Takeover of Hyatt Wilshire

It is understandable that certain segments of the community may have some concerns regarding the takeover of the Hyatt Wilshire Hotel by Koreana (Platform, Commentary, Jan. 21).

I want to assure everyone within the community that we are aware of the tensions that exist among some of the diverse groups that make up Los Angeles. When we decided to purchase our first property in the United States, we familiarized ourselves with the community we were about to become a part of.

We carefully considered what would be best for the hotel, community and workers. Our decision was to purchase the hotel and open the jobs up to the community as a whole. We gave the Hyatt employees an extra day of notice to apply and in four days received over 600 applications. We chose the best people available, which included a significant number of ex-Hyatt employees.

It has been suggested that we are anti-Latino. That is not true. Like the community that surrounds us, the vast majority of our employees in fact are Latino. We have continuously been accused of putting 175 people out of work when, in fact, we have provided almost 200 multicultural people with jobs. As for the suggestion that we are anti-union, that is untrue also. Our engineering employees are represented by a union. And, if the majority of our other employees wish to be represented by a union, they have rights guaranteed by the federal government.

We have again and again seen claims that our wage levels are significantly lower than other hotels. Like many companies, we start our employees at a new-employee rate, but they have been told that if they perform satisfactorily they will be given increases that, in six months, will take them to rates competitive within the Los Angeles hotel industry. We have also committed to our employees that if we are profitable they will share in those profits.

We have been sensitive in the past and will continue to be sensitive to concerns expressed regarding our purchase of this hotel.

Y.S. KIM

President, Wilshire Koreana