Over 200 hotel workers and supporters held a vigil yesterday outside the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn, in California, USA, to protest multiple alleged violations of labor law. The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn is owned by Brookfield Asset Management and operated by the French hospitality company Accor.
- Workers say that the hotel and its “union-busting” consultants have engaged in threats, intimidation, and coercion to dissuade them from joining IUF affiliate UNITE HERE
- Around 250 workers at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn host wealthy vacationers at the luxury resort, but workers say their jobs aren’t enough to make ends meet
- Wages, health care, and working conditions at the hotel are substantially inferior to those of union workers at other Fairmont hotels in the Bay Area
Ale Santoyo, an esthetician who has worked at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn for 12 years, stated, “I’ve been at the hotel for so long, and I’ve seen our working conditions get worse over the years. We’re doing this to ensure that everyone gets treated with respect, gets paid accordingly, receives a manageable workload, and has a healthy and safe environment to work in. We are not going to let the people in power scare us, and we’re not giving up.”
