Union to Protest at Quail Lodge

Carmel. More than 100 hotel workers and community allies will demonstrate tomorrow afternoon against a lack of progress in labor contract negotiations at the famous Carmel Valley golf resort, Quail Lodge. Organized by UNITE HERE Local 483, the demonstration follows the expiration of the previous contract on September 9th, four bargaining sessions between the union negotiating committee and hotel management, and an 80-worker delegation to the general manager last Friday. The contract would apply to 160 workers at the Quail Lodge, including housekeepers, maintenance and greens workers, servers, bussers, cooks, dishwashers, bell and front desk employees.


The Protest Rally will be held tomorrow, Friday, October 20, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in front of the Quail Lodge entrance at 8205 Valley Greens Drive in Carmel Valley west of the Valley Hills Center off of Carmel Valley Road. The demonstration will start with a chanting picket-line and end with speeches by workers, Local 483 staff, and local supporters beginning at 5:15 p.m.


In contrast to the Quail Lodge conflict, Local 483 came to a tentative labor contract agreement yesterday for its 100 members at the Monterey Beach Resort. The union announced that the tentative pact was similar to the Hyatt Regency Monterey and Park Hyatt Carmel Highlands agreement last month. That labor contract called for a $5 increase in the employee wage and benefit package over the 4-year term. Local 483 has proposed these same contract terms to Quail Lodge management.


Quail Lodge concierge, Manuela Poole, commented, “We deserve the same respect as workers at the Hyatt Regency and Monterey Beach Hotel: fair pay, maintaining our health insurance for our families, and a pension increase so we can retire with dignity. Right now we are far away from that at the bargaining table.”


Local 483 Secretary-Treasurer and chief negotiator, Leonard O'Neill, added, “Yesterday we saw a major step forward and a step backward toward the goal of making hospitality jobs middle class jobs on the Monterey Peninsula. The Monterey Beach Resort in partnership with the union agreed to the new union standards for hotel workers established in September with Global Hyatt. However, Quail Lodge wasted our time at the bargaining table and has failed to offer a hopeful vision for its hardworking employees.”


UNITEHERE! Local 483, founded in 1937, represents 1,600 hospitality workers in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties. Quail Lodge was purchased from the late Edgar Haber in 1997 by the 140-year old Hong Kong-based hotel company, Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels. The company hired a new management group to operate the hotel this past April.


For more information, please see http://www.unitehere483.org/.