News
| Hotel workers targeted | ||
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Monterey County Herald November 28, 2009 By CESAR LARA Guest commentary Monterey County Herald The economic downturn continues to plague the Monterey Bay area and communities all across our country. Business owners and workers alike face challenging circumstances. One hopes that in difficult times, owners and workers would face these challenges by working more closely together. Unfortunately -- all across the country -- many hotel owners are using the economic downturn as an excuse to take advantage of their workers. When the Hong Kong owners decided to close the hotel at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley, their official statement was that they "have no plans to sell or reopen the hotel." But no one believes that. Ever since the rumors of the hotel closure began over the summer, the explanation that followed was that the owners want to get rid of the union. The company, of course, has denied this -- wink-wink, nudge-nudge. Quail Lodge is not the only place where hotel workers are facing difficult times. In September, the Hilton Garden Inn Monterey was taken over by RockBridge Capital of Columbus, Ohio. The new owners fired 12 workers, some of whom had worked at the Hilton for 20 years. This hotel has been resold four times in the last 20 years. This is the first time that new owners have fired workers en masse. There was no union contract to protect the workers. The Hilton owner also eliminated the workers' pension plan and made their new health insurance so expensive that many workers and their families have gone without coverage. |
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| Monterey Hotel Workers Demand Their Jobs Back | ||
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KION CBS 46 News November 18, 2009 KION CBS 46 Video MONTEREY, Calif. - At least 100 union hotel workers marched and held a vigil in Monterey Wednesday to raise awareness about recent layoffs. They said big hotel chains were laying-off long-time workers, replacing them with cheaper labor and using the economy as an excuse. |
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| Quail Lodge Closes Today: Workers want to be rehired if Carmel hotel reopens | ||
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The Californian (Salinas) November 16, 2009 Maria Ines Zamudio The Californian CARMEL -- Salinas resident Gerardo Soria Ruiz tried to hold back the tears as he thought about how he is going to support his family after finishing his last day working as a gardener at Quail Lodge hotel. The father of three along with hundreds of workers -- at least 40 of them from Salinas -- are losing their jobs today as the hotel closes its doors. But Soria and the hotel workers weren't ready to leave without putting up a fight. On Sunday evening, more than 200 people held a vigil outside the hotel to demand to the owners of the hotel to rehire workers by seniority should the hotel reopen. |
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| Quail Lodge workers get vote of support | ||
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The Californian (Salinas) October 14, 2009 The Californian The Monterey County Board of Supervisors requested Tuesday that the owners of Quail Lodge rehire workers by seniority should the hotel, scheduled for closure, reopen. The lodge plans to let go more than 200 workers when it ends hotel operations in November. Thus far, the lodge's owners have refused to guarantee they will rehire staff if it reopens. "I am going to be out of work and I have a wife and four kids and we are going to be struggling over the holidays," said Chris Partida, who has been at the hotel for 19 years. |
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| Hilton Garden Inn lays off workers, draws fire | ||
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Monterey County Weekly October 8, 2009 Zach Stahl Monterey County Weekly This isn't your typical bellboy request. About 30 riled-up elected officials, union representatives and hotel workers enter the lobby at Hilton Garden Inn in Monterey and demand a meeting with the manager. The hotel recently fired and replaced 12 UNITE HERE Local 483 workers after the property changed hands. RB Monterey LLC, a subsidiary of Columbus, Ohio-based RockBridge Capital, took over the Monterey Hilton from Ocean Park Hotels, whose president is James Flagg, a Robert Louis Stevenson School alumnus. The delegation is here to have management tell the new owner that letting go of a dozen workers is not a warm welcome to the community. |
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