Hotel management argues there is no labor dispute
Fearing a loss of revenue, Santa Monica’s school board voted unanimously Thursday to urge a local hotel to end a perceived labor dispute with its workforce.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District leases the land to the Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel, which is located on Fourth Street just west of Santa Monica High School.
The school board is concerned that the hotel workforce’s unrest with management could impact the amount of revenue flow coming to the district, which would limit educational opportunities.
There has been a push in the past month to unionize the hotel workers in an effort to get health benefits and better working conditions.
The Doubletree’s management say the union and community members are forcing issues that don’t exist.
Doubletree general manager Francois Khoury said Friday that the school board’s resolution is hard to respond to since the hotel’s stance is that there is no labor dispute.
“It’s such a vague request that we can’t address anything,” he said. “We have not one complaint from the inside, it’s all from the outside... It’s all propaganda.”
The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union local 814 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.
The hotel has 125 employees, but Khoury said the charges stem from only four workers.
He added that the hotel has plenty of ways within the company for employees to air their grievances, but no complaints have been taken to management.
Union organizers rallied Thursday in support of the school board resolution.
According to a report by the union, the 253-room hotel paid $367,029 annual rent to the school district in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 18, 2002. Read the original PDF.