Hotel Bel-Air's Big Plans Don't Include Everyone: Report
The hotel will close for two years
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010 | Updated 3:00 PM PST
The federal government is giving Connecticut $5.2 million to upgrade its unemployment system.
The Hotel Bel-Air has quietly closed.
The hotel will closed for two years of renovations without agreeing to a severance package with its unionized employees, the LA Times reported.
The resort -- for more than 60 years a retreat for presidents, movie stars and others -- has refused to commit to rehire 250 union employees after its multimillion-dollar face-lift is complete in 2011, according to the Times report. Leaders of Unite Here Local 11 have accused the hotel's managers of using the renovation project to rid itself of the union.
Management has offered workers a severance package but union leaders have rejected the deal, saying it provides inadequate health insurance coverage and no guarantees that the employees will have jobs when the hotel reopens, according to The Times.
A federal mediator is expected to oversee further meetings, starting Thursday, The Times reported.
Leigh Shelton, a spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 11, told The Times that the severance package offered to give workers two weeks' worth of salary for every year on the job, plus a contribution to a health plan that could last about six months.
But she said the deductibles on the plan were so high that workers could not afford them. The renovation will include an upgrade of all 91 rooms and suites, the hotel's Champagne Bar, its restaurant and private dining rooms.
The Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air are operated by Dorchester Collection, a luxury hotel operator owned by the government-controlled Brunei Investment Agency, which manages the oil-rich country's hotels in Europe and the United States.
