For 17 years, Joe Skluzacek worked busing tables at the Thunderbird Hotel and Convention Center. He loved the work and his customers and the customers loved him back. But just before Christmas, the 43-year old developmentally delayed worker was abruptly told he no longer had a job.

UNITE HERE Local 17 says about 25 of 70 workers it represented at the hotel were similarly terminated during a purported management and ownership change. The landmark Thunderbird, with its distinctive Native American decor, became the "Ramada Inn Airport at Mall of America."

"They point-blank, face to face, told those workers, 'don't worry, everybody will have their job,'" says Rita Leckie, Local 17 business representative and former longtime waitress at the Thunderbird.

Workers were told they would need to reapply for their jobs, however, during the shuffle of names of management and ownership.

Joe Skluzacek stands outside the former Thunderbird Hotel (now a Ramada Inn) where he worked 17 years busing dishes until he was discharged Dec. 12. Skluzacek, 43, is a developmentally delayed worker. His job there helped allow him to live independently. Labor Review photo

Under the successor clause of UNITE HERE Local 17's contract, the new management company signed the same contract that the old management company had signed. "They didn't ask for any changes whatsoever in the contract," Leckie said.

Notably, the new chief manager ? Kevin Sawatsky, who signed the new contract Nov. 7 ? was also the old general manager who had signed the previous contract.

"Some of the principals in the corporation are the same people," Leckie observes. "We took the position that it was the same company."

The hatchet fell, however, Dec. 12 and 13 when 25 employees received final paychecks and were abruptly told they no longer had jobs. Many of the workers discharged were longtime employees in their 40s and older.

"It's our position at this time that there was no just cause to discharge any of these people," Leckie said.

"They told us we'd all have our jobs back and then bam, 25 of us lose our jobs," said Craig Delano, 43, a 24-year employee who worked in the banquet set-up department.

"Before we got let go, the general manager told me, don't worry, you'll have a job," said Pat Webber, 44, another developmentally delayed worker with 13 years at the hotel as a bus person.

"This is going to be really hard to pull out of financially," said Nancy Strand, 53, a server with 17-1/2 years seniority. "I don't want a job that will take all my time at one-half the wages I was making."

Employees who wrote to the new management asking why they no longer had a job received a reply on the former management company's letterhead. "The hotel was sold, and since the Thunderbird no longer owned the hotel, the Thunderbird needed no employees," the letter read.

Local 17 is exploring what to do next. "We have a signed contract. We're prohibited from picketing or calling a boycott," Leckie said. Arbitration may be one route.

The discharged workers are eligible for unemployment benefits. Individual workers may be filing age discrimination charges.

"I'm 58 years old. It's going to be hard for me to find another job," said Connie Boswell, an 11-year housekeeper.

Steve Share edits the Labor Review, the official publication of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council. E-mail him at laborreview@mplscluc.com