Business

Restaurant workers wanted to unionize at this L.A. hotel. Now the restaurants are closing

Published

2 years ago

February 5, 2024

Restaurant workers wanted to unionize at this L.A. hotel. Now the restaurants are closing

Eight days after restaurant workers at a hip downtown hotel filed cards to organize a union, the hotel’s food operator declared it would shutter the dining establishments that employed them, the latest in a string of showdowns and confrontations between workers and employers in L.A. area restaurants.

The case is playing out at the Hotel Figueroa in downtown, home of Sparrow Italia, Cafe Fig, Bar Magnolia, the Cafeteria and La Casita at Driftwood. The historic building has for the last two decades built a following for its Mediterranean-inspired space and stylish dining rooms, but behind closed doors, tension has loomed between the third-party management company behind the restaurants, called Noble 33, and the estimated 100 food and beverage workers who run them.

Discontent between Noble 33 and its employees at Hotel Figueroa started soon after the hospitality group took over food and beverage operations for the hotel in 2021, according to workers and union organizers who spoke with The Times.

Workers said they were forced to take on multiple tasks without more pay as their colleagues left and management failed to back-fill positions.

Some food and beverage workers, many who worked alongside the unionized hospitality workers employed by Hotel Figueroa, started to agitate to also form a union and gain similar rights.

On Dec. 8, food and beverage workers who worked for Noble 33 notified their management that they intended to form a union, and submitted cards to do so.

Six days later, Noble 33 emailed its food workers, announcing that it would permanently shutter the restaurants by mid-February and lay off its food and beverage staff before then, according to a letter sent to employees on Dec. 14.

In response, restaurant and bar workers employed by Noble 33 at Hotel Figueroa filed a complaint in January with federal labor regulators, accusing hotel management of trying to suppress labor organizing among its food and beverage staff.

Unite Here Local 11, which represents the hotel workers at Hotel Figueroa, filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the food workers at Sparrow Italia, Cafe Fig, Bar Magnolia, the Cafeteria and La Casita at Driftwood.

Management company Noble 33 said it would close all the restaurants adjoining the lobby, seen above, at the Hotel Figueroa.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The closing of the restaurants would leave large wells of unused space on the hotel’s ground floor.

Restaurants and two bars take up most of Hotel Figueroa’s bottom floor. The hotel’s front patio serves as outdoor dining space for Cafe Fig, a popular all-day Mediterranean restaurant featuring dishes like cauliflower bites, tuna tartar tostadas and truffle fries. Hanging vine chandeliers decorate the indoor dining room, which is attached to Bar Magnolia, a well-stocked watering hole for hotel guests and diners who want to sip on a libation.

Walk a few steps toward the the courtyard, past an arched entryway and there’s Sparrow Italia, which serves coastal Italian dishes and cocktails in an indoor-meets-outdoor dining room and bar that opens up to the hotel’s iconic coffin-shaped pool. La Casita at Driftwood offers food and drink service poolside when open for the summer season.

It’s unclear what operations if any would replace the dining spaces at the Hotel Figueroa, a Spanish Colonial hotel at Figueroa and 9th streets in downtown L.A.

“We are still evaluating all options concerning future food and beverage offerings at Hotel Figueroa,” a spokeswoman said Monday in a prepared statement.

Some of the workers said they were devastated by the move, which came right before the Christmas holiday.

Leobardo Perez, a 45-year-old dishwasher at Cafe Fig, said he decided to organize after two other dishwashers left and management made him take on their work instead of hiring new dishwashers. Perez, who has worked at the restaurant for two years, said he was also forced to do other jobs, such as prep or pastry work without additional pay.

“All we want is for our rights to be respected in the workplace,” Perez said. “It’s unjust for them to close down the restaurants because we just want to organize.”

The towering building of Hotel Figueroa. A spokeswoman for the hotel said that the notice to terminate food staff did not come from hotel management or ownership.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Third-party manager disputes hotel’s claim

A spokesperson for Noble 33 said the third-party vendor had no option but to close.

Noble 33 contends that its contract with Hotel Figueroa stipulates that the unionization of food and beverage employees would trigger a kill clause between both parties. “It would be a breach of the hotel’s current unionization agreement with the union,” a Noble 33 spokesperson said in a written statement.

Hotel Figueroa and Unite Here Local 11 deny this claim.

A spokeswoman with Hotel Figueroa said notice to terminate the food staff “was not prompted by hotel management nor hotel ownership.”

She said the layoffs were initiated by Noble 33, which issued the notices without first discussing it with hotel ownership, management or employees.

“It is also important to note that our agreement specifically stipulates that Noble 33 will never be requested or authorized to engage in unfair labor practices,” Hotel Figueroa said in a written statement.

Unite Here Local 11 called Noble 33’s claim “absurd.”

“It is absolutely disgusting that a company would sign a contract promising to kill its operations simply because its employees exercise their federal right to organize a union,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11.

Food workers across the region have been struggling with owners and employers in an industry shaken last year by brutal financial realities and allegations of mismanagement and abuse. At least 65 notable closures of restaurants affected the dining scene in 2023.

The closures continued into the new year. On Jan 1, Sweet Lady Jane — famous for its triple berry cake — announced it had shuttered all six of its Los Angeles locations.

At the same time, discontent between food and beverage workers and employers continues to grow.

In June, former servers at Jon & Vinny’s, a hip Italian American restaurant, filed a class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the restaurants’ owners, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo. The lawsuit against Joint Venture Restaurant Group Inc., which owns Jon & Vinny’s, claimed that the company denied servers tips, resulting in a reduction of take-home pay due to diner confusion regarding an 18% service fee.

In September, hostesses at Nobu in Malibu filed separate lawsuits against the popular restaurant, alleging sexual assault, sexual harassment and discrimination.

In December, the National Labor Relations Board announced that it was looking to force Starbucks to immediately reopen 23 stores that workers allege were shut two years ago in a move that was allegedly done to suppress union organizing. Six of those locations were closed in the Los Angeles area.

Edith Reyes, a line cook at Cafe Fig, said she felt compelled to organize because of what she described as unfair treatment on the part of managers.

Reyes, a single mom who has worked at the restaurant for about three years, said managers ignored multiple requests for a few weekends off to spend with her daughters.

At the same time, she said newer workers were granted weekends off.

“It’s unfair. I’m the only parent my daughters have,” she said of her teenage daughters. “They depend on me. I need to be there for them and I need to provide for them.”

She was given a few hours short of full-time and didn’t qualify for vacation or sick time off, she said.

On Jan. 20, Hotel Figueroa hotel workers took to the picket line for a few days for the first time this year. The move was the latest in a series of intermittent strikes and a larger summer strike that launched in July when hundreds of hospitality workers at hotels across Southern California took to the streets in protest.

Unite Here Local 11 represents the hospitality workers and reached tentative agreements with about two dozen hotels, out of some 60 properties in Los Angeles and Orange counties initially targeted by strikes that started last summer.

Business

California-based company recalls thousands of cases of salad dressing over ‘foreign objects’

Published

3 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

California-based company recalls thousands of cases of salad dressing over ‘foreign objects’

A California food manufacturer is recalling thousands of cases of salad dressing distributed to major retailers over potential contamination from “foreign objects.”

The company, Irvine-based Ventura Foods, recalled 3,556 cases of the dressing that could be contaminated by “black plastic planting material” in the granulated onion used, according to an alert issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Ventura Foods voluntarily initiated the recall of the product, which was sold at Costco, Publix and several other retailers across 27 states, according to the FDA.

None of the 42 locations where the product was sold were in California.

Ventura Foods said it issued the recall after one of its ingredient suppliers recalled a batch of onion granules that the company had used n some of its dressings.

“Upon receiving notice of the supplier’s recall, we acted with urgency to remove all potentially impacted product from the marketplace. This includes urging our customers, their distributors and retailers to review their inventory, segregate and stop the further sale and distribution of any products subject to the recall,” said company spokesperson Eniko Bolivar-Murphy in an emailed statement. “The safety of our products is and will always be our top priority.”

The FDA issued its initial recall alert in early November. Costco also alerted customers at that time, noting that customers could return the products to stores for a full refund. The affected products had sell-by dates between Oct. 17 and Nov. 9.

The company recalled the following types of salad dressing:

Creamy Poblano Avocado Ranch Dressing and Dip
Ventura Caesar Dressing
Pepper Mill Regal Caesar Dressing
Pepper Mill Creamy Caesar Dressing
Caesar Dressing served at Costco Service Deli
Caesar Dressing served at Costco Food Court
Hidden Valley, Buttermilk Ranch

Business

They graduated from Stanford. Due to AI, they can’t find a job

Published

15 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

They graduated from Stanford. Due to AI, they can’t find a job

A Stanford software engineering degree used to be a golden ticket. Artificial intelligence has devalued it to bronze, recent graduates say.

The elite students are shocked by the lack of job offers as they finish studies at what is often ranked as the top university in America.

When they were freshmen, ChatGPT hadn’t yet been released upon the world. Today, AI can code better than most humans.

Top tech companies just don’t need as many fresh graduates.

“Stanford computer science graduates are struggling to find entry-level jobs” with the most prominent tech brands, said Jan Liphardt, associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. “I think that’s crazy.”

While the rapidly advancing coding capabilities of generative AI have made experienced engineers more productive, they have also hobbled the job prospects of early-career software engineers.

Stanford students describe a suddenly skewed job market, where just a small slice of graduates — those considered “cracked engineers” who already have thick resumes building products and doing research — are getting the few good jobs, leaving everyone else to fight for scraps.

“There’s definitely a very dreary mood on campus,” said a recent computer science graduate who asked not to be named so they could speak freely. “People [who are] job hunting are very stressed out, and it’s very hard for them to actually secure jobs.”

The shake-up is being felt across California colleges, including UC Berkeley, USC and others. The job search has been even tougher for those with less prestigious degrees.

Eylul Akgul graduated last year with a degree in computer science from Loyola Marymount University. She wasn’t getting offers, so she went home to Turkey and got some experience at a startup. In May, she returned to the U.S., and still, she was “ghosted” by hundreds of employers.

“The industry for programmers is getting very oversaturated,” Akgul said.

The engineers’ most significant competitor is getting stronger by the day. When ChatGPT launched in 2022, it could only code for 30 seconds at a time. Today’s AI agents can code for hours, and do basic programming faster with fewer mistakes.

Data suggests that even though AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic are hiring many people, it is not offsetting the decline in hiring elsewhere. Employment for specific groups, such as early-career software developers between the ages of 22 and 25 has declined by nearly 20% from its peak in late 2022, according to a Stanford study.

It wasn’t just software engineers, but also customer service and accounting jobs that were highly exposed to competition from AI. The Stanford study estimated that entry-level hiring for AI-exposed jobs declined 13% relative to less-exposed jobs such as nursing.

In the Los Angeles region, another study estimated that close to 200,000 jobs are exposed. Around 40% of tasks done by call center workers, editors and personal finance experts could be automated and done by AI, according to an AI Exposure Index curated by resume builder MyPerfectResume.

Many tech startups and titans have not been shy about broadcasting that they are cutting back on hiring plans as AI allows them to do more programming with fewer people.

Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei said that 70% to 90% of the code for some products at his company is written by his company’s AI, called Claude. In May, he predicted that AI’s capabilities will increase until close to 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs might be wiped out in five years.

A common sentiment from hiring managers is that where they previously needed ten engineers, they now only need “two skilled engineers and one of these LLM-based agents,” which can be just as productive, said Nenad Medvidović, a computer science professor at the University of Southern California.

“We don’t need the junior developers anymore,” said Amr Awadallah, CEO of Vectara, a Palo Alto-based AI startup. “The AI now can code better than the average junior developer that comes out of the best schools out there.”

To be sure, AI is still a long way from causing the extinction of software engineers. As AI handles structured, repetitive tasks, human engineers’ jobs are shifting toward oversight.

Today’s AIs are powerful but “jagged,” meaning they can excel at certain math problems yet still fail basic logic tests and aren’t consistent. One study found that AI tools made experienced developers 19% slower at work, as they spent more time reviewing code and fixing errors.

Students should focus on learning how to manage and check the work of AI as well as getting experience working with it, said John David N. Dionisio, a computer science professor at LMU.

Stanford students say they are arriving at the job market and finding a split in the road; capable AI engineers can find jobs, but basic, old-school computer science jobs are disappearing.

As they hit this surprise speed bump, some students are lowering their standards and joining companies they wouldn’t have considered before. Some are creating their own startups. A large group of frustrated grads are deciding to continue their studies to beef up their resumes and add more skills needed to compete with AI.

“If you look at the enrollment numbers in the past two years, they’ve skyrocketed for people wanting to do a fifth-year master’s,” the Stanford graduate said. “It’s a whole other year, a whole other cycle to do recruiting. I would say, half of my friends are still on campus doing their fifth-year master’s.”

After four months of searching, LMU graduate Akgul finally landed a technical lead job at a software consultancy in Los Angeles. At her new job, she uses AI coding tools, but she feels like she has to do the work of three developers.

Universities and students will have to rethink their curricula and majors to ensure that their four years of study prepare them for a world with AI.

“That’s been a dramatic reversal from three years ago, when all of my undergraduate mentees found great jobs at the companies around us,” Stanford’s Liphardt said. “That has changed.”

Business

Disney+ to be part of a streaming bundle in Middle East

Published

1 day ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Disney+ to be part of a streaming bundle in Middle East

Walt Disney Co. is expanding its presence in the Middle East, inking a deal with Saudi media conglomerate MBC Group and UAE firm Anghami to form a streaming bundle.

The bundle will allow customers in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to access a trio of streaming services — Disney+; MBC Group’s Shahid, which carries Arabic originals, live sports and events; and Anghami’s OSN+, which carries Arabic productions as well as Hollywood content.

The trio bundle costs AED89.99 per month, which is the price of two of the streaming services.

“This deal reflects a shared ambition between Disney+, Shahid and the MBC Group to shape the future of entertainment in the Middle East, a region that is seeing dynamic growth in the sector,” Karl Holmes, senior vice president and general manager of Disney+ EMEA, said in a statement.

Disney has already indicated it plans to grow in the Middle East.

Earlier this year, the company announced it would be building a new theme park in Abu Dhabi in partnership with local firm Miral, which would provide the capital, construction resources and operational oversight. Under the terms of the agreement, Disney would oversee the parks’ design, license its intellectual property and provide “operational expertise,” as well as collect a royalty.

Disney executives said at the time that the decision to build in the Middle East was a way to reach new audiences who were too far from the company’s current hubs in the U.S., Europe and Asia.