Loews "family" members have a story for ILCA

Workers at the Loews Hotel in downtown New Orleans feel blessed. They have jobs, they are getting their lives back, they feel secure and can see a future for themselves and their families. They also have something that few other workers in the city have, an employer that never hesitated to help them in their most trying time of need.

As Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans management and staff at the Loews Hotel were doing all they could to protect the customers and employees. Without thought, the first nature of Lowes was to put all resources at work to make sure everyone at the hotel was safe and needs were met to help, shelter or evacuate everyone they could.

The storm is history and the disaster is in the record. The stories of trauma and despair were overwhelming. Acts of kindness, and mercy are blended with those of atrocity and neglect. It is easy to abandon values of compassion and humanity when everything around you has been wiped out. But at the Lowes hotel, first thoughts were about how everyone was going to survive. And their story is one that most people in the storm-ravaged city could only wish to have happened to them.

Lowes, the only union hotel left in the city, employs about 200 people, union members who belong to Unite-Here. The 285 room Poydras Street hotel is located across from Harrah’s Casino and 3 blocks from the river. It was built in this very popular area in 2003 as part of a development project that included $22 million in union pension funds. In the greater New Orleans area, most of which lies below sea level, those city areas closest to the river tend to have the highest elevation. After Katrina left its mess, storm waters and levee breaches didn’t dampen the caring spirit or reach the property of the hotel because their spot was above sea level and fortunately the tide of destruction.

Kelvin Jones knows how lucky the Lowes Hotel was to have physically suffered less than most. He works in the hotel’s engineering section. Kelvin has a family who all survived but lost his house and most of his worldly possessions to the storm. In this trying time, his employer was nothing but helpful in keeping him on the payroll while the hotel was closed, finding resources to help him recover from his losses, and providing shelter and housing at the hotel during and after the storm as he found ways to regroup and reclaim a part of his life while he worked to construct the rest. “ We are like a family here at the Lowes” says Kelvin. “When we all needed our family to help out after the storm, everyone was there helping out.”

Lowes was fortunate their building didn’t suffer extremely from the disastrous storm. Broken windows, water, wind and facility damage was not excessive enough to allow a faster schedule for a repair, recover and reopen plan than most businesses in the city. And they did move fast– by October 17, about 6 weeks after the storm, rooms were available and the staff were again serving customers. In all that time it had been clear to employees that no matter what the consequences, hotel management put them first on the list of things to deal with.

Ray Bruce, Human Resources director for the hotel says it is ingrained in company culture to care for their family. “Our employees are like family. After the storm we needed to do anything we could to help them. Our corporate headquarters pretty much said tell us what you need and we’ll get it there.”

Testimony of that blank check showed up a day after the request when an overnite package filled with cash arrived at the hotel from headquarters. Bruce and some of his managers needed the cash to help to provide fast assistance to workers in need. They traveled around the area checking the rolls of many of the shelters seeking their employees so they could give them cash to help them purchase transportation, housing, food, and find their way to more stable and accommodating environs away from the shelters.

Checks and credit cards, for those workers who might have them, were meaningless tender in a state where banks, ATMs, phones, retail and all financial systems were shut down. Along with the cash Lowes set up a disaster relief fund that provided workers with up to $2500 to assist employees as they needed and helped employees who left the city find jobs at other hotels.

Banquet staffer Deborah Luckete lost her house and possessions and knows she is fortunate to have such a helpful employer willing to treat her and her co-workers so well. “We were lucky to be here. So many others had no help and they are still struggling,” she said.

“ I’ll have my home back soon,” says Justin Donnaud a chef in the food services area. His St. Bernard Parish home was totally destroyed, torn down and a modular home will be placed on risers over the pad that was his previous foundation. “I’ve built my new home on 4 foot stilts – in the next flood I’ll only be flooded 4 feet.” he says. “These people here were incredible in helping me get back my life. You just don’t know what that means and how draining it can be unless you were here,” says Donnaud

Everyone agreed that family safety and survival was more important than homes and contents. Will Gordon who works in hotel services couldn’t be more thankful that his family all made it through Katrina. “Family mattered most to me. I lost it all but my family is still with me, that’s all that counts,” he said. Will was very appreciative of all that Lowes did to help him and his family. “They were very helpful and generous and my family owes a lot to them. We were more able to repair our lives because of the help we had.”

As with these people, the company helped all their employees any way they could. All the people who worked at Lowes prior to Katrina and came back looking for their jobs were accommodated. Others who left were helped in their quest to find jobs at other franchise hotels. The helping hand reached well beyond the Crescent City and is still extended to those who call says Ray Bruce. Many people have not returned because they just don’t have anywhere to stay. Those that did embark on a rebuilding plan of homes and lives in the city, very much needed a secure job to keep them going financially. All admit it’s a huge drain on ones person, but Lowes has been as helpful as possible in aiding its employees as they work through their reconstruction. This part of the storm trauma continues to impact them …and will for some time.

New Orleans is filled with stories of caring and compassion along with abandonment and callous neglect. It was a bit more difficult to find the employers that went out of their way to help, as did Loews, and they represent what everyone would wish to find in their times of need.

In this instance, for the workers at Lowes, they saw their employer as the silver lining, shining as bright as the Loews light on a dark New Orleans city night, in the stormy clouds that still linger 2 years post Katrina.

By Leo Canty

Photo

A few Loews "family" members

From right to left: Will Gordon-Hotel Services; Justin Donnaud-Food Services; Kelvin Jones –Engineering; Barbara Luckete–Banquet; Ray Bruce-Human Resources