Two women file harassment claims against Long Beach Yacht Club

Two women have filed complaints with the California Civil Rights Department, alleging they faced sex-based harassment while working at the Long Beach Yacht Club over the last three years. 

The two women, Julianne Perez and Vanessa Wainer, allege they experienced verbal abuse, intimidation and harassment from the club’s executive chef, Ken Haselwood, whom they say specifically targeted pregnant women. In their complaints, they say they raised their concerns with the club’s human resources department and the Long Beach Yacht Club General Manager Norm Rich multiple times over the last three years and their concerns were never addressed. 

The complaints to the California Civil Rights Department were filed on April 20. Then on May 5, local labor union Unite Here Local 11 organized a rally outside of the Yacht Club in support of Perez and Wainer, calling for the “fair and humane treatment of women and pregnant workers.” The union represents over 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California. 

Long Beach Yacht Club General Manager Rich said in an email to the Signal Tribune on June 5 that he believes Unite Here Local 11 made these accusations “as a means of gaining an unfair advantage” in the current labor negotiations happening between the Yacht Club and the labor union. 

“We have investigated the general allegations of mistreatment by our executive chef and have found them to be wholly and completely without merit,” Rich said in an email. 

The Claims Against Long Beach Yacht Club

Perez began working at the Long Beach Yacht Club in 2022 as a chef. Perez called herself “the tool” in the kitchen, since she would often help everyone out in any way she could. She said when Haselwood began working as the executive chef in late 2022, he was “quiet, observant, friendly and welcoming.” 

However, he quickly began making changes as Perez claims Haselwood told the staff to stop talking while working and would not allow them to play Mexican music, allegedly saying, “We’re not a Mexican restaurant. We can’t be playing Mexican music here.” 

Perez alleges that Haselwood would get in his workers’ faces “to physically intimidate them … mostly to female employees” and would make comments about women faking whenever they called out sick. 

When Perez became pregnant in January 2023, she claims Haselwood’s demeanor toward her shifted drastically. Due to her pregnancy, Perez says she would need help from her coworkers to lift heavy kitchen equipment and wasn’t as quick as before. In her complaint, Perez alleges that Haselwood began making “degrading comments,” as well as “puffing up and getting close to my face” to intimidate her. 

During this time, Perez allegedly discovered Haselwood was timing her bathroom breaks, but no one else’s. She claims he would also “scold” her if she took too long. 

“He would time me so often that I found myself holding in my urge to go to the restroom, and even urinate myself at times, just to avoid his discipline,” Perez wrote in her complaint to the California Civil Rights Department. 

Around this time, in 2024, Wainer claims she found Perez crying in the bathroom stalls at work. Wainer wrote in her complaint that afterwards, she allegedly confronted Haselwood about his behavior toward Perez and asked him if he had been timing Perez’s bathroom breaks. He allegedly admitted that he was reviewing the Yacht Club’s cameras to time how long Perez was spending in the bathroom. 

“To my knowledge, [redacted] only timed and surveilled Julie [Perez] in this manner,” Wainer wrote in her complaint. She also claims that on a separate occasion, Haselwood questioned what Perez was doing in the bathroom in front of multiple other employees. 

Wainer also claims that Haselwood continued to harass Perez even while she was on maternity leave in 2024, allegedly mocking her to their coworkers after Perez requested an extended leave due to postpartum depression. 

Perez told the Signal Tribune she went to the Long Beach Yacht Club’s human resources department “several times.” “They would write things down and say, ‘We’ll talk to him,’” Perez said, adding that nothing ever came from these complaints. 

“I also know that I am not the only woman who has suffered from [redacted’s] behavior, and overall, there is a pervasive culture of fear at the Yacht Club that has made it challenging for me to speak up,” Perez wrote in her complaint. 

As of the time of publication, Haselwood is still listed as Executive Chef on the Long Beach Yacht Club’s website. 

Wainer alleges she had also witnessed Haselwood speak about women in degrading and discriminatory ways throughout her time of employment at the Yacht Club as a housekeeping manager, from 2023 to 2025. When Wainer mentioned her plans to get married, she claims Haselwood told her that he “hates women” and “viewed all women as money hungry liars because his wife cheated on him.” Wainer wrote that she tried to avoid Haselwood at work afterwards. 

Wainer claims Haselwood’s treatment of her also got worse when she got pregnant in 2024. On multiple occasions, she alleges Haselwood called pregnant women “lazy,” while she herself worked up to two weeks before going into labor to help the club during its busy season. 

On the first day Wainer returned from her maternity leave in March 2025, she claims Haselwood began yelling at her while she was on lunch break. Multiple coworkers checked in on her afterwards, and her husband drove to the Yacht Club to check on her well-being, the complaint alleges. 

When she went to the human resources department about the incident, she claims they told her, “Oh my god that guy has anger management issues. He is going to get us in trouble.” It’s unclear if Haselwood received any disciplinary action afterwards, though Wainer alleges the club’s general manager told her to be patient with him. 

Wainer resigned in October 2025 and wrote in her complaint that Haselwood “created an atmosphere that made working at the Yacht Club a miserable and stressful experience.” 

When Perez got pregnant a second time in 2025, she claims she became so stressed at work she began experiencing “anxiety attacks, stomach pains, and nightmares.” She alleges that Haselwood screamed and slammed a tray down in the kitchen after finding out that Perez was ordered by her doctor to only work in four-hour shifts after being diagnosed with pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel. 

She also claims Haselwood continuously made comments about her working four-hour shifts, both in private and in front of other coworkers. 

“All the stress I was feeling during my second pregnancy in particular made me fear that I was risking my baby’s life…” Perez wrote in her complaint. 

Shortly after these incidents, Perez wrote that she was crying in the bathroom when the director of member services allegedly suggested she start her maternity leave early, meaning Perez would lose two months of income. 

Perez is currently on maternity leave with her second child. She told the Signal Tribune that she’s scared, nervous to return to work and fearful of retaliation. 

“I do not want anyone else at the Yacht Club, especially other women and expecting mothers, to experience what I’ve been through,” Perez wrote in her complaint. 

The two women are requesting that the California Civil Rights Department investigate the Yacht Club’s “failure to correct and prevent sexual harassment, and its failure to foster a safe work environment where everyone is treated with respect.”