Tourism workers struggle in San Diego
By Catherine Ivey
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — Three months ago, Teresa Montemayor became one of thousands of workers in the tourism industry to lose her job. Soon, she faced losing her home.
That prospect faded last week with the opening of a relief center for those hard hit by stagnation in California's tourism industry. The center gave Montemayor an emergency cash grant to prevent her eviction.
"My landlord has given me three days to leave my apartment because I'm three months behind in rent," Montemayor, 38, said as she collected the $1,400 check from the San Diego Tourism Industry Worker Relief Center, located in a union hall.
Officials estimate thousands of tourist industry workers in San Diego and around the state are struggling after losing jobs or having their work hours cut because of the recession and decline in travel after Sept. 11.
"This crisis is still unfolding here in California," said Robert Ross, president of the California Endowment, a Woodland Hills-based foundation which donated $568,830 to open the center. The group has given grants for similar programs in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles.
Between September and December, California lost 18,200 jobs from the air transportation, restaurant, and hotel and lodging sectors, according to the state's Employment Development Department. The agency doesn't track workers who had their hours reduced.
In San Diego, where tourism is the third largest industry, after the military and manufacturing, between 20 and 30 percent of workers at hotels and other tourist dependent venues were laid off after Sept. 11, said Reint Reinders, president of the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau. The region has yet to recover.
"There's no question about it. Thousands of people within our industry have been affected one way or another, and we're not back to normal," Reinders said.
Signs of a turnaround are emerging slowly. Hotel occupancy rates — down to 54 percent in November — are at 60 percent, but have yet to return to pre-September levels of 70-75 percent. Employers are adding staff again, but instead of hiring back workers on a full-time basis, many are offering only part-time jobs while they await an economic recovery.
That's the case with Montemayor. Laid off in November from a full-time housekeeping job at the Handlery Hotel and Resort in San Diego's Mission Valley area, she has returned to part-time work at another hotel. Unlike in her previous job, where she received $8 an hour, the new employer pays her only minimum wage.
"I still don't know what's going to happen," said Montemayor, who has two daughters and is supporting an injured husband who cannot work. "It's a very difficult situation."
San Diego officials are confident that the area's tourism business will recover, but they don't expect things to be back to normal for quite some time. Until then, labor advocates and others say more needs to be done to help those who make up the foundation of such a vital industry.
"Many of them were already struggling," said Ralph Inzunza, a member of the City Council. "But yet they're changing the sheets, cleaning the toilets, making the lunches. As soon as a crisis hits they're always the first to get laid off."
