By Jason Islas
Staff Writer

December 19, 2013 -- Labor leaders announced Wednesday that if they are going to support plans to redevelop Santa Monica’s Wyndham Hotel, they want protections for the non-union hotel’s current workers.

FelCor Lodging Trust, which hopes to redevelop the former Holiday Inn across the street from the world-famous Santa Monica Pier, has repeatedly said that it will sign an agreement that would lay the groundwork for employees to unionize after the project, if approved, is completed in 2017.

But UNITE HERE Local 11, the regional hospitality workers’ union, said it wants more from the Texas-based hotel developer.

“FelCor would like to broker an agreement that applies to the future workers at the future hotel,” Melanie Luthern, a research analyst with UNITE HERE, told The Lookout Wednesday.

“In this scenario, the current workers have no commitment from FelCor about job security,” she said.

That’s the message the union plans to bring before the Architectural Review Board (ARB) next month.

Echoing previous assurances, FelCor representatives said that they are open to talking with the union.

"We are looking forward to negotiating an agreement for the future workers of the newly developed hotel once they have selected the Union as their bargaining representative,” Debra Feldman, vice president of Capital Transactions/Development with FelCor, told The Lookout.

“In addition we are open to perhaps discussing a process that includes a dialogue that includes the existing workers prior (to) the current Hotel being closed for redevelopment if the Union is willing to be reasonable and flexible," Feldman said.

FelCor plans to demolish the box-like hotel built in 1967 at the corner of Colorado and Ocean avenues and replace it with three new buildings, ranging from 63 feet to 195 feet.

The new luxury hotel, FelCor representatives said, would add 200 new union jobs.

The size of the proposed project, however, means that Feldman and her team have to engage in a lengthy negotiation process with the City in order to get permission to build.

It’s through that process that UNITE HERE hopes to make gains for workers at the hotel, even though the union does not represent them.

“The people of Santa Monica demand, rightfully, that when developers want to build outside the bounds of the community's standards of design that the community receives high quality benefits in return,” Luthern said.

While FelCor representatives have promised to sign a living wage provision as part of its development agreement with the City and a “card check neutrality” agreement once the new hotel is opened, paving the way for workers to unionize if they want to, Luthern said that there is currently no official agreement.

“We are encouraged by FelCor's public statements about coming to an agreement with us, and also by their history of working with labor; however, the people of Santa Monica have made it clear that any community benefit needs to include the current workers,” Luthern said.

UNITE HERE's demands come shortly after the union won a victory that required a living wage provision for two smaller hotels living proposed just a couple blocks east from the Wyndham.

After months of negotiations with the Union, OTO Development agreed to the Union’s demand that workers be paid $15.37 an hour, more than a dollar higher than City staff had recommended.

In exchange for union support of their project, OTO also agreed to work with UNITE HERE on several future projects in the region.

The City Council approved OTO’s development agreements in November, citing the union’s support as a major factor. (“City Council Green-lights Two Mid-Priced Hotels in Downtown Santa Monica,” November 14)

But FelCor’s plans are much bigger than OTO’s and, along with two other proposed hotel projects, has become the target of some residents who are opposed to buildings that surpass the City’s current 84-foot height limit.

Developer Jeff Worthe has proposed a 244-foot hotel, designed by Frank Gehry, at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue. Just two blocks north, owners of the Fairmont Miramar Hotel hope to move forward with plans for a quarter-billion dollar overhaul of the 86-year-old hotel that include a tower more than 300 feet tall.

The Miramar Hotel, one of the first in the city to unionize, has made preliminary assurances that it would continue its agreement with the union and, if the project is approved, its current workers will get the option to return to their jobs once the hotel reopens.

And, according to the Gehry project’s official website, the developer is currently in negotiations with UNITE HERE.