Employees who were replaced when Los Angeles County assumed ownership of the Holiday Inn Long Beach to house the homeless held a protest Wednesday, alleging the move violates the city’s worker retention ordinance.
The employees gathered in front of the former hotel armed with multi-colored signs reading “Worker Retention Now!” and “Call Us Back to Work!”
The county bought the property in December to be run as part of Project Homekey, a collaborative effort by the state, county and Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to convert hotels and motels into housing for the homeless.
The Long Beach hotel will be remodeled to turn the rooms into livable apartments with on-site supportive services.
Workers say the county operators of the former hotel — Holliday’s Helping Hands and Advance Nursing Services — have failed to offer jobs to more than a dozen of the hotel’s former employees.
Unite Here, Local 11, which is not representing the workers but offering support in their effort to retain jobs, said just six employees from the housekeeping department have been asked to stay on under the new ownership.
The union estimates about 50 people worked at the hotel before being furloughed in 2020. Unite Here didn’t know the total number of employees who have been retained to work under the new management.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said her team is having ongoing meetings with Unite Here and workers at the new Project Homekey site in Long Beach.
“I have heard their concerns, and I am committed to working toward a resolution that supports as many of these workers as possible,” she said.
Officials with Holliday’s Helping Hands were unable to provide a response.
“We’ve asked our attorney to advise on the Long Beach law, so until we have that answer we have no comment,” a Holliday’s representative said via email.
The ordinance
Long Beach’s worker retention ordinance, passed in May 2020, provides legal protections for hotel and janitorial workers to retain their jobs when a new owner or operator takes over their workplace.
Under the mandate, the new employer must maintain a preferential hiring list of workers identified by the previous employer and must hire from that list from the time the property changes ownership through six months after the business reopens.
When the ordinance was enacted, the Long Beach City Council said what the workers needed most was “the opportunity of retaining their jobs during business transfers of ownership.”
The city of Los Angeles adopted a similar ordinance in May of 2020.
‘Very difficult at times’
Nidia Cardona worked as a housekeeper at Holiday Inn Long Beach for more than three years before being furloughed in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic fueled the shutdown of hotels and other nonessential businesses.
“I’ve been waiting for them to call me back, but as of today they haven’t called,” the 39-year-old Long Beach resident said Wednesday. “It has been very difficult at times.”
Cardona earned $2,000 a month when working but received barely more than half that on while on unemployment. She secured a job in September unloading containers from trucks but the hours are sporadic so her pay is often minimal.
“I’m a single mother with a 13-year-old and a 7-year-old,” she said. “Sometimes I have to ask my mother for money. I can barely afford to pay my rent, utility bills and provide for my children.”
Letter to the board
Attorney Michael A. O’Conner, who is representing the workers, outlined their concerns in a March 11 letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the hotel’s new operators.
“The county and entities are in violation of this obligation,” he wrote, adding that at least 13 former hotel workers have not been offered positions under the new ownership, while new employees have been brought in to perform the same jobs.
O’Conner said the county and hotel operators have 15 days from receipt of the letter to correct the violations. Failure to do so, he wrote, “will result in legal action.”
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Long Beach hotel workers protest their replacement by new owners - OCRegister
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