60 Registry Hotel Workers Picket MCA Building

About 60 union employees of the Registry Hotel in Universal City demonstrated Thursday to step up pressure on MCA, insisting that the entertainment firm can save their jobs by canceling a deal to sell the hotel.

The 24-story luxury hotel--built and operated by other companies on land owned by MCA--is scheduled to close Jan. 30 when Tuntex, a Taiwanese firm, takes over, and to reopen under new management.

Although Tuntex officials have declined to comment, hotel officials say the firm has indicated it will not honor existing union contracts.

The demonstration at MCA’s Universal City headquarters was organized by Local 11 of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union, which represents 350 of the hotel’s 420 employees, said Steven Dornbush, a union spokesman.

Tuntex is buying the hotel building from Cigna, a Connecticut-based insurance holding company. MCA owns the land under the hotel. Local 11’s contract is with Dallas-based Registry Hotels, which operates the hotel for Cigna.

Maria Elena Durazo, Local 11 president, said the union has been told that MCA’s contract with Cigna gives it the right to stop the sale if MCA disapproves of the terms. “So we are focusing on MCA because they are in a position to make Tuntex abide by our contract,” Durazo said, “and because we are told that the paper work is on their desks right now.”

Cigna and MCA officials were unavailable for comment.

Durazo termed Tuntex’s insistence that the hotel be closed and all employees laid off an “obvious union-busting effort.”

Hotel General Manager John Mavros, a Registry employee, has said workers will receive four to six weeks severance pay.