The Kimpton Nine Zero Hotel is reinstating the 52 workers it quit last month and has agreed to extend the right of laid-off workers to full seniority for up to 30 months, according to the union, which represents the employees.
The workers had been on leave since last March but were recently told they would not be brought back even if business returned.
Unite Here Local 26 said the layoffs were in breach of the contract that workers can only be fired for good cause, such as theft. The union had declared the cuts an “act of war” and held protests and approached politicians. Before three of the workers and union president Carlos Aramayo were informed on Wednesday afternoon that they were getting their jobs back, they met with incumbent Mayor Kim Janey, who stated that 70 percent of Boston hotel workers were black people and that the downsizing was a “racial issue.” “
Aramayo said he was pleased that the fight was over Nine Zero and that the union could work with the hotel again to help the industry recover.
“We’re going on,” he said. “I really want to focus on getting people back to work.”
Thays Ferreira, who has been a room service agent at Nine Zero for 14 years, said she was surprised and happy to get her job back, although it is unclear when she will actually return to work as few people travel. 37-year-old Ferreira, who is originally from Brazil and has two children, said without her hotel job: “I have no idea what I can do in life.” to come back. “If we keep our jobs, that’s the most important thing,” she said.
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kimpton operates 74 non-union hotels around the world, including two in the Boston area: the Marlowe in Cambridge and the Onyx near Faneuil Hall.
The accommodation market in Boston and Cambridge was devastated by the pandemic. The occupancy rate in the region fell to less than 26 percent last year, which reduced sales per available room by more than 80 percent. This is the second largest drop in the country’s advisory Pinnacle Advisory Group, according to the hotel. An estimated 8,000 unionized and non-union hotel workers are still unemployed in Boston.
A number of Boston hotels have laid off staff during the pandemic, including this Four Seasons on Boylston Street (who later pledged to workers who were laid off that they would come first for their work when business returned), Boston Marriott Copley Place, and Revere Hotel Boston Common, but the Nine Zero was the only union hotel that permanently cut workers.
Katie Johnston can be reached at katie.johnston@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ktkjohnston.
