Hotel, Union Pact Calls for 25% Raise Over 5 Years

Owners of the Fairmont Miramar, the city’s only unionized hotel, signed a new contract with 240 workers Wednesday and increased their pay and benefits by 25% over five years, negotiators announced.

The agreement ends five months of talks with the hotel’s new owner, after five years of wrangling with the hotel’s previous owner, Sheraton.

Representatives for both the union and the hotel’s new owner--Maritz, Wolff and Co. of West Los Angeles--said the contract represented an unprecedented increase in hotel workers’ benefits and wages compared with those at other Santa Monica hotels. The issue of hotel workers’ wages has been hotly contested, with some labor organizers and city officials calling for a doubling of the minimum wage for hotel workers.

“The lesson here is that hotel owners can run their businesses and still do the right thing by employees,” said Kurt Petersen, organizing director for Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees Local 814.

The new contract includes a minimum wage of $8.95, which will increase to an average of $11 an hour at the end of five years. It also includes medical and pension benefits and allows union members and management to negotiate changes during the life of the five-year contract, according to Karl Buchta, hotel general manager.