Six days after restaurant workers at a modern downtown hotel filed cards to organize a union, the hotel's food operator declared it would close the food establishments that employed them, the latest in a series of clashes and confrontations between workers and employers in Los Angeles area restaurants.
The case takes place at the Figueroa Hotel downtown, home to Sparrow Italia, Café Fig, Bar Magnolia, the Cafeteria and La Casita in Driftwood. Over the past two decades, the historic building has gained a following for its Mediterranean-inspired space and elegant dining rooms, but behind closed doors, tension has arisen between the third-party management company behind the restaurants, called Noble 33, and the approximately 100 food and beverage workers who run them.
Discontent between Noble 33 and its employees at Hotel Figueroa began shortly after the hotel group took over the hotel's food and beverage operations in 2021, according to workers and union organizers who spoke to The Times.
Workers said they were forced to take on multiple tasks without more pay when their colleagues left and management was unable to fill the positions.
Some food and beverage workers, many of whom worked alongside unionized hospitality workers employed by Hotel Figueroa, began campaigning to also form a union and gain similar rights.
On December 8, food and beverage workers working for Noble 33 notified their management that they intended to form a union and submitted cards to do so.
Six days later, Noble 33 sent an email to its food workers, announcing that it would permanently close the restaurants in mid-February and lay off its food and beverage staff before then, according to a letter sent to employees on February 14. December.
In response, restaurant and bar workers employed by Noble 33 at the Figueroa Hotel filed a complaint in January with federal labor regulators, accusing the hotel's management of trying to suppress labor organizing among its food and beverage staff.
Unite Here Local 11, which represents workers at Hotel Figueroa, filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of food workers at Sparrow Italia, Café Fig, Bar Magnolia, the Cafeteria and La Casita in Driftwood.
Management company Noble 33 said it would close all restaurants adjacent to the lobby, seen above, at the Figueroa Hotel.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
The closure of the restaurants would leave large spaces unused on the ground floor of the hotel.
Restaurants and two bars occupy most of the lower floor of the Figueroa Hotel. The hotel's front patio serves as outdoor dining for Café Fig, a popular all-day Mediterranean restaurant offering dishes such as cauliflower bites, tuna tartar toast, and truffle fries. Hanging chandeliers decorate the indoor dining room, which is attached to the Magnolia Bar, a well-stocked watering hole for hotel guests and diners looking to enjoy a libation.
Walk a few steps into the courtyard, past an arched entryway, and you'll find Sparrow Italia, serving coastal Italian dishes and cocktails in an indoor-outdoor dining room and bar that opens to the hotel's iconic coffin-shaped pool. La Casita at Driftwood offers poolside food and beverage service when open during the summer season.
It's unclear what operations, if any, would replace the dining spaces at the Hotel Figueroa, a Spanish Colonial hotel at Figueroa and 9th streets in downtown Los Angeles.
“We are still evaluating all options regarding future food and beverage offerings at Hotel Figueroa,” a spokeswoman said Monday in a prepared statement.
Some of the workers said they were devastated by the move, which came just before the Christmas holidays.
Leobardo Pérez, a 45-year-old dishwasher at Café Fig, said he decided to organize after two other dishwashers left and management forced him to take over their jobs instead of hiring new dishwashers. Perez, who has worked at the restaurant for two years, said he was also forced to do other jobs, such as preparation or baking, without additional pay.
“All we want is for our rights to be respected in the workplace,” Pérez said. “It's unfair that restaurants close because we just want to organize.”
The imposing building of the Hotel Figueroa. A hotel spokeswoman said the food staff layoff notice did not come from management or the hotel owner.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Third-party manager disputes hotel's claim
A spokesperson for Noble 33 said the third-party provider had no choice but to close.
Noble 33 maintains that its contract with Hotel Figueroa stipulates that unionization of food and beverage employees would trigger a termination clause between both parties. “It would be a violation of the hotel's current unionization agreement with the union,” a Noble 33 spokesperson said in a written statement.
Hotel Figueroa and Unite Here Local 11 deny this claim.
A spokeswoman for Hotel Figueroa said the food staff layoff notice “was not requested by hotel management or the hotel owner.”
He said the layoffs were initiated by Noble 33, which issued the notices without first discussing it with hotel owners, management or employees.
“It is also important to note that our agreement specifically provides that Noble 33 will never be requested or permitted to engage in unfair labor practices,” Hotel Figueroa said in a written statement.
Unite Here Local 11 called Noble 33's claim “absurd.”
“It is absolutely repugnant that a company would sign a contract promising to end its operations simply because its employees exercised their federal right to organize a union,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11.
Food workers across the region have been battling with owners and employers in an industry rocked last year by brutal financial realities and accusations of mismanagement and abuse. At least 65 notable restaurant closures affected the dining landscape in 2023.
The closures continued into the new year. On January 1, Sweet Lady Jane, famous for her triple berry pie, announced that she had closed all six of her Los Angeles locations.
At the same time, discontent among food and beverage workers and employers continues to grow.
In June, former servers at Jon & Vinny's, a modern Italian-American restaurant, filed a class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the restaurants' owners, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo. The lawsuit against Joint Venture Restaurant Group Inc., which owns Jon & Vinny's, claimed the company denied tips to servers, resulting in a reduction in take-home pay due to diners' confusion over a service fee. 18%.
In September, hostesses at Nobu in Malibu filed separate lawsuits against the popular restaurant, alleging sexual assault, sexual harassment and discrimination.
In December, the National Labor Relations Board announced it was seeking to force Starbucks to immediately reopen 23 stores that workers say were closed two years ago in a move that was allegedly taken to stifle union organizing. Six of those locations were closed in the Los Angeles area.
Edith Reyes, a cook at Café Fig, said she felt forced to organize because of what she described as unfair treatment by managers.
Reyes, a single mother who has worked at the restaurant for about three years, said managers ignored multiple requests for a few weekends off to spend with her daughters.
At the same time, he said newer workers were given weekends off.
“It's unfair. I'm the only father my daughters have,” he said of his teenage daughters. “They depend on me. I need to be there for them and I need to provide for them.”
He was a few hours short of full time and did not qualify for vacation or sick time, he said.
On January 20, workers at the Figueroa Hotel picketed for a few days for the first time this year. The move was the latest in a series of intermittent strikes and a broader summer strike that began in July when hundreds of hospitality workers at hotels across Southern California took to the streets in protest.
Unite Here Local 11 represents hospitality workers and reached tentative agreements with about two dozen hotels, out of about 60 properties in Los Angeles and Orange counties that were initially targeted by strikes that began last summer.
