Carmel Hotel Workers Win Struggle for Better Contract

Carmel, CA. Union workers at the Quail Lodge voted Wednesday, January 17, to ratify a new union labor contract with the hotel. 89 percent of the voting members of UNITEHERE! Local 483 approved the 3-year deal, which calls for up to $3.65 per hour in additional wages and benefits over the life of the contract. The raises are retroactive to August 1, 2006.

A tentative agreement reached late Friday avoided a Quail Lodge management-threatened lockout of the 150 hotel union employees on Monday, January 15. The contract vote ends a confrontational 5-month negotiation process, including an employee strike authorization vote, several public demonstrations at the hotel with over 100 participants, and the union's sixteen legal filings with the federal National Labor Relations Board against the hotel.

“It took us a while, but we ended up with a good total package to help our families. We kept our health plan. We got good raises, some more in our pension fund, and another paid holiday,” said Quail Lodge maintenance worker and Local 483 negotiating committee member, Sergio Vasquez. Sitting next to Mr. Vasquez, greens keeper Tom Guzman added, “The successor clause to keep our jobs if the hotel is sold—that was a key goal for us, too.”

The Union contract at Quail Lodge follows similar agreements dating back to September at the Hyatt Regency Monterey, Park Hyatt Carmel Highlands, Monterey Beach Resort, Bay Park Hotel, La Playa Hotel, Asilomar Conference Center, and Pine Inn. While the 3-year term of the Quail Lodge agreement is one year shorter than the other contracts, the wages in the second and third year are higher. The eight union contracts cover more than 1,000 hospitality workers on the Monterey Peninsula. The Hilton Garden Inn, Lodge at Pebble Beach, Carmel Mission Inn, and Monterey Bay Travelodge are the remaining area hotels where new union contracts are yet to be negotiated.

“With the help of the Monterey Bay community, Quail Lodge workers fought and won a contract that reaches the new union standard. This was an important step forward toward our goal of making hospitality jobs middle-class jobs,” commented UNITEHERE! Local 483 Secretary-Treasurer Leonard O'Neill.

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This was reposted from a Monterey Bay Central Labor Council email.