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For Immediate Release
January 26, 2006
Leonard O'Neill, 831-375-2246

Local 483 Protests Today
2 years without contract at Monterey Bay Travelodge

Monterey. Dozens of hotel workers and community allies will demonstrate today against a local hotel owner who has not signed a labor contract in more than 2 years, and who has denied his employees a health insurance plan for 16 months. Organized by UNITE HERE Local 483, the demonstration will protest the actions of the Monterey Bay Travelodge owner, Kilsoo Seo, who has refused to sign a labor contract since it expired on January 1, 2004, and eliminated the health insurance and pension plans of his 13 Latino employees in October 2004. Seo has paid his employees hourly wages of $8.84 going back to 2003. The union organized the first demonstration at Seo’s 104-room hotel on July 29, 2004. Since then, more than 2,300 people have participated in weekly picket-lines in front of the hotel.

The Protest Rally will be held today, Thursday, January 26, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in front of the Monterey Bay Travelodge at 2030 North Fremont Street in Monterey. The demonstration will start with a chanting picket-line and end with speeches by workers, Local 483 staff, and local supporters beginning at 5:15 p.m.

The 13 unionized Latino housekeeping and maintenance employees at this Travelodge near the Fairgrounds voted to call for a boycott in November 2004.

The union shop steward at the hotel, Juana Enriquez, was honored by the State of California as the 27th Assembly District Woman of the Year. Ms. Enriquez said, “Two years without a contract, but we are still fighting for justice at the [Monterey Bay] Travelodge … We haven’t had health insurance for 16 months, so most of us haven’t been able to afford to see a doctor in that time, even if we were very sick. We are angry, but the anger makes us more determined to win.”

Local 483 Secretary-Treasurer Leonard O’Neill added, “Back in 2003, Local 483 came to contract agreements with 11 Monterey Bay hotels who have since prospered with labor peace. But Mr. Seo wouldn’t settle—wouldn’t do right by his workers—and all we’ve heard from him since are complaints about our abundance of protests and his lack of business. The [Monterey Bay] Travelodge workers need decent wages and the security of health insurance for their families, like everybody else.”

The Monterey Bay Travelodge owner, Kilsoo Seo of Bethel, Alaska, was quoted in newspaper articles in 2004 and 2005 saying he had not made money on the hotel. Recent hotel tax reports indicate that fiscal year 2005 was the 3rd best for Monterey County hotel revenue in history.

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