Labor Showdown at City Hall

By Jorge Casuso

Tuesday's City Council meeting achieved what a month of protests, street theater and marches failed to accomplish - it brought the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel managers and workers face to face in the same room.

The encounter began with the arrival of three Loews managers to a loud round of boos from more than 50 workers gathered at a rally on the steps of City Hall. It continued in the elevator, where a handful of the workers squeezed in with their bosses.

And it ended in the council chambers with a 5 to 0 vote to approve a resolution denouncing "union busting" and calling upon local businesses to "respect worker dignity, management neutrality and the right to choose union representation without intimidation."

"Santa Monica is a community where bullying the vulnerable is not acceptable to us," said Councilman Kevin McKeown, who sponsored the resolution. "We cannot allow those with power and privilege to ignore the community."

The resolution calls for businesses to use methods such as "third party card check petitions" to certify a union, rather than relying on elections conducted according to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) guidelines.

Union organizers oppose NLRB elections, contending that they give management the upper hand, with the results often held up by a lengthy appeals process. They pointed to the protracted battle to unionize the former Miramar Sheraton Hotel, where election results had to be overturned by the NLRB and it took a worker fired for organizing four years to be reinstated.

"I will never put them (the workers) through that gauntlet of terror again," said Kurt Petersen, an organizer for the local Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union. "They (Loews) have already ruined the atmosphere for an election. They've given $4,000 raises to buy people off."

Petersen called the NLRB elections a "faulty process. We could win an election and it could take years before it's certified. They know this. They know all the tricks. When the card check is signed, it's over. That's the end of it. The union is either recognized or not."

Loews officials countered that NLRB elections were used successfully across the country and that they give workers the privacy of a ballot box to cast their votes.

"It is a secret ballot. There is no intimidation, no reprisal," said Alan Rose, Loews' director of community relations. "They (the workers) make the choice. No one sees how you voted.

"It is a terrific process," Rose said. "It has worked across the country and there is no reason not to use it here.... The Loews is above all else pro employee."

Half a dozen Loews workers once again repeated some of the 23 charges of intimidation and threats the union has filed with the NLRB and complained about constant surveillance by beefed-up security.

They also denounced the hotel's hiring of Cruz and Associates, the consulting firm brought in by Miramar management during the height of the hotel's labor war. Charges filed by the union against Cruz led to the NLRB's overturning of a vote to decertify the city's only hotel union.

"It's not right for the hotel to pay so much to confuse us," said Luis Marquez, who has worked at the Loews for four years. "I don't think that's fair. Please get those people out. Give us the freedom to organize."

Rose declined to comment on the hotel's response to the ongoing organizing drive and said the charges filled with the NLRB "have not been substantiated."

The public testimony and vote capped an emotion-charged encounter, as hotel employees found themselves face to face with the bosses they have denounced at numerous rallies and demonstrations.

"I feel very proud," said Mayra Rodas, a housekeeper who has worked at the hotel for two and a half years. "I never thought I would be in an elevator with the owner of the company. I felt like crying. I wanted them to feel for one second, one minute, what I feel at work every day."

Petersen, who squeezed into the elevator with the managers and workers, exchanged views with Rose during an impromptu dialogue before the meeting, as the workers who had noisily marched up the stairs stomping and chanting quietly looked on.

"Why not let us organize freely?" Petersen asked.

"Why not go with the NLRB," Rose responded.

"The company has said repeatedly, 'Don't support the union.' You had 23 violations."

"We didn't do that," Rose said.

"Why don't we do what the (Miramar Fairmont) did and stay neutral?" said Peterson, referring to the recent election to certify the union under the Miramar's new owners.

"It's not neutral," said Rose. "That's a word you use."

As the meeting started the workers who had packed the chamber clapped and chanted in unison, "Si se puede" ("It can be done.")

Then after sitting through a discussion of Santa Monica's water well contamination, the workers filed out chanting and singing.

Tuesday's meeting capped a second day of protests that included rallies in downtown Los Angeles to call for free family medical insurance and a automobile caravan through Santa Monica.

The protests will continue Wednesday with more banners being draped from freeway overpasses and street theater at the Third Street Promenade in the late morning. Wednesday's actions will conclude with an afternoon march in downtown Los Angeles.

The four-day "Step Up for Justice Campaign" will conclude Thursday with picket lines at the Loews Hotel on Ocean Avenue followed by a major demonstration.