Two days after the food hospitality operator of a posh downtown hotel closed its restaurants and laid off its food and beverage employees, a new third-party management company moved in and hired a whole new group of workers, according to a report. complaint filed with the Los Angeles Department of Justice. Angeles City Prosecutor's Office.
The laid-off food and beverage workers had tried to unionize months earlier. They allege that Hotel Figueroa and hotel operator Botanical Group left them out of the hiring, potentially violating a city “right to return” law that requires new hotel owners or new operators to retain on-site employees for a transition period, according to the complaint. .
A Feb. 21 letter to the city attorney's office requests an investigation. A spokesperson for the office confirmed receipt of the complaint but declined to comment further.
“The company closed without retaining workers, in violation of the recall law,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, which is assisting hotel workers in their effort. “It is beyond outrageous to see wealthy companies…treat their long-time workers as if they were disposable.”
The hotel denies the premise of the workers' complaint.
In a prepared statement, a spokesperson for Hotel Figueroa said its property is “acting in accordance” with the Los Angeles Hotel Worker Retention Ordinance, which requires new hotel owners or operators to retain on-site employees for a period of time. transition period. The 2006 ordinance initially applied only to hotels in the LAX corridor. In 2022, a new hotel worker protection ordinance expanded the existing law to include all city hotels with more than 50 rooms.
The retention rule is intended to protect laid-off hotel workers so that if a hotel undergoes a change in control, the successor hotel employer must hire former employees during a 90-day transition period and cannot fire these employees without cause. .
Pastor Mike Kinman, right, leaves the Figueroa Hotel after speaking in support of laid-off restaurant workers.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
The Figueroa Hotel spokesperson said there is no new food and beverage operator, but rather they are working with a “consultant to provide limited food and beverages.” [food and beverage] service.” Several former staff members from the former outside management group have returned to the hotel's food and beverage establishments, he said, and they expect more to return in the coming weeks.
When asked how many non-management staff had been rehired, the spokesperson said the company would have no further comment.
The Botanical Group did not respond to emails or messages for comment.
The 2006 retention ordinance was written in response to mass layoffs that occurred in 2000 at a Wyndham hotel near LAX. The hotel closed and laid off more than 200 employees. The hotel reopened as Radisson Hotel LAX about a year later, but did not hire all of the former Wyndham workers, even though more than 100 of them applied.
Since then, the law has been invoked several times, said María Hernández, spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 11.
On a recent Friday afternoon, a bartender at the reopened Bar Magnolia said he and the other bartenders present were new to the job, as were other non-management employees. The space once occupied by Sparrow Italia, which served coastal Italian dishes and cocktails in an indoor-outdoor setting, remained closed.
A dishwasher, a line cook and a prep cook interviewed earlier about Hotel Figueroa also said the new operator had fired them and not rehired them.
Reverend Edgar Rivera Colón, left, urges employers to support the rehiring of more than 100 workers who lost their jobs.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Workers sought to organize
Tension between former hotel group Noble 33 and its employees at Hotel Figueroa began shortly after outside management 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.
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, hotel operator Noble 33 announced it would close Sparrow Italia, Café Fig, Bar Magnolia, the Cafeteria and La Casita at Driftwood at the famed hotel, a historic building in downtown Los Angeles that over the past two decades gained a following. for your Mediterranean-inspired space and elegant dining rooms.
The Rev. Andrew Schwiebert, center, speaks to diners as he and dozens of others participate in a “water drink” at Café Fig.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Noble 33 moved forward with the closure. On February 11, the company laid off about 100 non-management employees and closed the Hotel Figueroa restaurants.
Maria Ibarra, a cook at Noble 33 at the hotel, said she was fired and not rehired. She now faces unemployment.
“The owners thought they could replace us overnight and we would give up and leave,” Ibarra said. “My coworkers and I won't do that. We have rights”.
On Wednesday, Unite Here Local 11, workers and religious leaders called for a boycott of the hotel and hospitality group, at a morning press conference in front of the Figueroa Hotel.
The group also delivered a letter signed by nearly 500 people demanding that the hotel bring back the laid-off workers.
“We ask that you immediately offer to return the workers to their employment at the hotel and compensate them for their lost time,” the letter said.
The boycott is just the latest measure taken by workers and the union.
On Friday, nearly 40 people protested at the Figueroa Hotel, seven of them hotel housekeepers along with about 30 community members and religious leaders from Clero y Laicos Unidos por la Justicia Económica, a religious advocacy group based near the city center. They shouted “Bring them back” and held a sign that said “Bring back the Fig 100.”
