Pebble Beach, CA. UNITEHERE! Local 483 members at the prestigious Pebble Beach Lodge voted overwhelmingly to approve an historic 5-year labor contract Thursday evening, July 12. Approximately 98% of the voting members approved the agreement, calling for a minimum of $4.00 per hour in additional wages for non-tipped workers over the span of the contract, as well as increases in gratuities and improvements in health insurance, pension, and job protection. The new Lodge contract covers 375 employees at the hotel, including housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers, maintenance, and banquet workers.

Lodge kitchen worker and Local 483 negotiating committee member, Maximino Hernandez, currently earns $13.52 per hour. “I was happy to vote ‘Yes.’ My family was happy, too, because it’s so expensive here, and I will be earning about a third more than I am now in 5 years! That will help,” said Mr. Hernandez. Annual hourly pay increases are $1.00 in the first year, $.50 in each of the second and third, and $1.00 in each of the last two years. The average hourly wage increase of $.80 per year exceeds the previous historical high of $.64, first set last year at the Hyatt Regency and Park Hyatt hotels.

In terms of health insurance, pension contributions, and other benefits, the new Pebble Beach Lodge contract matches the area standard of nine previous union agreements dating as far back as September 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Monterey, Park Hyatt Carmel Highlands, Monterey Beach Resort, Bay Park Hotel, La Playa Hotel, Asilomar Conference Center, Quail Lodge, Pine Inn, and Hilton Garden Inn. In total, the new Local 483 contracts cover approximately 1,400 hospitality workers on the Monterey Peninsula.

The Carmel Mission Inn is the only remaining area hotel where a new union contracts is yet to be negotiated. Bargaining sessions between the Union negotiating committee and Carmel Mission Inn management are ongoing.

“The Pebble Beach workers have taken a giant step forward toward our goal of making hospitality jobs middle-class jobs. In my 30 years with this union, I have never seen a contract as good as this one at the Lodge. Now, it’s on to the Carmel Mission Inn,” commented UNITEHERE! Local 483 Secretary-Treasurer and lead negotiator, Leonard O’Neill.

The Lodge at Pebble Beach is owned and operated by the Pebble Beach Company, whose general partners include Clint Eastwood, Arnold Palmer, and Peter Ueberroth.

Founded in 1937, UNITEHERE! Local 483 represents 1,600 Monterey Bay area hospitality workers at two dozen hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, and golf courses.

For more information, please see www.unitehere483.org.