Mon, July 3, 2023
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Workers picketed major Southern California hotels again Monday after walking off the job during the July Fourth weekend to demand better pay and benefits.
The strike by bellhops, front desk agents, room attendants, cooks, servers and dishwashers began early Sunday in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as summer tourism ramps up. Employers accused the union of failing to negotiate.
Members of Unite Here Local 11 voted last month in favor of authorizing the strike. In addition to higher wages, the union wants improved health care benefits, higher pension contributions and less strenuous workloads.
Contracts expired at midnight Friday at more than 60 hotels, including properties owned by major chains such as Marriott and Hilton. The strike affects about half of the 32,000 hospitality workers the union represents across Southern California and Arizona.
Osiris Gaona, a phone operator at InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, was joined on the picket line by her husband, 15-year-old son and 7-year-old granddaughter. They'll march again Tuesday, the Fourth of July, she said.
“We are hoping to send a message to the owners of all the hotels,” Gaona said. “We are asking for a pay raise because it costs so much to live here in California, especially in LA.”
The walkout comes amid holiday celebrations and a major anime convention in Los Angeles. The union, on its website, urged guests to “not eat, sleep or meet” at the striking hotels to support the workers. But it wasn't immediately clear whether the strike resulted in guests checking out early or lacking services.
It's the latest action by a restive labor movement in California.
Hollywood writers have been on strike since early May. In March, the giant Los Angeles Unified School District was shut down for three days by bus drivers, custodians and other support staff. Los Angeles teachers supported that strike and then reached a deal on their own contract without walking out. Oakland teachers went on strike for more than a week, and slowdowns occurred at the big ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach before West Coast dockworkers reached a tentative settlement in June. Actors also may strike.
The soaring cost of living in greater Los Angeles is a significant problem for hotel workers, according to the union.
Last week, a deal was reached with its biggest employer, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles, which has more than 600 union workers. Union officials described the tentative agreement, which provides higher pay and increased staffing levels, as a major win for workers.
Talks with other hotels — including the Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons Regent Beverly Wilshire and Anaheim Hilton, near Disneyland — were at a stalemate. A coalition of more than 40 hotels involved in talks accused union leaders of canceling a scheduled bargaining session and refusing to come to the table. The hotels have offered wage increases of $2.50 per hour in the first 12 months and $6.25 over four years, the group said.
“From the outset, the Union has shown no desire to engage in productive, good faith negotiations with this group,” the hotel coalition said in a statement Sunday. “The Union has not budged from its opening demand two months ago of up to a 40% wage increase and an over 28% increase in benefit costs.”
The work stoppage had been anticipated, and the properties are “fully prepared to continue to operate these hotels and to take care of our guests as long as this disruption lasts,” said Keith Grossman, a spokesperson for the coalition.
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Associated Press writers John Antczak and Christopher Weber contributed.
Korean Air airlines flight attendants are dropped off their bus on the street sidewalk of the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown as striking hotel workers rally outside Monday, July 3, 2023, in downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles-area hotel workers strike over wages, housing
Sun, July 2, 2023
By Steve Gorman and Gabriella Borter
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Thousands of Los Angeles-area hotel workers went on strike on Sunday demanding pay hikes and improved benefits in a region where high housing costs make it difficult for low-wage earners to live close to where they hold jobs, union officials said.
Unite Here Local 11, which represents 15,000 workers at more than 60 major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties, declared the strike a day after the workers' contract expired. It marks one of the largest strikes to hit the U.S. hospitality industry in recent years.
The labor dispute comes during the July Fourth holiday weekend as Southern California's busy summer travel season goes into high swing. It overlaps with a Hollywood screenwriters strike that was headed into a ninth week, already taking a toll on the Los Angeles economy and showbiz production.
Hotel workers, including housekeepers, dishwashers, cooks, waiters, bellhops and front-desk agents, struggle to afford housing in cities where they work, and many were idled during the COVID-19 pandemic while industry profits soared, the union said in a statement.
"Our members were devastated first by the pandemic and now by the greed of their bosses," union co-president Kurt Petersen said in a statement.
An industry bargaining group representing more than 40 hotels accused the union of political posturing, pursuing the strike as an organizing tool and failing to negotiate in good faith.
Several thousand workers walked off the job starting Sunday morning at about a dozen hotels, and the numbers are expected to grow as the strike wears on, union spokesperson Maria Hernandez said.
Among the hotels targeted the first day, she said, were the InterContinental, Hotel Indigo, Millennium Biltmore and JW Marriott LA Live in downtown Los Angeles, as well as the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica, the Sheraton Universal in Universal City and Laguna Cliffs Marriott in Dana Point.
The industry bargaining group said its hotels would remain open with management and non-union staff filling in for striking workers.
The union reached a contract deal on Friday with the largest of its employers, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown L.A., averting a strike against that property, Hernandez said.
She urged the industry's negotiating coalition, the Coordinated Bargaining Group, "to follow the lead of the Westin Bonaventure."
TWO SIDES FAR APART
The bargaining group was negotiating on behalf of 44 unionized hotels, with the remaining 21 expected to go along with whatever settlement is reached, according to the Los Angeles City News Service.
The union said its workers earn $20 to $25 an hour and is demanding an immediate increase of $5 an hour and an additional $3 an hour in subsequent years of the contract, plus improved healthcare and retirement benefits.
Both the union and management said the hotel group has countered by proposing wage hikes of $2.50 an hour in the first 12 months and $6.25 over four years for most workers. Wages for housekeepers in Beverly Hills and downtown Los Angeles who currently earn $25 an hour would rise 10% next year and to more than $31 by 2027, under the industry's offer.
Unite Here also is seeking creation of a hospitality workforce housing fund, which according to management would be funded with a new 7% tax on guests staying at unionized hotels.
The union cites survey results showing 53% of hotel workers have either been forced to move in the past five years or will move in the near future due to soaring housing costs. Many workers report having to commute hours from areas where they live far outside the cities where they work, the union said.
Los Angeles has been a flashpoint for labor strife on several fronts this year, including the protracted writers strike and a three-day walkout in March by education support staff for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The union representing 22,000 dockworkers at the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and other West Coast terminals reached a contract deal in June after 13 months of protracted labor talks, averting a strike that could have disrupted U.S. supply chains.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Mary Milliken and Josie Kao)
Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California are on strike, demanding better pay and benefits
Sun, July 2, 2023
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California walked off the job on Sunday, demanding higher pay and better benefits in what the union is calling the largest strike in its history.
Cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents at hotels were picketing outside major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as the summer tourist is ramping up.
Last month, members of Unite Here Local 11 voted 96% in favor of authorizing the strike. The union is seeking better wages, improved health care benefits, higher pension contributions and less strenuous workloads.
In addition, the union wants to create a “hospitality workforce housing fund” to help workers deal with the soaring costs of living in greater Los Angeles. Many employees report commuting hours to work because they can't afford to live near their jobs.
“Our members were devastated first by the pandemic, and now by the greed of their bosses,” union co-president Kurt Petersen said in a statement. “The industry got bailouts while we got cuts.”
Contracts expired midnight on Friday at more than 60 hotels, including properties owned by major chains such as Marriott and Hilton. The strike affects about half of the 32,000 hospitality workers the union represents across Southern California and Arizona.
Last week, a deal was reached with its biggest employer, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles, which has more than 600 union workers. Union officials described the tentative agreement, which provides higher pay and increased staffing levels, as a major win for workers.
Talks with other hotels were at a stalemate. A coalition of more than 40 hotels involved in talks accused union leaders of canceling a scheduled bargaining session and refusing to come to the table. The hotels have offered wage increases of $2.50 per hour in the first 12 months and $6.25 over four years, the group said.
“From the outset, the Union has shown no desire to engage in productive, good faith negotiations with this group,” the hotel coalition said in a statement Sunday. “The Union has not budged from its opening demand two months ago of up to a 40% wage increase and an over 28% increase in benefit costs.”
The work stoppage was expected, and the properties are “fully prepared to continue to operate these hotels and to take care of our guests as long as this disruption lasts,” said Keith Grossman, a spokesperson for the coalition.
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