IRVINE – A State hearing officer has found the Embassy Suites in Irvine guilty of denying rest breaks to hotel workers and has ordered the hotel pay $36,000 to workers.

Dozens of hotel workers filed complaints with the State of California in August 2010 after being denied the breaks to which they were entitled by law. At the time, the non-union workers walked off the job in a one-day strike to protest the pervasive problem.

The hotel is managed by Merritt Hospitality, a subsidiary of HEI Hotels.

Three years into a struggle to hold on to affordable healthcare and full-time jobs at the so-called “happiest place on earth,” Disney hotel workers and union leaders sent a strong message to the community Tuesday night: This fight is not over.

At a community forum in St. Anselm’s Church in Garden Grove on Sept. 27, workers said the results of a recent advisory vote make it clear that the hotel workers are not ready to accept Disney’s bad deal. In more than 1,400 surveys taken, workers overwhelmingly voted to keep fighting to win a better contract.

Hyatt has singled itself out as the worst employer in the hotel industry. Hyatt has replaced career housekeepers with minimum wage temporary workers and imposed dangerous workloads on those housekeepers who remain. In July, Hyatt turned heat lamps on striking workers in Chicago during a brutal heat wave. In Boston, Hyatt fired its entire housekeeping staff at three non-union hotels, replacing women who had worked at Hyatt for decades with temporary workers earning minimum wage.

Hollywood – Hotel housekeepers and immigration rights activists gathered in front of the new W Hotel in Hollywood on Friday, Aug. 26, to condemn the W for demanding Latina housekeepers show proof of social security numbers, more than one year after being hired. The hotel is owned by HEI.

The W’s demand came just four days after housekeepers complained about heavy workloads at a union negotiating session.  The housekeepers also recently filled out missed break complaints to be filed with the State of California’s Department of Labor.