Hotel Industry Hit by Massive Job Cuts

At least one in three unionized hotel workers--or about 100,000 people--have lost their jobs since Sept. 11 and many more are working drastically fewer hours than usual, according to national union officials, who called the deep job losses “catastrophic.”

The 300,000-member Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union represents only about one-tenth of the nation’s hotel employees, but union President John Wilhelm said similar numbers are being reported throughout the hospitality industry. If so, the total would dwarf layoffs reported so far by the nation’s troubled airlines.

Wilhelm estimated that about 1 million hotel employees are out of work or facing greatly reduced schedules. “The great majority live paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “They are single parents, immigrants, people from the inner cities, and there is no safety net for them. The impacts will be huge and immediate.”

In recent days, a number of hotels have announced layoffs or have severely reduced work schedules for hourly employees, such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which owns the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, and Hilton Hotels, among others. Hotel executives and union officials plan to lobby Congress next week to get relief for their industry and for displaced workers.

“People used to five- or six-day workweeks may only be getting three days now,” said Roger Conner, a spokesman for Marriott International, which operates high- and middle-level hotel chains such as Ritz-Carlton and Ramada, among others. “We’re trying to give them something rather than nothing. In all honesty, this industry has been impacted severely and we’re trying to do what we can to preserve it.”

The hotel industry is highly fragmented and many hotel properties are franchises or independently operated. The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, which is the only hotel union in the United States and may have the broadest view of current conditions, has gathered reports of layoffs from its locals across the country. The numbers, according to Wilhelm, are grim: Boston, 50%; San Francisco, 35%; Las Vegas, 30%.

Locals in Los Angeles and Santa Monica said nearly half of their workers have lost their jobs or are working only one or two days a week. Among those hurt is Hipolito Morales, who earns $11.37 an hour stocking mini-bars at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles and was notified of his impending layoff on Sept. 17. “The hotel is almost empty for two weeks now,” said Morales, who will put in his last day today. “They’re offering me a position in banquets, but there isn’t much work there either.”

Morales, who started at the hotel as a housekeeper eight years ago, thought his union job was safe and recently bought a house in South Gate. He figures he will lose it in two months if he doesn’t find another job. He also worries about health insurance for his wife and two young children.

He has plenty of company at the hotel. Dozens of co-workers have already lost their jobs. Many more are technically still employed, but have zero hours scheduled.

With business and leisure travel greatly reduced and hundreds of conventions canceled or postponed after the terrorist attacks, hotels across the nation have reported occupancy rates hovering at 50%.

The crisis has made for an unusual alliance between Wilhelm and industry leaders such as Bill Marriott of Marriott International and Loews Hotels CEO Jonathan Tisch, both of whom have staunchly opposed union organizing campaigns at their hotel chains in the past.

Next week, Wilhelm and the hotel scions plan to walk the halls of Congress together. He said they will lobby for federal tax breaks for business and leisure travelers, a postponement of sales taxes for hotels and an extension of unemployment and health benefits for displaced workers.

“This is a sinking ship and we’re all on it together,” said Wilhelm, who has been credited with building membership in the union in recent years.

Not all in the industry are in agreement, however. Hilton Hotels Corp. President Stephen F. Bollenbach has said his Beverly Hills-based company will not join others in lobbying the government to assist the struggling industry.

“We’re not interested in doing that,” said Hilton spokeswoman Kathy Sheppard “He [Bollenbach] doesn’t think it’s an appropriate thing for us to do.”

As its members feel the blow, so does the union. The national HERE executive board in Washington will meet Monday to discuss its own staff cuts, and Wilhelm said he plans to reduce his salary.

In Santa Monica, officers of HERE Local 814 met Friday to cut its budget, including laying off organizers cultivated during a multiyear organizing drive.

“We’re hoping things will change, but we’re having to plan as if they won’t,” said Local President Tom Walsh. The local, which had 2,700 members in early September, has shrunk by about 40% in the last two weeks, Walsh said. Many of those job cuts came from concessionaires at Los Angeles International Airport, but several hundred jobs were lost to cuts at two large union hotels in Santa Monica--the Miramar Sheraton and Pacific Shores, he said.

“We are directing people to apply for unemployment insurance right away,” said Walsh, whose voice shook with emotion as he described the unraveling of the local’s ambitious organizing drive. “Right now, no one’s hiring. It’s tough, and it’s a double-hit for a lot of our members because both husband and wife work in the same industry. It’s not an exaggeration to say that some of our members are going to be homeless soon if they don’t get some help.”

The Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 681 in Anaheim has started a food drive for the roughly 40% of its 7,000 members who can’t work because companies continue to slash their hours.

“These people are desperate for money,” said Martin Lopez, a union representative who on Friday was handing out boxes filled with canned vegetables, soup and corned beef--food donated by the United Way. Lopez himself works as a food server at WestCoast Anaheim Hotel near Disneyland, but he said he had given up some of his hours so others could work.

“They’re concentrating on ground zero, New York,” Lopez said of government leaders. “But what about these hotel and restaurant employees?”

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Staff writers Leslie Earnest and Jesus Sanchez contributed to this report.