Downtown Chicago hotels are starting to reopen. Laid-off workers worry they might not get their jobs back.
As travelers slowly begin to book hotel rooms again in Chicago, Maria Ruiz, of Addison, is looking forward to the day her former employer Swissotel calls her back after laying her off in late October because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ruiz worked as a banquet server and various other positions for two decades before being let go by Swissotel, which trimmed its workforce after business slowed down last year. That job helped Ruiz become a homeowner and support her family, including her 83-year-old father who lives with her.
If she isn’t recalled soon, Ruiz worries she might face foreclosure and won’t be able to take care of her family with the unemployment benefits she receives. A federal eviction moratorium expires at the end of June, and enhanced federal jobless aid runs out Sept. 6. Ruiz said she has been unable to find other work.
“It’s a nightmare,” Ruiz, 50, said in Spanish. “This job was my life. I’ve worked here for 24 years. Imagine being let go for reasons that were out of your control.”
Swissotel did not return a request for comment.
Downtown hotels like the Chicago Athletic Association, Park Hyatt and Ambassador Chicago are starting to reopen after closing last year because of the pandemic, but the pace of recalling employees has been slow. The Palmer House Hilton remains closed through May 20. Many hotels still operate with skeleton crews and have brought back only a few workers.
Experts say resuming large gatherings, including weddings, business meetings and group events, could lead to more hiring. But a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases has put the state’s reopening plans on ice, further clouding the outlook for hospitality workers and increasing the likelihood that large events will instead move to neighboring states with fewer restrictions.
Some who’ve lost their jobs worry that as business picks up, managers won’t hold their positions and will hire new employees instead.
“I’ve dedicated a majority of my life to this hotel,” Ruiz said. “I worked hard and sacrificed plenty to be here. The best thing the hotel can do is reciprocate that same effort.”
Ruiz and several other hotel workers are calling for passage of a city ordinance introduced in November that would require hotels to bring them back as business recovers. The ordinance, introduced by Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, and Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, is currently before the city’s Committee on Workforce Development.
The ordinance, dubbed the Hotel Worker Right to Return to Work, would require hotels to recall former workers by seniority before hiring new employees. Hotels would have to notify laid-off employees when positions become available that they qualify for, including in different departments, and give them 10 days to either accept or decline. Other cities, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Baltimore, have passed similar recall legislation during the pandemic.
The Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association opposes the ordinance as unfairly targeting hotels and creating an “unnecessary” burden for employers, President and CEO Michael Jacobson said.
“We are not against getting people back to work, especially those who have been with us for more than 10 years. ... People who have been with us the longest are brought back first,” he said.
Jacobson acknowledged there is no guarantee hotel managers will rehire those workers. But he said some people who have been in the industry for decades have faced layoffs before and were brought back, including after the attacks of Sept. 11 and the 2008 recession.
About a quarter of the 16,000 members UNITE HERE Local 1 represents in the Chicago area are working, said spokesman Elliott Mallen. The union, which represents workers at 51 hotels in the city, supports the ordinance.
“Most workers, especially older women of color, need the assurance that they will be brought back,” he said.
Several members who have been laid off haven’t been able to find work because of the tight job market, and some women say it’s because of their age, Mallen said. If passed, the ordinance would ensure those workers have the same jobs when they return, he said.
Several hotels said laid-off employees are the first they bring back, though many are having trouble filling positions as business recovers.
The Chicago Athletic Association hotel reopened April 1 with a staff of 45 people, a fraction of the nearly 200 it employed pre-pandemic, said Patrick Hatton, general manager. Cindy’s Rooftop, the hotel’s signature restaurant, also reopened, but only for dinner from Wednesday through Sunday.
“We took a very conservative approach and decided to open at a time when business levels were sustained that would allow us to bring the right number of workers back and offer them full-time work,” Hatton said.
All but two of those the hotel has brought back were people who were laid off during the pandemic, Hatton said. Training new hires would have slowed reopening plans, he said.
But it may get harder calling back staff if people have moved on to other industries, Hatton added.
Several workers have switched careers after being laid off for several months, while others remain hesitant about returning without first being fully vaccinated. In some cases, hotel managers said enhanced federal jobless aid has dissuaded some workers from coming back.
Oxford Hotels and Resorts, which manages several downtown hotels, including LondonHouse, The Godfrey and Hotel Julian, employs about 40% of the 450 employees it did in February 2020, said George Jordan, president. Oxford had a contract with the city to supply about 1,100 rooms to house and feed first responders and health care workers requiring isolation early in the pandemic, which helped keep a limited staff employed.
“There has been recalling difficulties. Some people say they don’t feel safe to return to work until they are fully vaccinated. Some say they aren’t vaccinated and don’t plan on returning. There has been some flight of hotel workers to other industries,” he said. “We believe that’s endemic to the pandemic.”
Last month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled a “bridge phase” to fully reopen the state once certain vaccination levels and other bench marks are met. Indoor capacity limits would expand from 50 people to 250 for social events and 1,000 or 60% of capacity, whichever is less, for conventions.
Jordan said the state’s plan could be key to bringing back more workers. The LondonHouse has received a few inquiries from event planners to host events in late April and mid-May, he said. But the company has had to turn down some smaller events because the size wouldn’t justify the cost of hiring staff, Jordan said.
“But which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Events need to happen,” he said.
As more people start booking rooms, several hotels are resuming restaurant and bar services that have been shut down since last spring.
The Drake Hotel reopened its Palm Court for tea service Easter weekend after seeing an increase of leisure travelers. General manager Damien McArdle said resuming tea service Friday through Sunday has helped The Drake bring back workers and hire new people, but its overall workforce is still at a “low level” compared with the nearly 400 employees it had before the pandemic. He declined to say how many people are working now.
Bringing back more workers is dependent on when the hotel can host weddings, bridal showers and other group events, said Ann O’Riordan, The Drake’s director of catering and events.
A full recovery won’t be possible until business travel returns. But some conventions have already moved out of state. The Society for Human Resource Management in March announced it was moving its annual conference to Las Vegas for Sept. 9-12; the event was originally scheduled to take place at McCormick Place in June. The National Confectioners Association moved the Sweets and Snacks Expo to Indianapolis for June 23-25. The conference typically takes place every spring in Chicago.
The loss of those conventions and possibly others spells trouble for downtown hotels.
Dave Jacobs, general manager at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, said the bulk of the hotel’s business is from meetings and conventions, including the ones it hosts at its more than 50,000 square feet of meeting and event space. The hotel has remained open with a skeleton crew of about 40 employees, compared with the 500 it had before the pandemic.
“It’s devastating to lose those groups. We can’t host them with the restrictions we have in place. They (event planners) sometimes spend a year planning to hold their events at McCormick Place. I don’t know where we’ll be at by summer,” Jacobs said.
O’Riordan said The Drake expects it can safely starting hosting large gatherings by June. Some families, however, aren’t waiting until Chicago allows them to have big weddings, instead moving their events to Wisconsin and Indiana, which have few to no restrictions, O’Riordan said.
For now, hotels are waiting for the city to ease restrictions. And laid-off workers are waiting for their employers to call them back.
Erika Hernandez, of Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, was laid off from her server job at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago shortly before it closed in May. Hernandez, 46, said her bosses didn’t say at the time when it might reopen or if they would bring her back. The Four Seasons is now slated to reopen April 30.
But she hopes she’ll return soon, especially after dedicating almost half her life to her job there.
“We sacrificed a lot. I missed Christmas, birthdays and Mother’s Day because the hotels are busy on the weekends,” she said. “It’s hard to find a new job because older women are treated unfairly in the workforce.”
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