Four Points Workers Launch Unionizing Drive

Erica Williams
Staff Writer

March 25 -- The latest battle to organize hotel workers kicked off Tuesday with more than 200 demonstrators staging a rally on the City Hall lawn, then marching to the Four Points Sheraton Hotel to protest its treatment of workers.

Community leaders and activists, hotel workers and union representatives denounced the disparity in pay, benefits and job security for non-unionized workers at the Four Points and their unionized colleagues at the Viceroy Hotel, which are both owned by the Kor Group.

Formerly the Pacific Shore Hotel, the Viceroy, which sits on City-owned land, became Santa Monica's second unionized hotel in November 2000 after the City Council included an unusual clause in its lease mandating that Kor remain neutral in any union organizing drive.

"The City Council stands with the workers for your right to be heard, to negotiate and to have a fair deal," said Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown, who then read from a council resolution affirming the City's commitment "to fundamental fairness and justice in labor relations."

McKeown said he'd spoken with hotel management earlier that afternoon "about doing the right thing, ending the logjam" and had hoped to come to the rally with some resolution.

Unfortunately, he said, "that moment has not yet come. We (the council) will continue to stand with you," he said.

Social justice is an ethic of the people of Santa Monica, part of a set of standards the community already has in place, said Rev. Sandie Richards, an activist with Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism (SMART) which organized the rally.

"The workers at the Four Points deserve the same rights and privileges as the workers at the Viceroy," said Richards, who is the pastor of the Church in Ocean Park. "We feel strongly that workers should have a voice on the job."

The demonstrators asked that the Four Points agree to remain neutral and accept a card-check process that would recognize Local 11 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) as the employee bargaining unit if a majority signed the union authorization cards.

A similar process is underway at the Loews Hotel, which last December signed a landmark card-check agreement with HERE.

Amid boisterous shouts of "Kor! Escucha! Estamos en la lucha!" ("Listen Kor! We are in the war!"), demonstrators circled the sidewalk in front of the Four Points, as a five-person delegation attempted to meet with the hotel's general manager but were rebuffed.

"The manager was hiding like the Taliban," said Oscar de la Torre, a School Board member who was part of the delegation. "They (hotel management) were spooked. They didn't want to talk to us.

"The message we gave them is that this (the protests) can all end if justice begins and justice means a contract for workers under the terms of card check neutrality," de la Torre said.

Hotel management did not respond to a request for comment.

One of the workers at the Four Points, Arturo Cedillo, said that the staff in the laundry room, where he works, has been scaled back from five to three employees. Although the hotel is busy and there is plenty of work, he said, the hotel will only hire him part-time.

"I don't have any benefits. I need it for my family," said Cedillo, who lives in Los Angeles. "I want the right to sign up for the union."

Four Points employee Maria Mena, who has worked at the hotel for 18 years, said she was laid off from her supervisory position after 9-11. The union, along with the community, helped her regain employment with the hotel, where she is now a room attendant, Mena said.

"We need justice," she said. "I want to have a union contract in our hotel. We need to be respected. We need to be heard."

Roselia Mendez, a 19-year employee at the Viceroy and a mother of four, expressed solidarity with the Four Points workers, saying she wanted them to have the same benefits she enjoys -- eight hours of work per day with a half-hour for lunch and a pension plan.

"We want (hotel management) to know that we're going to do whatever it takes," Mendez said.