The list of Milwaukee hotels that are either extending employee layoffs or making them permanent, due to the dramatic slowdown in hospitality business caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus, continues to grow as several notified state officials last week about plans to cut jobs.
Five Milwaukee hotels on Thursday filed WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notices with the state, announcing plans for a total of 218 employee layoffs.
Merrillville, Indiana-based White Lodging Services Corp. filed three WARN notices indicating it is laying off 78 employees at the Westin Milwaukee hotel at 550 N. Van Buren St. downtown, 56 employees at the Marriott Milwaukee Downtown hotel at 323 E. Wisconsin Ave. and 20 at the SpringHill Suites Milwaukee Downtown hotel at 744 N. Fourth St.
These layoffs are an extension of temporary layoffs that were done in March, the company said. "At the time, White Lodging fully anticipated and expected to bring back these employees to work within six months. However, given the unprecedented length of the pandemic and continued downturn of the travel and hospitality industry, it is now reasonably foreseeable that these temporary actions may extend beyond six months,” White Lodging human resources officer Michael Fischer said in letters to the state.
White Lodging also indicated that it terminated 16 employees at the Marriott Milwaukee Downtown hotel and 14 employees at the SpringHill Suites Milwaukee Downtown on April 3.
Madison-based Raymond Management Company filed WARN notices indicating it is permanently laying off 48 of the 63 employees that it temporarily laid off in March at the Hilton Garden Inn - Milwaukee Airport hotel, 5890 S. Howell Ave., and permanently laying off 17 employees that were temporarily laid off in March at the Home2 Suites Hotel next door at 5880 S. Howell Ave.
“At the time (of the March layoffs) we believed that we would be able to recall the employees back to work within 6 months. We continued to provide health care benefits to the employees during this period of time,” Mindy Statz, human resources manager for Raymond Management Company (which manages the Hilton Garden Inn - Milwaukee Airport hotel and the Home2 Suites Hotel next door), said in letters to the state about the hotels. “We recently concluded that due to continuing issues and concerns with the (COVID-19) pandemic, occupancy…has not returned to the degree needed to bring employees back to their previous positions and we reluctantly notified them and are notifying you that layoffs will become permanent.”
These announcements come just after the Kimpton Journeyman Hotel in the Third Ward informed state officials that it was
extending temporary layoffs for 97 employees and after Milwaukee-based The Marcus Corp. indicated that it
plans to lay off 410 workers at six Wisconsin hotels, plus an additional 15 employees.
