THOUSAND OAKS : Workers at Country Club Form Union
Kitchen and dining-room workers at the exclusive North Ranch County Club in Thousand Oaks voted Friday to form a union affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Thirty-one of the workers voted for the union while 25 opposed it, union officials said.
The union will include waiters, cashiers, busboys, cooks and even the maitre d’ at the posh Regency Room, with its picture windows overlooking the golf course.
“Frankly, it’s disappointing,” said David L. Shane, president of the country club’s board of directors.
“I thought that the staff was reasonably happy.”
Shane said waiters at the club earn as much as $35,000 a year, “on the high side of other clubs in the area.”
Don Thornsburg, chief organizer for Teamsters Local 986, said workers are upset because “when the members of the club tip them, the managers skim off a large percentage.”
Shane said all diners at the country club pay a 15% service charge and only a “very, very small” percentage of that goes to the club rather than the workers.
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