Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn Has Become Unionized

In the spring of 2025, with no bugles or fanfare, the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn became unionized. The contract between management and Unite Here Local 2 was signed March 19, 2025, concluding a two-year campaign by labor. Both management and employees express great appreciation for the new relationship. 

The resort’s leadership team made this formal statement provided by Michelle Heston, “Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa is pleased to share that after negotiating in good faith, the resort and UNITE HERE have reached an agreement. Our team members are our most important assets. We are proud of this positive, open and trusting relationship. The hotel’s top priority has always been to create superior customer and employee experiences.” 

Katie Kuruliak, Director of Human Resources at Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa gave this update to the Sun: “Employee morale at Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa remains strong. Our employees take tremendous pride in creating extraordinary experiences for our guests and one another every day.” Kuruliak’s acknowledgement of the strong bond and great collegiality among the employees is reflected in interviews with employees.  

HR Director Kuruliak added, “We’re truly honored to be recognized as one of Sonoma’s preferred employers and remain deeply committed to cultivating a workplace where our team members feel valued, supported, and inspired to grow.” 

This affirmation is reflected in what the employees have to say. One eight-year employee expressed great appreciation for the union. She is a member of the turn-down team, which previously consisted of eight workers, but after COVID was reduced to three, and now is restored. She said her fellow housekeepers’ workload has also been reduced. She continued that it makes her happy to see her fellow workers happy in their jobs. She added, “I like working for the hotel. It is prestigious, well-thought of by my friends. My work is my second home.”   

Explaining her involvement with the effort to organize, she went to San Francisco to meet union employees at the Fairmont San Francisco, which has been unionized since the ’30s.  She said that even her little Bichón poodle went to the November march in front of the Sonoma Mission Inn with her.

She explained that she used to have to go by herself with issues, now she has the union to represent her.  “I’m happy to be part of the union, for what we achieved. We did something good!” She concluded, “I’m grateful to myself that I joined.” 

With regard to benefits, her pay has been raised to $25/hr, with annual raises scheduled. She appreciates that employees not only have health insurance fully paid, but they can choose from two programs. She is also grateful for having a pension, and paid holidays. 

The finalizing of the contract in March 2025 marked the successful conclusion of a two-year campaign to organize the workers at the Fairmont. Several highlights of that campaign are a trip to Paris in July 2023 by two Fairmont workers, to talk with the CEO of Accor, the French corporation that operates the Fairmont. (see Under the Sun with Alejandra Santoyo, Fairmont Spa therapist, in this edition).

Then on September 8, 2023, civic leaders and many Valley locals gathered to support workers’ efforts to unionize. The large local group joined employees gathered behind the hotel for the presentation to the Fairmont manager of a petition to meet with the employees. This was followed by a November 2023 march on the sidewalk outside the Fairmont on Highway 12, culminating in a rally alongside the old Big 3 restaurant. 

Marty Bennett, a North Bay consultant for Unite Here, was the lead community organizer for the union on the campaign at the Fairmont. Bennett notes that since 2006 four hotels in Sonoma County have become unionized. Bennett points out the significance of this, considering that hospitality is one of the major industries comprising the low-wage, no-benefits service sector in the County. 

Sonya Karabal, researcher for UNITE HERE, states that at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn there are 280 members, which are all of the non-management hotel, spa, and restaurant employees.  Karabal added that there are  currently approximately 550 members in Sonoma County in UNITE HERE Local 2 in various hotels – Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn, Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country in Santa Rosa, AC Santa Rosa, and Petaluma Sheraton. Additionally, there are approximately 850 members in UNITE HERE Local 49 at the Graton Casino & Hotel, for a total of nearly 1,400 UNITE HERE members in Sonoma County. 

Karabal explained that the union contract with the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn sets pay scales and working conditions for members of the union bargaining unit. The union does not determine pay for managers or people outside of the bargaining unit. The wage increase went into effect in October 2024. Non-tipped workers like housekeepers and dishwashers have received a $4 raise already and will get $6.25 in raises over the life of the contract (through 2028.) Tipped workers have received a $2 raise already and will get $3.13 over the life of the contract.  

Other benefits in the contract include a pension, very affordable quality insurance with coverage for part-time employees, workload reductions for housekeepers, higher vacation pay for workers who rely on tips, eight paid holidays. There are also protections for immigrant workers, Karabal explained, for example, if an employee’s work authorization is found to be invalid, they have 24 months of preference to be rehired if they can fix their authorization.  

UNITE HERE is an acronym. The union was formed in 2004 by the merger of the Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Union.