L.A. Hilton Owner Will Keep Service Workers : Business: South Korean representatives come to terms with three unions. Negotiations continue with three other labor groups.
The Downtown Los Angeles Hilton & Towers will get a new name Feb. 1 when its South Korean owner begins managing the facility, but the same workers who have cleaned rooms, made beds and waited on tables will continue to provide those services.
“What a relief!” said Carla Chavez, a waitress at the facility and mother of a college-bound son. She has been worried since she was notified in October about the management change. “Now I can relax and concentrate on my son’s college applications.”
According to agreements reached over the past two weeks between representatives of Hanjin International Corp. and leaders of three unions, all 550 workers will be rehired Feb. 1 without a probationary period and with their seniority intact.
The agreements affect Local 11 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees, Teamsters Local 986 and Laundry and Drycleaning Local 52.
Talks were continuing Monday between Hanjin and representatives of three other unions: Operating Engineers Local 501, Painters and Allied Trades Local 2 and Service Employees Local 399, covering another 50 workers.
“We hope that other hotel owners in Los Angeles see that it’s far more beneficial to work with unions than it is to cause disruption in the tourism industry,” said Maria Elena Durazo, president of Local 11, who enlisted the help of local Korean American organizations during protests.
Union leader Jeff Stansbury said it took community organizing and a massive Dec. 1 Downtown protest, which tied up traffic on Figueroa Street and led to the arrests of 37 workers and supporters, to get Hanjin to come around.
Hanjin spokesman Keith Grossman denied that the demonstration influenced Hanjin. “If anything, the protest came close to averting a deal,” he said, adding that the company had assured workers all along that it was premature for them to worry about losing their jobs. “We are not and have never been an anti-union employer,” Grossman said.
The Hilton Hotels Corp. has managed the hotel under a contract since Hanjin, a subsidiary of one of South Korea’s biggest conglomerates, acquired it in 1989. Hanjin decided against renewing the management contract, which expires Jan. 31.
The labor dispute was prompted by Hanjin’s Oct. 28 notice to workers, which said in part that rehired employees would be “subject to an application and interview process and . . . a brief introductory period.”
