Carmel, CA. Area hotel workers and their community supporters will rally today, August 9th, in support of La Playa Hotel workers who are seeking to protect their jobs when the hotel changes ownership.   

The Save Our Jobs Rally, sponsored by UNITE HERE Local 483, will begin at noon at Camino Real & 8th Avenue in Carmel. Rally participants will join a picket line with protest signs and chanting, followed by several short speeches by La Playa Hotel workers.

Last weekend, La Playa Hotel owner issued layoff notices to the workers, warning that they could be out of a job as early as October 6th, because of a change in hotel ownership. La Playa Hotel workers are seeking to protect their jobs when the hotel sells. Owner Nob Hill Properties has thus far refused to honor its long-time workers with a guarantee that they continue in their jobs after an ownership change. This gesture of basic respect toward workers is common in the hotel industry. On the Monterey Bay alone, the Monterey Beach Resort, Bay Park Hotel, Hyatt Regency Monterey, Highlands Inn, Hilton Garden Inn Monterey, Lodge at Pebble Beach, Quail Lodge, and Santa Cruz Dream Inn all have contractual obligations to protect workers’ jobs in the event of a hotel sale. In fact, the owner of La Playa Hotel, the Cope family (primary owners of Nob Hill Properties, Inc.) has made this same commitment to protect its hotel workers at the Huntington Hotel in San Francisco.

"It doesn’t have to be this way. Mr. Cope could protect our jobs; it’s not too late. We’re having this rally to send that urgent message,” said 22-year La Playa banquet worker Antonia Ihnot.

The workers’ union and La Playa ownership are currently in contract negotiations, which present an opportunity for an agreement regarding job protections when the hotel is sold. There are 90 bargaining unit workers at La Playa Hotel, including housekeeping, laundry, bell, front desk, dining, kitchen, grounds, and maintenance workers.

Founded in 1937, UNITE HERE Local 483 represents 1,300 Monterey Bay area hospitality workers at two dozen hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, and golf courses.