By Lookout Staff

Maritz, Wolff & Co. - which has reached an agreement to buy the Miramar Sheraton from Fujita Corporation USA - has extended an olive branch to the hotel's workers, who are embroiled in a battle to remain unionized.

The company, which owns the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and the Four Seasons Santa Barbara Biltmore, has offered to retain the current workers with the same wage rates and benefits, but it has not indicated whether it will keep the luxurious hotel a union shop.

"The new owner's accessibility and responsiveness to community concerns is a
refreshing change at the Miramar," said Councilman Kevin McKeown, who wrote a letter welcoming the new owners to the city. "With their attitude and willingness to do the right thing, they will be very welcome in Santa Monica."

Union representatives greeted the news with guarded enthusiasm, but noted that the hotel's new owners are not required to accept the union's contract.

"This is only the first step toward bringing this ordeal to an end," said Kurt Petersen, lead organizer for the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, Local 814.

The union, with backing from community leaders and city council members who are part of a group called Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism, has been struggling with the Miramar's management for several years to keep the hotel unionized. Organizers worried that the hotel's new owner would fire workers and, perhaps, destroy the union's only Santa Monica stronghold.

But in a letter sent Tuesday, F. Matthew DiNapoli, executive vice president of Maritz, Wolff, reassured the Miramar's employees that things would maintain the status quo.

"One of the major factors in Fujita's decision to sell the hotel to Maritz, Wolff & Co. was Fujita's sincere commitment to find a buyer with an outstanding track record for maintaining the character of historic hotel properties and who would recognize the loyalty of the Miramar's talented staff by agreeing to offer employment to every Miramar employee," the letter reads. "It is, therefore, an honor for me, on behalf of Maritz, Wolff,
to extend this offer to you to continue working at the hotel with the same wage rates and benefits."

Whether or not the union's struggle at the Miramar is really over, an overt display of pro-worker concern from the new owners is sure to put the hotel in good standing with a majority of Santa Monica City Council members, who have made their support for the workers more than public.

A test of how committed the Miramar's new owners are to upholding workers' rights could come soon -- when the City Council considers a living wage ordinance for local businesses. And as the Chamber of Commerce kicks in its anti-living wage campaign, the hotel may be asked to pick sides.