Nestled at the base of mansion-strewn hills just north of Los Angeles’ legendary Sunset Boulevard, the seven-story Chateau Marmont has been a mainstay of Hollywood socializing for nearly a century — in recent years it’s been the venue for Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s ultra, among others -exclusive post-Oscars party.
But the famed Hollywood playground has become a rallying point for a growing labor movement, and this Sunday scores of Chateau Marmont workers who have accused longstanding rights violations and discrimination at the hands of their employer plan to protest ahead of the Oscars afterparty. That means the Carters and their star-studded guest list must decide whether to cross a picket line to get inside.
“Hopefully our presence will educate people that they need to go elsewhere,” said Kurt Petersen, the co-chair of Unite Here Local 11, a union that supports non-union service workers. “This hotel should no longer be considered a Hollywood go-to place until they change the way they treat workers. We are at a moment in our history when people must decide which side they are on.
“That’s the question everyone needs to ask, including Jay-Z.”
A pseudo-European chateau, Chateau Marmont has long been a favorite retreat for some of America’s most celebrated cultural figures. Built in 1929 by a Los Angeles attorney and originally intended as a premier residence for wealthy New Yorkers moving west, the chateau was converted into a hotel after the Great Depression and has since cultivated an air of exclusivity.
Demonstrators await guests at Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s Oscar party this year. Photo:Jeffrey Mayer/WireImageLuminaries from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Sofia Coppola have worked in the building, and the hotel has had countless appearances in popular music, film, and literature, including references in songs by the Grateful Dead, Miley Cyrus, and Lana Del Rey. Since 1990, the hotel has been managed by André Balazs, an elite hotelier and celebrity in his own right, known for his romantic relationships with A-listers. All of these star associations have only added to the hotel’s world-class reputation over the years.
That is changing now. Since last February, the chateau’s staff – some of whom have worked at the hotel for decades – have been leading a violent boycott that has attracted support from Hollywood greats such as Jane Fonda, Spike Lee, Issa Rae, Gabrielle Union, Samara Wiley and Robin Thede , Ashley Nicole Black and Alfonso Cuaron. Director Aaron Sorkin decided not to shoot at the hotel for Being the Ricardos; The Paramount Plus series The Offer also withdrew from filming there.
It is a dramatic fall from grace for the management of the hotel. In an emailed statement, a spokesman accused the union of trying to “damage the Chateau Marmont” by targeting protests with “paid agitators…most of whom are not former employees and have no ties to the non-union chateau.” Marmont have orchestrated.
But the movement was a crucial boost for workers, whose discontent runs deep in what they call a toxic environment.
Bias seemed to be rampant at the hotel. Black employees said they were subjected to racist remarks and passed over for promotions. According to an investigation by the Hollywood Reporter, the chateau’s executive director, Amanda Grandinetti, referred to one employee as “Blackie” and told another to reply “Yes, Amassa,” apparently in reference to a slave driver. In a lawsuit filed against the chateau last year, April Blackwell, a black woman who works at the chateau, said Grandinetti fired her after she complained about a pattern of racial slurs by guests.
Grandinetti did not respond to The Guardian’s requests for comment, but she previously admitted to the Hollywood Reporter that she “could have spoken up sooner [her] Team”.
The castle’s female employees said they frequently faced sexual harassment. Workers painted a somber portrait of Balazs and claimed the owner would get drunk and grope workers on the premises — an accusation Balazs has denied. Management also took no action when guests touched female employees without their consent, workers claimed.
The hotel spokesman said: “These baseless allegations are all unproven for one simple reason: they were fabricated in court cases bought and paid for by Unite Here Local 11 as part of their targeted effort to unionize Chateau Marmont. Contrary to the false claims in these already rejected, union-backed bogus claims, Chateau Marmont has a long and well-documented history of diversity and inclusion among both our employees and our guests.”
Things came to a head in 2020. Just before the pandemic broke out, Chateau workers reached out to Unite Here to discuss how they could push for better working conditions, said Petersen, the union’s organizer. Those efforts were dashed in mid-March when the coronavirus began to spread when the castle’s management abruptly laid off the vast majority of its staff – 248 people – with no severance pay or extended health insurance.
One of those workers was Alejandro Roldan, a 35-year-old full-time housekeeper who told the Guardian he was making just over $14 an hour at the chateau before losing his job and his health insurance. Then he caught Covid – and decided against a costly hospital visit. But then his symptoms got worse. “I was afraid I was going to die,” he said.
Alejandro Roldan in front of the Chateau Marmont. Photo: Damon Casarez/The GuardianIt was a blow on top of an accident at work he suffered just over a month before being fired while preparing for Jay-Z’s final Oscars party when a glass coffee table shattered, sending shards into his eyes. He made a full recovery but was plagued by more hospital bills that his employer failed to help cover. “I was frustrated,” he said. “I thought I was losing my vision for someone who doesn’t even support us.”
In July of that year, Balazs announced that he would reorganize the property into a members-only club and would not put most of the staff on hold.
“It was the best anti-union campaign ever,” said Petersen. “Just fire all the workers and make sure none of those who have been standing up for their rights get back to work.” When Roldan and other workers began to protest, members of the castle management responded by showing up to filming them and warning them, “We’re watching you.”
Dismissed workers and supporters protested outside Chateau Marmont on April 23, 2021.Photo Credit: Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times/Rex/Shutterstock
But the castle staff carried on. In May 2020, hotel workers and Unite Here 11 in Los Angeles won passage of a “right to call back” regulation requiring employers to reinstate workers laid off during the pandemic, rather than replacing them with new ones. A similar statewide law was passed the following year.
In January 2022, the National Labor Relations Board found that Chateau Marmont had illegally monitored its fired workers at protests to disrupt their organizing efforts. The Federal Labor Board negotiated a settlement with the Marmont that requires the hotel to respect workers’ rights and end its interference in organizing workers.
Petersen sees the wins as part of a broader strengthening of labor solidarity between Hollywood’s entertainment and hospitality industries amid the pandemic. “We wouldn’t have this boycott without the solidarity of actors or of Sag-Aftra, of the Iatse [International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees], from the Teamsters who were exceptional,” he told the Guardian. “Both of our industries have suffered tremendous business losses during this time. These unions and these members have stood by us.”
But the demands of the chateau workers are far from being met. They want their jobs back, and they want clear commitments from Chateau Marmont’s management that it will reform its work environment. And they want to form a union so they don’t have to feel “alone” anymore, Roldan said.
Chateau Marmont’s spokesman said the hotel had hired more than 50 former employees under the new regulation and said the union’s protests had “slowed down the process of reinstating former employees”. But Petersen believes it’s the hotel that “deliberately slowed down reopening to wear people down and their willingness to return.”
This Sunday, Roldan will be among the workers striking at Jay-Z’s party. The former housekeeper is still thinking about the injury he sustained at the rapper’s last event.
“I just want Jay-Z to support us,” Roldan said. “Every time they go to the hotel, we serve them, we get what they want and we are there for them. So they have to be there for us.”
Officials from Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s company, did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.