Union Blues in Old Town

The 30-acres of partially reconstructed adobe buildings, contemporary restaurants and gift shops known as Old Town in San Diego is one of those places the tourists flock to and the locals avoid. And yet, it wasn't always this way. Jane and I visit the area roughly once a month or so, largely because it's a short bike ride away along a pleasant river pathway. We've only known it since the entire park switched hands and was taken over by New York company Delaware North in 2005, following a fierce and bitter bidding war against local businesswoman Diane Powers, who had held Old Town's concession contract for over 30 years. Part of the state's goal in opening up the contract was to shift the park's atmosphere away from the flashy spread of Powers' design and towards a supposedly more authentic 1850s-California feel. Too much adobe seems to have scared the visitors away - revenues from some of the vendors and concessions are down 66% from 2005, the last year Diane Powers held ownership.

What this means is that Old Town is about to change ownership once more, this time to local restaurateur Chuck Ross under the name Old Town Family Hospitality. I gather from word-of-mouth and newspaper reports that part of Old Town's stunning drop in revenue was a direct result of a successful local boycott of the park - hurt feelings over the bidding war and a general dislike of the revamped park seems to have sustained heavy damage. I've always found Old Town to be pretty silly, what with hired actors strolling the grounds in period costume, totally-inappropriate Cajun restaurants placed inside quasi-historic buildings, and plenty of trinket and junk shops to entice sunburned tourists. If the state mandate was to make the park more authentic, I can't imagine what it looked like before. Still, I wasn't here before the switch, and I can't blame locals for avoiding something they dislike.

But one major change coming to the park thanks to the new takeover will be the destruction of the unions that over 150 Old Town workers belong to. Federal law requires the union to stay in place if more than 50% of union members maintain their jobs with the new company, Old Town Family Hospitality. The best way around such a requirement, of course, is to fire every union member and suggest they reapply for their old jobs with no guarantees. The new owners have suggested that many will not be re-hired so that the company will not inherit the union. Old Town Family Hospitality points to the struggling economy as dictating such restructuring - union leaders argue that the company will make most of their savings by eliminating the excellent health-care benefits union members currently enjoy.

This is a depressingly familiar story. What is even more depressing is my suspicion that locals were stirred to activist outrage when Old Town lost several popular restaurants and decorations, but may have little reaction when 150 employees lose their jobs because they dared to organize. I try and avoid looking at reader comments on our local newspaper's website, largely because the comments are so often uninformed and strident, but a simple comparison of two recent stories on the matter confirmed my suspicions on local attitudes. A report on the economic woes of the park resulted in several long posts expressing animosity towards Delaware North and reflections on the Old Town atmosphere they remembered. The story on the dismantling of the unions has resulted in far fewer comments, one of which is a gleeful, "Bye bye unions! You want a job? Take what you can get. The days of guaranteed pay raises and pension plans is over."

The fact that people felt strongly enough about a concession contract to effectively impact the company's business speaks strongly for the power the average well-informed consumer can still wield. I'd like to see a similar boycott enacted against the new owners and their campaign to inflict massive layoffs on park employees for the purpose of gutting health care benefits. But something tells me that union busting won't upset the community the way shutting down Casa de Bandini and their wide-rimmed margaritas did.