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Thread: Hotels forced to pay employees $13/hr plan layoffs

  1. #1

    Hotels forced to pay employees $13/hr plan layoffs

    Long Beach hotels plan layoffs before living wage takes effect

    One week before a new minimum wage law for Long Beach hotels goes into effect, two hotels have told employees to expect layoffs of as many as 75 people, according to union representatives.

    At a confrontation with union activists Friday, a manager at one of the hotels, the Best Western Golden, denied that a local ballot measure triggered the cuts. He said bad economic conditions were to blame.

    In November, Long Beach voters approved a measure requiring hotels with 100 or more rooms to pay their employees $13 an hour.

    In a letter to employees posted at the hotel Monday, the Best Western said it planned to downsize and reopen under new management. Although the letter said some employees would eventually be retained, it said all employees would be without a job as of Saturday and would be eligible for $1,000 severance packages.

    “All employees will be considered terminated after their last shift of duty on or before December 15, 2012,” reads the letter from General Manager Matthew Daniel.

    Hotel workers and protesters confronted Daniel at a restaurant Friday morning. He blamed the economy, not the ballot measure, and declined to discuss the matter further.

    When he walked away, the protesters followed him through the hotel chanting, "Si se puede."

    Earlier this month, the 140-room Hotel Current told employees it would scale back to 99 rooms to avoid the wage increase. Hotel managers could not be immediately be reached for comment.

    Before election day, Long Beach business leaders warned of cutbacks if the measure passed, but the living wage provision for all hotel workers won the approval of 64% of voters anyway.
    More:
    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lano...e-minimum.html



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  3. #2
    That's some inflation. When I worked banquets/houseman jobs at a hotel/resort, we were paid $5.15/hr. And I had to drive my SUV 25min each way to get there. Made me hustle for those tips.
    "Your mother's dead, before long I'll be dead, and you...and your brother and your sister and all of her children, all of us dead, all of us..rotting in the ground. It's the family name that lives on. It's all that lives on. Not your personal glory, not your honor, but family." - Tywin Lannister


  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by tsai3904 View Post
    If you are going to make silly laws like this, you might as well go all out and require hotel owners to give you all their money. Why stop at 13 dollars and hour?

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Cowlesy View Post
    That's some inflation. When I worked banquets/houseman jobs at a hotel/resort, we were paid $5.15/hr. And I had to drive my SUV 25min each way to get there. Made me hustle for those tips.
    Working at a hotel doesn't seem like a bad job. Why would they deserve salary protection? I worked my butt off in the movie theatre business for 7-11 dollars an hour. I don't see why they deserve more than I got.

  6. #5
    That is like Australian minimum wage , crazy, sorry about all the lost jobs, thank your local govt.

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by tttppp View Post
    Working at a hotel doesn't seem like a bad job. Why would they deserve salary protection? I worked my butt off in the movie theatre business for 7-11 dollars an hour. I don't see why they deserve more than I got.
    I never go to a theatre, so maybe the hotel people need more than 7 ,WTH ? LOL

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by oyarde View Post
    I never go to a theatre, so maybe the hotel people need more than 7 ,WTH ? LOL
    Whatever happened to if you don't like your job, then just quit. The employer is not obligated to keep you on staff and happy your whole life.

  9. #8
    The Hotels simply get demonized as evil greedy bastards by the half wits. The economic lesson of min. wage laws is beyond them.



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  11. #9
    I was kidding , I do not believe in minimum wage .Well , I really do avoid the theatre .They have great hot dogs though, like the football stadium.

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by oyarde View Post
    I was kidding , I do not believe in minimum wage .Well , I really do avoid the theatre .They have great hot dogs though, like the football stadium.
    We really shouldn't be picking winners and losers. These people deserve more money than others. That makes not sense. In actuallity its the ones with the min wage laws that lose because they lose their jobs.

  13. #11
    When hotels become unprofitable what happens?

  14. #12
    I applaud the hotel for teaching the local government about cause and effect.

    I only wish the hotel had the stones to admit the layoffs were because of the wage law.

  15. #13
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    So the hotels raise their rates a couple bucks a night. It's not like it would make a big deal to go from $98 a night to $100 a night.

    I only wish the hotel had the stones to admit the layoffs were because of the wage law.
    Why wouldn't they if it were true?

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by UWDude View Post
    So the hotels raise their rates a couple bucks a night. It's not like it would make a big deal to go from $98 a night to $100 a night.
    And if the public refuses to patronize them they could always be subsidized....

    sarc//

  17. #15
    I never pay $100 for a hotel , probably have only done that twice in my life. Once , I did not make the reservation.Yes , I would go somewhere else , rates are decieving already , usually more than 10 percent taxes and fees in many .

  18. #16
    Economy seems to be collapsing. Public Storage is slashing some rates more than fifty percent as many small businesses use the storage facilities.



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  20. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by UWDude View Post
    So the hotels raise their rates a couple bucks a night. It's not like it would make a big deal to go from $98 a night to $100 a night.
    I rather enjoy it when people clueless about the internals of a business or running a business in general make such broad statements.

  21. #18
    Unions destroying their own jobs and kicking everyone else out of having the opportunity to have jobs? Sounds like what happened in Detroit aka motor city.

  22. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by tod evans View Post
    When hotels become unprofitable what happens?
    Sounds like opening a hotel in Long Beach with 99 rooms might be a smart move right now.
    "He's talkin' to his gut like it's a person!!" -me
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  23. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by dannno View Post
    Sounds like opening a hotel in Long Beach with 99 rooms might be a smart move right now.
    This.

  24. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by dannno View Post
    Sounds like opening a hotel in Long Beach with 99 rooms might be a smart move right now.
    Problem is you probably have to get approval from city council, which won't happen.

  25. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Jordan View Post
    This.
    I'd have to read the law but... I wonder if a hotel could just sell units or subrent out to a 2nd entity enough rooms to get under 99.

  26. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by specsaregood View Post
    I'd have to read the law but... I wonder if a hotel could just sell units or subrent out to a 2nd entity enough rooms to get under 99.
    Turn a few rooms into office space.
    “One may come to the aid of another being unlawfully arrested, just as he may where one is being assaulted, molested, raped or kidnapped. Thus it is not an offense to liberate one from the unlawful custody of an officer, even though he may have submitted to such custody, without resistance.” (Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 16, 48 S.E. 910).

  27. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by specsaregood View Post
    I'd have to read the law but... I wonder if a hotel could just sell units or subrent out to a 2nd entity enough rooms to get under 99.
    It sounds like that is what they are doing already



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  29. #25
    Calling $13/hr a "living wage" pisses me off so much, but I do have to admit it's extremely clever marketing.

  30. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by JorgeStevenson View Post
    Calling $13/hr a "living wage" pisses me off so much, but I do have to admit it's extremely clever marketing.
    what the hell is a living wage? For you it might be $20 an hour. for me I would love a job just making $10 an hour at this point. However do to Union thugs in my state you cannot get a job based on what you can survive with you have to pay union dues at least until our new law goes into effect next year.

  31. #27
    For many Americans the only way for them to get employment is to offer their services for a lower pay. It is the foundation of a free enterprise system. I have the ability as an individual to work for less and make myself more competitive in the workplace instead of standing on the sidelines unemployed.

    It is the foundation of every immigrant that ever came to this country. They undercut the labor force and make themselves more attractive to be employed. It is the ONLY way minorities like women and people of color can get and retain employment in many cases. When you "try" to force employers to take on women and minorities, disabled etc at the same pay the employment numbers for them plummet... like it or not.

    If you dissolve these people's ability to compete they will not get employed or will be employed in much lesser earning positions. The world is not a first grade classroom and the government is not the teacher. It is not a fair world nor will it ever be. You can however give everyone the individual right to undercut the labor market to get employed.

    Another problem I see with this type of "forced wages" is it gives that angry mob out there the right to "vote themselves" higher wages through a political mob or otherwise called a majority. They can even bribe or lobby public officials to pass such legislation. They have bankrupted the federal government with this mob rule and they will the employers too trying to set arbitrary wage limits for themselves.

  32. #28
    Another fascinating thing I see is people want to do totally unskilled mundane tasks, live in Southern California and force some employer to pay them a "working wage" to live there. The cost of living in Southern California simply does not match the payment for menial labor skill sets that can't even speak the language of the country.

    If you go less than 100 miles south to Tijuana where these people came from those same labor tasks pay about $2 an hour because that is what the unskilled labor market will bear. So these people, mostly illegals, move north 100 miles then want to extort $13 an hour from American employers to do the same exact tasks but live WAY better. Up here they can also make those low wages, pay no taxes then supplement income with entitlements such as food stamps and free healthcare etc.

    When you look at who these workers are in Long Beach there is a little more to this than just 3rd generation taxpaying US citizens getting a raw deal. They are primarily Mexican National citizens coming north to shakedown US employers and live off the taxpayers entitlement system.
    Last edited by adams101; 12-18-2012 at 09:30 AM.



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