Long Beach : Queen Mary Workers Plead for City to Save Their Jobs
More than 100 workers and union leaders fr the Queen Mary have petitioned the Long Beach City Council to save their jobs.
The city has two studies under way of the ship’s profitability and potential. About 1,100 people work on the ship.
Consultants reviewing the costs of operating the Queen Mary as a hotel will report their findings to the Harbor Commission by next week. A second study, aimed at converting the ship and about 130 surrounding acres into another type of attraction, is expected to be finished by the end of September, said Steve R. Dillenbeck, director of the Harbor Department.
“The loss of jobs aboard the Queen Mary would be devastating not only to the workers but to the economy of Long Beach,” said George McCartney, vice president of the West Coast Seafarers International Union.
The Walt Disney Co., which is dropping its lease on the ship at the end of September, has offered to continue managing the landmark while the city figures out what to do with it, providing the city pays all expenses.
After more than two hours of discussion, the council said it could not guarantee it would continue to run the ship without knowing the costs, and it delayed a decision until after reviewing results of the first study.
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