Two days after the food hospitality operator of a trendy downtown hotel closed its restaurants and laid off food and beverage employees, a new outside management company moved in and hired an entirely new group of workers, according to a complaint filed with the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.
The laid-off food and beverage workers had tried to unionize months earlier. They claim Figueroa Hotel and its hospitality operator, The Botanical Group, left them out of hiring, potentially violating the city's “right to return” ordinance that requires new hotel owners or operators to retain on-site employees for a transitional period, according to the complaint. .
A letter dated Feb. 21 was addressed to the city attorney's office requesting an investigation. A spokesman for the office confirmed receipt of the complaint but did not comment further on the matter.
“The company closed without retaining the workers in violation of the recall law,” said Curt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, which is assisting hotel workers in their efforts. “It is infuriating to see wealthy companies… treating their long-time employees as if they are disposable.”
The hotel denies the premise of the workers' complaint.
In a prepared statement, a spokesperson for Hotel Figueroa said its ownership is “acting in accordance with” the Los Angeles Hotel Worker Retention Act, which requires that new hotel owners or operators retain on-site employees for a transitional period. The 2006 law initially applied only to hotels located in the Los Angeles International Airport corridor. In 2022, the new Hotel Worker Protection Act expanded the current law to include all city hotels with more than 50 guest rooms.
The retention rule is intended to protect laid-off hotel workers so that if a hotel undergoes a change in control, the hotel's subsequent employer is required to hire former employees for a 90-day transition period and may not lay off those employees without cause.
Pastor Mike Kinnaman, right, exits the Figueroa Hotel after demonstrating in support of laid-off restaurant workers.
(Brian Van Der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
A spokesperson for the Figueroa Hotel said there is no new food and beverage operator, but instead they are working with a “consultant to offer a limited number of food and beverages.” [food and beverage] Service.” She said several former employees of the former third-party management group had returned to the hotel's food and beverage outlets, and they expected more to return in the next few weeks.
When asked how many non-management employees had been brought back on, the spokesperson said the company would not comment further.
The vegan group did not respond to emails and messages for comment.
The Retention Act of 2006 was drafted in response to mass firings that occurred in 2000 at a Wyndham hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. The hotel closed and more than 200 employees were laid off. The hotel reopened as the Radisson LAX Hotel about a year later, but did not hire all of the former Wyndham workers, although more than 100 of them applied.
Since then, the law has been invoked several times, said Maria Hernandez, spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 11.
On a recent Friday afternoon, a bartender at the reopened Magnolia Bar said he and the other bartenders on hand were new to the job, as well as other non-management employees. The space once occupied by Sparrow Italia, which served coastal Italian dishes and cocktails in an indoor-outdoor setting, remained closed.
The dishwasher, line cook and prep cook previously interviewed about the Figueroa Hotel also said they had been laid off and were not rehired by the new operator.
Pastor Edgar Rivera Colon, left, urges beneficiaries to support the reemployment of more than 100 workers who lost their jobs.
(Brian Van Der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Workers sought organization
Tension between former hospitality group Noble 33 and its employees at the Figueroa Hotel began shortly after third-party management took over the hotel's food and beverage operations in 2021, according to workers and union organizers who spoke with The Times.
Workers said they were forced to multitask without receiving additional pay, as their colleagues left and management failed to fill vacant positions.
On December 8, food and beverage workers who work at Noble 33 notified their management that they intended to form a union, and submitted cards to do so.
Six days later, hospitality company Noble 33 announced it would close Sparrow Italia, Café Fig, Bar Magnolia, the cafeteria and La Casita at the Driftwood at the iconic hotel, a historic building in downtown Los Angeles that over the past two decades has built a following. Mediterranean-inspired space and elegant dining rooms.
Pastor Andrew Schwiebert, center, chats with diners as he and dozens of others participate in a “drink of water” at Fig Cafe.
(Brian Van Der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Noble 33 followed the closing process. On February 11, the company laid off an estimated 100 non-management employees and closed the Figueroa Hotel restaurants.
Maria Ibarra, a chef at the Noble 33 Hotel, said she was laid off from her job and has not been hired again. She is now facing unemployment.
“The owners thought they could replace us overnight and that we would give up and go,” Ibarra said. “My co-workers and I wouldn't do that. We have rights.”
Wednesday, Unite Here Local 11 workers and religious leaders called for a boycott of the hotel and hospitality group, at a morning news conference in front of the Figueroa Hotel.
The group also delivered a letter signed by about 500 people demanding that the hotel reinstate the laid-off workers.
The letter stated: “We call on you to immediately offer to return the workers to their work at the hotel and compensate them for the lost time.”
The boycott is just the latest step taken by workers and the union.
On Friday, approximately 40 people picketed the Figueroa Hotel — seven of whom were the hotel's housekeepers along with about 30 community members and religious leaders from Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, a faith-based advocacy group based near downtown. They shouted, “Bring them back,” and carried a banner that read, “Bring back Fig 100.”
