Due to sour history, union predicts slow vote at Loews
Tired of protests in front of its building, Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel gave in to union pressure by announcing Thursday it would not interfere with efforts to unionize its workforce.
Starting in January, officials with the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union will have unfettered access to workers during their breaks. The hotel’s management has agreed not to take a position on the union’s efforts and to provide a positive environment for their workers to make their decision.
In exchange, the union has agreed not to march or picket the hotel, and it has agreed to not coerce employees into accepting union representation.
While the hotel’s management and union officials came to the agreement this week, talks between both sides began shortly after the narrow defeat of the proposed living wage ordinance in the November election.
The living wage ordinance would have set a minimum wage between $10.50 and $12.25 an hour, depending on whether benefits were provided. Only businesses making more than $5 million a year in the coastal zone would have had to pay the wage.
Some people in the community believe the living wage movement is really about making luxury hotels pay their workers a better wage and provide health insurance because attempts to unionize them had failed.
Loews spent more than $175,000 to help defeat the living wage, which supporters have said they will bring back within a year.
A Loews spokeswoman said last year the hotel would never capitulate to the union. But rather than go through another year of having its business disrupted by union protests, hotel management want the issue resolved, said Loews General Manager John Thacker.
Thacker said the hotel had lost some business over the issue, mostly to groups sensitive to the living wage and unionization issues.
“This is all part of the healing process,” he said. “I think the issue has divided the community, and now’s the time to try to bring everyone back together.”
“I think the issue has divided the community, and now’s the time to try to bring everyone back together.” — — JOHN THACKER Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, general manager
Union officials hailed the move as a landmark agreement. It is legally binding and allows an impartial arbitrator to decide if either side violates the agreement.
If more than 50 percent of the hotel’s 200 eligible workers sign up for union representation, the hotel has agreed to allow HERE to represent their employees and negotiate a contract.
If neither side can agree on a union contract within six months, either party can ask that the dispute be resolved by the arbitrator.
“It really comes down to the union and the hotel agreeing the employees have been caught in the middle,” Thacker said, referring to the contentious relationship between Loews and HERE. “And for their benefit, both sides have agreed to let this issue be decided once and for all.”
This is the first time a Santa Monica hotel has made such an agreement without pressure from federal, state or local officials. The two hotels in Santa Monica that are unionized — the Fairmont Miramar and the Viceroy — reached agreements with the union only after each hotel needed the city’s permission for large remodeling projects.
After nearly 30 months of protests and marching in front of Loews, hotel workers and management said they were eager to put the issue behind them.
“I’m happy that we can start a better relationship with our managers,” said Celia Talvera, a Loews housekeeper. “Now we can work together to make this as successful a hotel as possible.”
Housekeepers at Loews make between $10 and $11 an hour plus health insurance, similar to unionized hotels in Santa Monica, Loews officials said. However, union officials said workers at unionized hotels get a pension plan, dental insurance and a paid lunch break — amenities not offered at local non-unionized hotels.
“I can tell you the economic package at a unionized hotel far exceeds anything at a non-unionized hotel,” said Kurt Petersen, HERE local 11 organizing director. “If that wasn’t the case, our union workers would be upset, and they’re not.”
Union dues at Santa Monica hotels average $35 a month, HERE officials said.
California Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante (D-San Joaquin) attended the press conference Thursday and said the agreement is an example that other hotels across the state could follow.
“I feel this is a wonderful moment, not just for Santa Monica,” he said. “I hope this will be a model that will show an accord between business and workers everywhere.”
Some union officials speculated it would take them about a year to collect the union votes needed to qualify as the official representatives of the hotel’s workforce.
“We know because of our history and background we’re going to have to work this in... I guess you could say slowly,” said Maria Elena Durazo, president of HERE local 11. “We’re taking it in good solid, small steps.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 13, 2002. Read the original PDF.