Major League Baseball Players Say They Stand In Solidarity With Laid Off Local Hotel Workers

Pro baseball players, the Major League Baseball Players Association said in a statement, stand with workers laid off by a Pasadena hotel who are hoping to get their jobs back.

Former employees at the Langham Pasadena Hotel want to be rehired and say the hotel can do so because it will be hosting athletes playing in the American League Division Series being played at Dodger Stadium and Petco Park Stadium in San Diego.

“Major League Players have long benefited from the excellent service provided by the experienced workers at the Langham Pasadena,” the statement said, “and are concerned by the reports that the hotel has not rehired many of these workers now that they are resuming operations and will once again be hosting a number of MLB teams.

“Players stand in solidarity with these workers as they seek to protect their jobs under local law, and we urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign Assembly Bill 3216 extending similar protections to hospitality and service workers statewide,” the players association wrote in the statement.

The statement came after the laid off workers last week called on Major League Baseball to help them return to work.

“The Langham Pasadena’s decision to terminate our employment during the pandemic moved the Pasadena City Council to pass a law in July that obligates hotels to offer employees their jobs when business returns, the letter reads.

“For the safety of the players and the welfare of our families, we urge that you, Major League Baseball, demand that the Langham Pasadena offer us an opportunity to return to our jobs and reinstate our health insurance as a condition of housing the playoff teams,” reads the statement, which was signed by 35 former Langham employees.

The workers who sent the letter — who say that combined they have more than 300 years of experience — have yet to be called back.

Concerned they might not regain their jobs after the pandemic ends, Langham employees and workers at other hotels mounted a campaign which resulted in the passage of a Pasadena ordinance which requires hotels to rehire their former workers when business levels permit.

That ordinance mandates hotel workers be rehired after the economic crisis passes. Passed by the City Council in July, the law includes a right-to-recall element for displaced workers and a worker-retention clause — the latter to protect employees in the event of a change in control of a hotel’s management.

Los Angeles County and the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Long Beach have passed similar ordinances. And now, the legislation on Newsom’s desk could protect a wider range of hospitality workers statewide.

AB 3216 applies to employers who operate hotels, private clubs, event centers, airport hospitality operations, airport service providers, janitorial services, building maintenance, and security services. It would also require successor employers in these industries to maintain a preferential hiring list of eligible employees identified by the employer.

In addition, the law would require employers to hire from that list for a period of six months after the change of control and retain eligible employees for a 90-day transition employment period, and offer continued employment.

Last Tuesday morning, before joining a car caravan to meet with the governor in Sacramento, dozens of former Langham Pasadena hotel workers protested outside their former hotel in support of the proposed state law.

The MLB Players Association has also urged Newsom to sign the bill.

The pandemic devastated local hotels, which saw occupancy rates decline from 85 percent to 10 percent in March and April.

As a response to the downturn, and faced with a substantial downturn in business due to the pandemic, the Langham Pasadena fired numerous employees.

A press representative with the hotel did not return a phone call or text message from Pasadena Now on Sunday.

“We know that MLB requires enhanced safety protocols during the players’ stay at the Langham,” states the letter from the workers. “We do not know what assurances for enhanced safety and security that the Langham Pasadena has promised, but based on our combined experience of over 300 years at this hotel, we believe that those who have kept guests and employees safe and healthy in the past are essential to maintaining safe and secure working and guest accommodations at this moment.”