Universal Orlando To Cut Over 800 Hotel Jobs
ORLANDO (CBSMiami/AP) — Over 800 employees at Universal Orlando Resort hotels will be losing their jobs as the state's theme park industry continues to be devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The employees at Hard Rock Hotel, Loews Portofino Bay Hotel and Cabana Bay Beach Resort were indefinitely furloughed or permanently terminated, according to a notice filed last week by the company Loews Hotels & Co.
A company director said in a letter to the state that the surge of confirmed cases in late June and July and other states' decisions to order Florida travelers to quarantine had caused a "sudden, dramatic and unexpected reversal in bookings."
The affected employees were not represented by a union. They work as cooks, chefs, servers, receptionists and housekeepers.
Loews Hotels & Co had already shut down two other Universal Orlando hotels due to the coronavirus' impact on tourism, The Orlando Sentinel reported.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
