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Business Jul 01, 2023
Unite Here Local 11 members prepare for a strike by hotel hospitality workers in the Southland. | Photo courtesy of UniteHere11/Instagram
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The union representing up to 15,000 workers employed at 65 major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties said in an Instagram post that their members “could strike at any moment” during the Fourth of July weekend.
The Friday post under the hashtags #strikeready, #socalhotelstrike and #lahotelstrike, includes a picture of workers assembling strike signs and a banner reading, “WE ARE READY TO STRIKE.”
It further asks followers to consider supporting their efforts.
The union has not said when the mostly hospitality workers could walk off the job, but have promised whatever action they take would include a peaceful sit-in at Los Angeles International Airport.
The contract between the hotels and Unite Here Local 11 expired at 12:01 a.m. Saturday although the union reached a deal Wednesday night with the largest of their employers, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown LA.
Contract agreements are unresolved with the remaining hotels, which include the Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott L.A. Live, the Beverly Hilton, Fairmont Miramar, Anaheim Hilton, and Four Seasons Regent Beverly Wilshire.
Hotel officials have told reporters their facilities will remain open with management and other nonunion staff filling in if the union strike materializes.
Meanwhile, Westin officials said their deal calls for higher pay and benefits.
Unite Here said that once the Westin contract is ratified, the 600 workers at the Bonaventure will enjoy:
— unprecedented wage increases to keep pace with the soaring cost of housing in Southern California
— affordable, excellent family healthcare
— humane and safe staffing that will return jobs and hours to prepandemic level
— pension contribution increases so that workers can retire with dignity and
— numerous improvements, including historic Equal Justice language that, among other things, will provide access to union jobs for formerly incarcerated individuals and ban the use of E-Verify in hiring.
“With these extraordinary raises, I will no longer have to choose between paying my rent and putting food on the table for my family,” one employee, Nancy Cerrato of Westin’s housekeeping department, said in a union statement. “We have given our lives to this industry. We deserve respect and to be able to afford to live in the city where we work.”
On June 8, 96% of the union’s members approved a strike authorization that could result in one of the nation’s largest ever hotel worker strikes.
Union officials said a recent survey of its members showed that 53% said they have moved in the past five years or will move in the near future because of soaring housing costs in the Los Angeles area.
“Hotel workers who work in the booming Los Angeles tourism industry must be able to live in Los Angeles,” union Co-President Kurt Petersen told CNN. He said the strike vote “sends a clear message to the industry that workers have reached their limit and are prepared to strike to secure a living wage.”
Union officials said their members earn $20 to $25 an hour. Negotiators are asking for an immediate $5 an hour raise and an additional $3 an hour in subsequent years of the contract along with improvements in health care and retirement benefits.
With the Westin contract settled, the Coordinated Bargaining Group is negotiating on behalf of 44 of the other unionized hotels. The remaining 21 hotels would adhere to that same agreement.
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