As La Playa prepares to reopen, former employees push to get their old jobs back.

After stripping the guest rooms to the studs, contractors performing a $3.8 million remodel of La Playa are almost done. 


“We are effectively starting from scratch,” says Matt Crow, CEO of Classic Hotels & Resorts, which bought the Carmel hotel late last year. 


Classic acquired barely any future business – no wedding or business meeting bookings for 2012, and just a handful of reservations – along with the outdated infrastructure. And it wasn’t deterred by lingering labor tensions that left 122 former union employees out of work when La Playa closed. 


Unite Here Local 483 lost a battle with La Playa’s prior owner that would’ve attached the workers to a sale. 


La Playa’s new general manager, Mary Crowe (no relation), is set hire 50 positions next month before the hotel’s July reopening. But operational changes – like using Classic’s reservations call center in Phoenix, and skipping a full-service restaurant – mean most old positions no longer exist. 


Still, Unite Here is pushing for first right of refusal for former employees, something La Playa doesn’t plan to consider. “We’ll talk to anybody who’s energetic and capable,” Crow says. “We have no relationship with the previous owner’s employees.”


Union organizers hope a petition drive can change that. If it doesn’t sway management, they say the reopening will feature chanting protesters out front.