Wyndham Layoffs Raise Ire of Hotel Workers' Union.

Labor battles involving L.A. hotels heated up last week after 22 members of Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees International Union Local 814 were arrested for unlawful assembly during a demonstration against their dismissal from the Wyndham Hotel at Los Angeles International Airport.

The facility was recently sold by Almo Hotel Co. Ltd. to San Diego-based Pacifica Host Inc., which announced it would shut the hotel down on Oct. 27 as it moves to install a new operator.

Jack Highsmith, the hotel's general manager, explained that the new owner has fired Wyndham International as its business operator. He said 214 members of Local 814, 12 members of Operating Engineers International Union Local 501, and 40 management employees, including himself, had lost their jobs as a result of the transaction -- a total of 266 workers.

Highsmith said Wyndham will be holding a job fair next month in an effort to help those who lost their jobs find new ones. In addition, its human resources department has contacted hotels around the airport toward the same end. Though not certain, he said, word is that Pacifica Host would manage the hotel itself once a planned renovation is completed.

"It's the current ownership that's laying people off," said attorney Scott Wilson of San Diego-based Littler, Mendelson, who represents Pacifica Host. "In the future, we will accept applications from members of the general public. That could potentially include former workers, but we will not assume existing union contracts. Unions have been informed of this."

As the Sept. 13 demonstration suggests, Local 814 isn't taking the layoffs sitting down. "The workers here basically got dumped," said union spokesman David Koff.

HERE sister Local 11 has a clause in its master agreement with L.A.-area hotels that precludes the firing of union members in the event a change of management occurs. In the instance of a sale, the pact obligates a seller to make "good faith" efforts to ensure continuity of employment.

HERE 841's collective bargaining agreement with Wyndham contains no such stipulations. The sale came just three weeks after a year-long contract dispute had been successfully concluded with the signing of new pact.

Koff said the union has no recourse to an outside authority in the matter. It will continue to stage labor actions and pressure the hotel's new proprietor, a tactic that has proven successful for Local 11 in similar situations.