Hotel Bel-Air is scheduled to reopen Friday following a two-year, multimillion-dollar renovation, but union protesters may mar the unveiling.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the hotel will reopen with only about a dozen of its former union workers on its staff of 275. Unite Here Local 11 says the hotel used the renovation to eliminate the union from the property and is planning demonstrations and a boycott by Hollywood actors and directors. Postcards have warned hotel neighbors to prepare for noisy protests.
The hotel, meanwhile, claims it offered workers a severance package when it closed in 2009 and told them they could apply for their former jobs upon the property’s reopening. A hotel spokeswoman told the press that new workers could vote to unionize again.