Hundreds March for Living Wage

By Jorge Casuso

Hollywood couldn't have scripted Monday's march for a living wage for hotel and restaurant workers any better.

The symbol-laced procession by nearly 400 workers and their supporters began in windswept rain beside the rushing waters of a storm drain with an offering of bitter herbs. It ended 1.2 miles later under clear skies on a bluff overlooking a calm ocean with an offering of milk and honey.

"They didn't tell you in the Bible the weather report when we left Egypt. It was raining," Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels of Beth Shir Sholom told the crowd gathered at Pico Boulevard and the beach before the march started. "Today, we choose to go forth for justice.

"Every step is a prayer for justice," the Rabbi said. "God is here in the raindrops. God is here in your hearts. God is here in your feet. Go forth for justice."

The late afternoon procession - led by the hollow sounds of a conch shell and the banging of a drum - filed past a row of non-unionized luxury beachfront hotels, skirted Palisades Park and ended across the street from the Miramar Fairmont Hotel, which last Wednesday signed a landmark contract with the union.

The hour-long march, dubbed by the organizers as a "Journey Toward Justice," was the first major demonstration in favor of an unprecedented living wage proposal being studied by the City Council. The proposal -- which requires businesses along the coast with more than 50 employees to pay their workers at least $10.69-an hour -- would be the nation's first municipal wage law to cover businesses with no city contracts or subsidies.

"The City Council is standing with you not only today, but in the struggle that started and is coming," said Mayor Ken Genser, one of six of the seven council members present. "This is a beautiful day in Santa Monica.

"This is a city committed to economic justice for every worker in Santa Monica," Genser said. "But there are people in hotels who don't have the respect. We have to rededicate ourselves to working together."

The mayor then read a proclamation from the City Council honoring the contract signed by the local Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union and the new owners of the Miramar Fairmont.

The five-year contract includes wage increases for non-tipped workers of between $2.40 and $3.48 an hour over the course of the agreement, with a minimum wage of $8.95 an hour rising to an average of $11. The contract also calls for rare free family health insurance for full-time and part-time workers, full benefits for part-time employees and paid time off in addition to vacation and holidays.

The proclamation states the city's hope that the contract at the Miramar Fairmont "will serve as a model for Santa Monica's tourism community."

"It's not about me," said Karl Buchta, who took the reins as general manager six months ago after the hotel was sold to Marist, Wolff & Co. "This hotel here will be the best hotel in Santa Monica, and we only can do it with you."

"I know that even if the rain and storm continues, you will be here," said housekeeper Delmy Falla, who was hired back by the hotel after the former management fired her for allegedly shoving a camera in a security guard's eye. "We have the City Council with us, and we are here together and we're going to keep fighting for a living wage."

The ceremony concluded with a gift of milk and honey for the new hotel management, a symbolic contrast to the bitter herbs offered at the start of the procession "from darkness to light," which began between Hotel Casa Del Mar and Shutters on the Beach at the end of Pico Boulevard and filed past a row of other non-union hotels, including Loews and Le Merigot.

With the crowd facing the hotels, one of the more than a dozen religious leaders who attended the ceremony, intoned an invocation joined in by the impromptu congregation.

"We begin in darkness, standing in the shadow of others who have no concern for the rights and health of those who labor in hotels.

"We begin in darkness, joining those who fear to organize, whose very livelihood is in jeopardy when they organize.

"We stand with them to give them strength; to begin a march from darkness to light, from economic oppression to freedom."

Before the procession, Casa Del Mar and Shutters issued a press release intended to correct the information "circulated in connection" with the demonstration.

The two Santa Monica hotels owned and operated by the Edward Thomas Companies, the release said, "pay their employees the top wage and benefits package in Santa Monica and are among the highest in the Los Angeles area.

"The average hourly compensation for all employees, including tipped employees, is more than $15 per hour," according to the release. "The average hourly wage at both hotels for non-tipped employees is $13 per hour. The lowest starting wage paid to any non-tipped employee at both hotels is $10.24 per hour."

The release then listed its "comprehensive package of benefits," which include health, dental, vision and life insurance for all employees working more than 30 hours; paid vacation and holidays; tuition reimbursement; weekly English as a Second Language classes and a 401 (k) Plan.

Kurt Peterson, lead organizer for the Hotel Employee's and Restaurant Employee's Local 814, said he was not impressed.

"These hotels have in the last year raised wages because of the living wage and the union," he said. "Everything they give today, they can take away tomorrow without a union. These wages will come down as soon as there's no pressure."