotel and The Fairmont Miramar Hotel, 101 Wilshire Blvd., are the only beachfront resorts in Santa Monica with a unionized workforce.
Union officials said they would like to organize all the large hotels in Santa Monica, but they would only confirm active efforts at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, 1700 Ocean Ave., and at the Doubletree.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 17, 2002. Read the original PDF.