With the pandemic severely restricting travel, the Radisson Blu Minneapolis Downtown hotel will lay off 126 workers beginning Nov. 9, according to a notice filed last week with the state of Minnesota.
Radisson Blu Minneapolis Downtown to cut 126 jobs due to COVID-19
Hotels, airlines, convention-related businesses and stores have been greatly disrupted by the global pandemic.
September 16, 2020 at 2:43AM
Radisson Hotel Group "is experiencing unforeseen financial consequences associated with the national COVID-19 crisis," Melinda Muharemovic, the company's human resources director, wrote in a Sept. 8 letter.
As a result, 126 people will be permanently laid off from their jobs at the flagship hotel on S. Seventh Street between Nicollet Mall and Hennepin Avenue.
Full-time, nonunion workers will receive severance pay. Some affected workers belong to the Unite Here Local 17 union and will have "bumping rights" under their collective bargaining agreement. That contract will let some workers retain their jobs at the same time a different worker is displaced. It is not yet known how many union employees may exercise bumping rights.
Hotels, airlines, convention-related businesses and stores have been greatly disrupted by the global pandemic that forced many states to shut businesses, restrict travel and order visitors to quarantine.
The job cuts at Radisson Blu were mostly due to a "catastrophic loss of business for the company's services on a nationwide scale due to the COVID-19 pandemic," Muharemovic said. "The public health concerns have resulted in significantly reduced travel as individuals are urged to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19."
Radisson Blu joins a long line of Minnesota companies letting go workers as a result of the economic fallout from coronavirus. The Mall of America in Bloomington announced it is laying off 211 workers effective Sept. 30 due to the economic wallop thrown by the virus.
The Levy Premium Foodservice at the Xcel Center in St. Paul said it furloughed 527 workers in March and permanently laid off 14 additional workers in August because of COVID-19.
Airport Management Services and Hudson Group informed the state on Aug. 31 that it was laying off about 61 employees at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport between July 31 and Oct. 1.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) said it has dispatched its Ready Response Team to offer assistance to those affected.
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The governor said it may be 2027 or 2028 by the time the market catches up to demand.
