VENTURA : 120 Workers Fired From Marina Hotel

All 120 employees at the formerly union-run Harbortown Marina Resort Hotel have been terminated because a new owner and management company have taken over the 150-room hotel at the Ventura Harbor, officials said Wednesday.

About half of the staff has already been rehired on a temporary basis, said George Bottini, the new general manager from Colony Hotels & Resorts, which is based in Minneapolis.

Workers had been given a 60-day notice that expired this week and were encouraged to reapply for jobs, Bottini said.

“All the former employees have been given preferential consideration,” he said. “We look for the best-qualified employees. It makes no difference whether they’re union or not.”

The move has prompted criticism from union officials representing about 100 of the hotel workers.

“We’re disappointed,” said Patricia Sundberg, business manager of the Culinary Alliance and Bartenders Union Local 498. “It is their hotel and all, but since they are new to the area, it’s not like they already had a staff of employees. They’re not even giving the employees an opportunity to prove themselves.”

Bottini said the rehired workers would be put on a probationary basis and later evaluated. The hotel will also begin advertising open positions in local newspapers beginning this weekend, he said.

Colony Hotels & Resorts is operating the hotel for the LYW Group, which recently bought the failing establishment from Transaction Trust 51, a consortium of labor-union pension funds.

Officials said the LYW Group is investing a minimum of $500,000 in remodeling during the first year of operation and has prepaid two years’ rent. The family firm has signed a 50-year lease with the Ventura Port District, officials said.