Pasadena Hotel Workers Calling on Major League Baseball to Help Them Get Their Jobs Back

Local workers fired from the Langham Huntington Hotel are calling on Major League Baseball to help them return to work.

The hotel has been selected to house members of the teams playing American League Division Series playoffs that will play at Dodger Stadium and San Diego.

In May, The Langham Pasadena, faced with a substantial downturn in business due to the pandemic, fired numerous employees.

Many of these workers had more than 10 years of seniority at the hotel.

Concerned they might not ever regain their jobs even after the pandemic ends, the workers and their supporters mounted a campaign which resulted in Pasadena municipal ordinance which requires hotels to rehire their former workers when business levels permit.

Saturday, the workers wrote a letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred informing him of the law.

“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.”

The letter is signed by 35 former Langham employees.

The 35 workers who sent the letter – who have more than 300 years of seniority – have yet to be called back.

The Major League Baseball Players Association is backing the workers. 

“Major League Players have long benefited from the excellent service provided by the experienced workers at the Langham Pasadena,” a 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.”

The pandemic devastated local hotels, which saw occupancy decline from 85 percent to 10 percent in March and April with a dramatically reduced nightly rate.

The City Council in June approved an ordinance that mandates hotel workers be rehired after the economic crisis passes.

The ordinance 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.

Such protections have already been formalized by Los Angeles County and L.A., Santa Monica and Long Beach.

The ordinance was opposed by several local hotels.

A statewide version of the hotel worker recall and retention law, AB 3216, is on Governor Newsom’s desk waiting to be signed. Last Tuesday morning before joining a car caravan to visit the Governor in Pasadena, dozens of former Langham Pasadena hotel workers protested outside their former hotel in support of the statewide law.

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

“I gave 15 years of my life to the Langham, and now that business is back with the MLB I want to go back to work and have my healthcare reinstated. We are asking MLB to stand with all hospitality workers and make sure that wherever baseball is played in California, the workers who have served the players for decades should be called back to their jobs,” said Pablo Escot former Banquet Server in a prepared statement.

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

“We know that MLB requires enhanced safety protocols during the players’ stay at The Langham,” the letter said. “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.”