Omni, local leaders feud over minority hiring

When Omni agreed to bring a first-class hotel to downtown New Haven, residents looked forward to a wealth of job opportunities. But according to several community leaders, Omni's hiring practices will leave the city's minority and low-income residents behind.

Although Omni's agreement with the city stipulates that at least 35 percent of its work force must be New Haven residents, problems have surfaced over the preliminary training program that is being offered to potential employees. A coalition of local activists is concerned that the hotel will only hire locals for unskilled jobs, leaving the higher-paying positions to suburbanites or hotel professionals.

The local coalition, formed to promote better hiring and labor practices in the Omni deal, is made up of NAACP representatives, union members, and other community activists and leaders.

"Traditionally, what happens when a hotel opens is they fill back-of-the-house jobs with people without skills, poor people, people of color--and these are the jobs that pay less," Warren Heyman, organizer of Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 217, explained.

"The front-of-the-house jobs get filled with white people who are already working, and this creates a color line. What the local alliance has attempted to do is to try to get Omni to agree to a training program that would reach out to inner-city, low-income, poor workers who are not already in the industry--single mothers on welfare, Vietnam vets, for example--and train them in the skills they need."

Greater New Haven NAACP President Roger Vann criticized Omni's track record in minority hiring. "A national study conducted by the NAACP concluded Omni has a less than sterling record with regard to minority hiring and commitment to the African-American community," he said.

Though Omni agreed to sponsor a preliminary training program called the Enterprise Program, local coalition members complain that the program focuses too much on "soft skills" like attitude training and not enough on practical concepts. They are concerned that front-of-the-house, skilled jobs like bartending, wait staff, and maintenance will go to those with prior experience, rather than to those who have completed the training program.

Sam Pilling/YH With less than four months left before the Omni Hotel at Yale's grand opening, labor issues are far from resolved

Omni officials strongly disagree with the coalition's assessment. "[The Enterprise program] takes into consideration other levels of responsibility, other skills in other areas," Michelle Bennet, Omni's corporate communications manager said. And while the Enterprise Program focuses on interpersonal skills, Omni also has its own on-site training programs for new employees to teach skills like bartending.

In the Enterprise program, "candidates are not necessarily graded on their past or even their present skills, but graded on their capacity to learn," Bennet said. "Once that Enterprise training is in place and the applicant is hired, we train them for whatever specific job they're hired for," she explained.

Yet Coalition members contend that without specfic job training, the Enterprise program is of little use. They question whether a good attitude and the credentials from the Enterprise program will be enough to get an unskilled worker a job over someone with relevant experience.

"Omni expects people to go through this [Enterprise] training to be considered for jobs, but there's no guarantee," Bob Ford, a leader of We the People, a homeless organization that is participating in the local alliance, said "There needs to be a job at the end of the training."

Meanwhile, Yale officials hope that community activists will give Omni the benefit of the doubt. "Omni is the kind of national company that New Haven dreams of attracting. They have progressive employment practices, and they have made a real commitment to employing residents of New Haven. I hope that the community leaders of New Haven work with Omni to build upon the good will that Omni brings to New Haven," University Secretary Linda Lorimer, LAW '77, said.

Coalition members dismiss Yale's defense of Omni. "It's pathetic that Yale would go along with what Omni is doing. It hurts their image," Ford said.

The two sides will try and reach a compromise as the new hotel nears completion. "Conversations are ongoing through a variety of channels," Vann said. The coalition will meet next on Wed., Oct. 8, to discuss what it plans to do next.

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