Representatives of the company that is leasing the restaurants at Bluebeard’s Castle Hotel met Thursday with the workers who were terminated from the hotel’s food and beverage staff. However, there is no word on the outcome of that meeting.
Reportedly, the meeting was to focus on the status of the terminated employees not yet rehired. Bluebeard’s Castle Director of Operations David M. Rice said this week that four of the workers let go on Tuesday have been rehired.
In explaining the decision to lease the food and beverage operations, Rice said Bluebeard’s operated them at a loss for as long as it could, and probably longer that it should have.
"For the past three years we have lost considerable money…in the first year we lost $100,000; the second year just as much and so far this year, we have lost over $50,000," Rice added stating that the hotel could not continue to operate food and beverage concessions at a loss. "At the end of the day, we had to take a close look at the bottom line," he said.
Under new ownership, Rice said that Bluebeard’s has a new approach to doing business, and no longer can or will operate with financial losses. "We do not want to ever operate something that is not profitable because we feel that if we are going to do something, we want to do it right," Rice said Thursday evening.
Bluebeard’s Castle management is aware of the way job terminations are being perceived by those sensitive to the plight of workers, but Rice said that the move was in keeping with sound business practices.
"We do live in a capitalistic society and there is a profit and loss issue. Anyone who has a business or has been involved in business can tell you, even those shouting from the rafters now about Bluebeard’s practices, that if their operation was in the red, they would pack it up."
Attempting to put the hotel and its decision in the best light, Rice insisted that Bluebeard’s Castle did its best to avoid the terminations which were handed out on Tuesday.
"If we were callous individuals and didn’t care about our workers, I do not believe we would have operated a restaurant which lost about $100,000 a year for three years. We would have shut it down after the first year."
As noted by a representative of the union that speaks for the terminated employees, Bluebeard’s Castle has enjoyed tax exemption benefits under the Industrial Development Program for a number of years. The Steelworkers Union representative Randolph Allen, suggests that beneficiary companies owe it to the community to provide jobs in exchange, but Rice contends that there should be no inference that a company must operate at a loss. "IDC does not say to anyone that if you’re operating at a loss you should continue to lose. If in one outlet of an operation you were losing $300,000 in a short period of time and your facility is enjoying the same $300,000 dollars in annual benefits, then you are not gaining anything by being an IDC beneficiary."
Rice notes that much of Bluebeard’s hotel operation has been converted to time share, which does not qualify for IDC benefits.
