California Democratic Party Endorses Boycott of Terranea Resort

Endorsers Also Include Hollywood Actress Jane Fonda and Civil Rights
Activist Dolores Huerta

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Following the lead of Dolores Huerta, actress Jane Fonda, and seventeen
members of the California state legislative delegation, the California
Democratic Party passed a resolution Sunday endorsing the #MeToo boycott
of the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, at the California
State Convention in San Francisco.

The boycott of Terranea was launched in 2018 by the Feminist Majority
Foundation and California NOW after multiple women came forward with
allegations that they experienced sexual harassment or other misconduct
while working at the resort.

The resolution’s passage bolsters advocates for workers as they push for
state legislative changes to protect women in the workplace from sexual
harassment. UNITE HERE Local 11 has partnered with Assemblymember Lorena
Gonzalez Fletcher to pass AB 170 to protect sub-contracted workers from
sexual harassment by extending the joint liability provisions currently
in effect for wage theft to sexual harassment claims. AB 170 passed the
CA Assembly earlier this year and heads to a vote at the CA Senate
Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee on June 12^th,
2019.

AB 170 is known as Sandra’s Law, after Sandra Pezqueda, who worked as a
dishwasher at the Terranea through a staffing agency. Pezqueda alleged
in a lawsuit filed in 2016 that she was sexually harassed and assaulted
by an agency supervisor and was fired after she reported the harassment.
She was subsequently featured as one of the “silence breakers” whom Time
Magazine’s named its 2017 Person of the Year. In May 2018, Pezqueda
announced that she had reached a settlement under which the staffing
agency agreed
to pay her $250,000 to resolve all claims raised in the lawsuit.

Pezqueda and other Terranea workers have also championed an effort to
establish by ballot measure a policy in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, which
would require large hospitality employers like Terranea and the Trump
National Golf Course to provide employees with panic buttons to summon
immediate assistance if confronted with a threat, among other worker
protections. Terranea opposed efforts to place the measure on the ballot.

Besides the sexual harassment allegations, Terranea has also faced
allegations of “wage theft.” In April 2019, Terranea Resort reached a
settlement to pay out $2.15 million to resolve a major wage and hour
class-action lawsuit brought by its employees. This is the second
class-action lawsuit the Lowe Enterprises-owned hotel has settled, the
last one in 2013 for $1.125 million. Once approved by the court,
hundreds of current and former employees will be eligible to receive
compensation as a result of the lawsuit. The complaint alleged various
forms of wage theft, including off-the-clock work, missed rest breaks
and meal periods, and failure to reimburse employees for basic tools
needed for the job. The lawsuit also alleged that the luxury resort
utilized falsified record-keeping to avoid paying out meal break
penalties.

UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing over 31,000
hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona that work in
hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers and airports.

Endorsements of the boycott of the Terranea include:

Contacts

Maria Hernandez
(623) 340-8047
[email protected]