> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Union’s letter to Santa Monica hotel appears a mystery - URL: https://www.smdp.com/unions-letter-to-santa-monica-hotel-appears-a-mystery/ - Published: 2003-08-22T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T02:49:42.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Hotel manager calls the letter a threat; others question why it was sent at all* A letter from the head of a local union to a Santa Monica hotel has raised questions about tactics labor organizers are using. Francois Khoury, general manager of the Doubletree Guest Suites, said the note was intended to scare the hotel into unionizing by threatening to expose city code violations. The letter, written by Kurt Petersen, organizing director of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 11, questions whether the hotel is complying with a variety of City Hall building and planning restrictions. “It’s the typical tactics of the union — threaten and hope that someone gets scared enough to come and cry,” said Khoury, who has ignored the letter. “They’re threatening me with the city. Well let’s see who in the city they bought.” The war of words over the Petersen letter comes as the latest paragraph in the long campaign to unionize Santa Monica hotel workers. Petersen sounded surprised in a telephone interview when a reporter questioned him about the note. He asked repeatedly how the reporter had obtained it. Petersen said he doesn’t know that the hotel is violating any building rule and refused to say why he wrote what he did. Asked if the union normally patrols potential violations or if the union is working with City Hall, Petersen responded, “No, we have no interest.” “It’s a private letter with the company, so there’s nothing to say about it,” he said. “We send letters all the time to employers. I’m not going to comment on it.” Councilman Bob Holbrook said he’s never heard of this type of communication between the union and local businesses before. He added that it seems odd the union would take their concerns to the hotel itself. The conditions at which the union hints in the letter are attached to conditional use permits, which are issued by City Hall and govern everything from parking spaces to noise levels and building height. “If the union or anyone else knows of a CUP that’s not being enforced they merely need to tell the city and we’ll enforce it,” he said. > “If the union or anyone else knows of a CUP that’s not being enforced they merely need to tell the city and we’ll enforce it.” — — BOB HOLBROOK City Councilman But Councilman Kevin McKeown said it is normal for outside parties, such as neighborhood groups and other organizations, to investigate planning compliance. McKeown, who is a staunch supporter of unions and has been seen at several rallies outside of non-unionized hotels, said there is no connection between City Hall and organized labor. 428,“I think this is one of the regular things their research department does,” McKeown said. “I don’t see it as sinister because they’re doing the neighborhood a favor, we want these CUPs... to be observed and enforced.” The letter to the Doubletree asks that Albert Lowe, a research analyst for the union, be contacted by hotel managers by Aug. 15\. Khoury, who ignored that request, said since reviewing the dozens of restrictions, which were imposed in 1986, his staff has found that the hotel is violating a few of them. Though he declined to identify the infractions, Khoury said they are minor and easily repaired. “It’s not worth discussing even,” he said. “They’re so irrelevant that they wouldn’t even hurt our business (to change).” Planning department officials said Tuesday it could take weeks to pull the records indicating whether the Doubletree has ever been cited for violating City Hall restrictions in the past. Under normal circumstances, there would be no reason for the hotel to report code conformance to a union, assuming it knew of problems. Union officials are waging an open campaign to organize workers at the Doubletree. Managers at the nearby Four Points Sheraton recently agreed to let their employees decide if they want an election, making it the fourth hotel in Santa Monica with some type of union activity. Two — the Miramar and Viceroy hotels — are already unionized. Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel has also agreed to let its workers decide if they want unionization in what’s called a “card-check election.” Union officials have an extended period of time — two or three years — to gather signatures from employees who want a union. Petersen didn’t say how many signatures have been gathered or when union officials will “call” the election and count the ballots in its quest for the required majority. Labor organizers fought for the living wage ordinance on last November’s ballot because it put pressure on local hotels to organize. Unionized hotels would have been exempt from paying the proposed living wage under the proposed law. The living wage would have required businesses downtown and along the coast with revenues of over $5 million a year to pay their employees from $10.50 to $12.25 an hour, depending on whether they also receive health benefits. It was narrowly defeated by voters. Local attorney Tom Larmore, who fought the living wage, said he felt Petersen’s letter was a threat to hotel managers. “It’s just a scatter-shot effort to try to gain some kind of leverage over the hotel,” Larmore said. “It has nothing whatsoever to do with their labor relations.” > “It has nothing whatsoever to do with their labor relations.” — — TOM LARMORE Local attorney Tom Larmore Local attorney PULL TWO: “If the union or anyone else knows of a CUP that’s not being enforced they merely need to tell the city and we’ll enforce it.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/082203-01_01-7.jpg) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 22, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/082203.pdf?ref=smdp.com)