(NEW YORK CITY) - Less than a week after Front of House Staff employed at the Rose Lane Bar and Restaurant inside the Park Lane Hotel filed to Unionize with Restaurant Workers United (RWU), hotel management fired every Worker in the nascent Union’s Bargaining Unit, an RWU official said. 

Workers with scheduled shifts on Monday (August 25th) at the boutique hotel on Central Park South received phone calls from managers hours before their shifts began telling them not to come in. They were also told that the contract with the staffing agency that employed the Workers, The Good Kind Group, had been terminated.

Later in the day, Workers received an e-mail from a recruiter at Good Kind confirming that the agreement had been cancelled and that their work assignments “have ended effective immediately.”

The recruiter wrote Workers were to be paid for the hours they were supposed to work that week, and the company was “committed to doing everything we can to place you with a different client and are actively reviewing new opportunities.”

In total, 21 Workers are in the Bargaining Unit with RWU.

The RWU issued the following statement: "This morning, Park Lane Hotel, located on ‘Billionaires' Row’ in Manhattan and owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, fired ALL of the Workers of the Rose Lane Bar and Restaurant who last week announced their intention to Unionize and filed a recognition petition with the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board). In response to the Workers' demands for basic dignity, such as consistent scheduling, Park Lane management has responded with an outrageous and illegal attack on the Labor Rights of the Rose Lane Workers and of every Worker who is in a Union or wants to be in a Union. The use of a staffing agency in this case is only a diversion and a pretext for violating the Labor Rights of the Rose Lane Workers, something that has been experienced by more precarious Workers everywhere.”

More than 80% of Front of House Workers at Rose Lane signed Union Authorization Cards and publicized their Unionization on August 21st in an open letter to management.

Workers gave management until August 23rd to respond and potentially voluntarily recognize the Union.

They later said they heard nothing from management until calls informing them about the layoffs.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: Restaurant workers fired days after filing for union - The Chief