Organizers want Santa Monica to be a ‘union town’
Organizers attempting to unionize employees at The Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel are asking its landlord to raise its rent.
In an effort to get hotel workers free benefits and higher salaries, union organizers have asked the hotel’s landlord, the Santa Monica- Malibu Unified school district, to re-evaluate a lease it has with the luxury hotel, located on Fourth Street, just west of Santa Monica High School.
The tactic has raised some eyebrows in the business community because the union wants the hotel to spend more money on salaries and benefits, but it’s also trying to get its rent raised.
They argue if more money is spent on rent, less money would likely be available for higher pay and expanded health insurance.
Several dozen phone calls made to the Doubletree’s spokeswoman Kathy Shepard, the hotel’s general manager Francois Khaury, and Darren Vaughn, the director of marketing, were not returned.
Organizers at the Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees union local 814 defend their tactics.
“What we’ve come to notice is that companies that treat their workers badly treat their other constituents badly too,” said Albert Lowe, a union activist.
Santa Monica beachfront hotels pay higher rents to the city and still make enough to pay better and provide benefits, Lowe added.
According to a report presented by the union to the school board, the 253-room Doubletree paid $367,029 annual rent in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. The union compared that to $468,440 in rent the city of Santa Monica received from the unionized 148-room Pacific Shore Hotel, which is leased under a similar arrangement.
“We think the hotel is a bad neighbor to the Santa Monica community,” Lowe said. “They are treating their workers badly, they are treating parents badly and they are treating students badly.”
Rent the school district receives from the Doubletree is based on a complex equation involving a base rent that fluctuates with the hotel’s room occupancy levels, its profit margins and with inflation.
School superintendent John Deasy said he instructed the school district legal department six weeks ago to begin auditing the Doubletree’s books to ensure it is paying the correct rent.
“But we’re not asserting they have violated the lease,” Deasy said. “We’re just making sure they are in compliance by asking for an audit, which is well within our right.”
And Deasy said assertions by the union that the hotel is “cheating” the school district out of rent aren’t accurate.
“Other hotels pay higher rent because those leases were negotiated much better than ours,” he said. “But ours was also one of the first arrangements of its kind, and it was with one of the first hotels that went up.”
Deasy would not comment on the union’s rally at the school board meeting, but he did say employers need to be responsible to the community’s needs.
“And those concerns raised (by Doubletree employees) are those of every member in the community and I share them,” he said.
Critics, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of being labeled anti-union, said by forcing the rents of Santa Monica hotels to go up, they would be forced to raise their room rates which would make them less competitive with Los Angeles hotels.
They added that the Pacific Shore Hotel is under renovation and hasn’t opened as a unionized hotel yet. It hasn’t been determined if the hotel can remain profitable and competitive, they said.
However, union activists argue that Santa Monica’s other unionized hotel, the Fairmont Miramar, has been able to remain profitable and competitive.
Lowe said there are efforts by the union to organize all the large hotels in Santa Monica, but he would only confirm active efforts at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and at the Doubletree.
“But we do have a goal to make Santa Monica a union town,” Lowe said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 27, 2002. Read the original PDF.