Loews' Workers Turn Tables on Union

By Teresa Rochester

Fed up with a bitter unionizing drive, Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel employees turned the tables on the local union, marching on its headquarters Thursday afternoon.

But no one was there to hear their message except for a startled Mar Preston.

"I'm not a spokesperson. This is a surprise to me," said Preston, a temporary organizer for Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism, who showed up at the union hall to work on the computer.

Eighteen Loews employees turned out at the headquarters of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 814 at 5 p.m. to protest what they say is the harassment of employees by the union, which launched a unionizing drive at the luxury beachfront hotel in May.

The workers planned on presenting a petition with 160 signatures that called for an immediate secret ballot vote overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. Union organizers, however, are staunchly opposed to a NLRB election, which can be dragged out for years on appeal. Instead, they are calling for a card check election, which would require hotel management to remain neutral.

But like hotel management at union rallies, union officials were nowhere to be seen.

"We just want the vote. A democratic vote," said Lance Crossno, who's worked at the hotel for four years. "With the card check people can be intimidated. The secret ballot vote, no matter who influences who, the employees vote their true choice.

"We want them to stop their smear campaign, which has really turned a lot of employees that were neutral against them," Crossno said.

Employees also said they were frustrated by the fact that no one would listen to their views, including the City Council.

The workers, who said they were not being paid for the protest, stood outside union headquarters waiting for someone to show up. They had been told a representative would be there at 5 p.m.

At around 5:15 p.m. Preston showed up. Workers followed Preston into the union's hallway where they vented their frustrations for about 10 minutes before leaving.

While the workers refused to turn over the list of signatures to Preston, they did give her a copy of a letter that they planned to present to union organizers. In the letter workers said they wanted a secret ballot election soon and asked that union organizers stop calling and visiting their homes.

The letter also calls for the union to disclose how much it would make by unionizing the hotel.