Miami-Dade hotels can now reopen, but some major lodgings are still laying off workers
Even with coronavirus-related restrictions easing in the region, two major hotels in Miami Beach and one in Miami have announced hundreds of layoffs.
Loews Hotels & Co., which runs the Loews at 16th Street and Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, announced 579 employees will see their “temporary layoff” period extended for at least six months, the company said. Another 144 employees will be permanently laid off.
The information was published Tuesday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. It was contained in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letter dated May 29.
“Efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus ... requires us to take action that would have seemed unthinkable just a short time ago,” the company said in its letter.
In an email, a Loews representative said, “Unfortunately the global pandemic surrounding COVID-19 has forced Loews Hotels & Co. to make some difficult decisions as it relates to our workforce. Team Members are the backbone of our company and rest assured these measures were not taken lightly.”
Among those affected are 91 room attendants, 32 stewards, 28 banquet employees, 23 pool servers and 20 laundry attendants.
Meanwhile, the company that owns the Delano Hotel on 17th and Collins Avenue said this weekend it was laying off 191 employees.
In a WARN letter dated May 28, Morgans Hotel Group also said the hotel’s food and beverage venues will be closed. The Delano has been home to the Delano Beach Club, FDR nightclub, Leynia restaurant and Umi Sushi and Sake bar.
Among those laid off are 19 servers, 16 room attendants and 13 bartenders.
A Morgans representative did not respond to a request for comments.
In Miami, the Conrad Hotel said in a May 25 WARN letter that 154 employees would be laid off for at least six months due to the fallout from COVID-19. The layoffs include 20 banquet servers, 14 cooks, and 11 room attendants. A Conrad representative did not respond to a request for comments.
Miami-Dade County and Miami Beach said hotels could reopen June 1; the city of Miami did not announce a date, meaning it defaulted to the county’s calendar. County beach openings slated for this week have been postponed due to the George Floyd demonstrations. Restaurants commenced reopening their dining rooms last month at reduced capacities.
Almost every hotel in the county’s $27 billion lodging industry has faced layoffs. According to the state of Florida’s unemployment dashboard, workers in the accommodation and food-services industry have seen more than 230,000 layoffs statewide.
With 1.82 million unique claimants already in its unemployment system and more than 200,000 claim applications in its queue, the state could hit 2 million unique unemployment claimants — comprising nearly one in four workers — in a matter of days.
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 5:28 PM.
