Hospitality Workers Picket At Dana Point Hotel

DANA POINT, CA — Workers at dozens of major Southland hotels remained on strike Monday, forming boisterous picket lines beginning in pre-dawn hours at many hotels in an effort to secure higher pay and improvements in health care and retirement benefits.

"BREAKING: Southern California hotel workers are ON STRIKE! Thousands walked off the job at properties across DTLA & Santa Monica. Dozens more properties remain without a Union contract," Unite Here Local 11 tweeted at 6:01 a.m. Sunday, the first day of the strike.

That tweet was followed by several more that showed workers picketing Sunday morning at sites including the InterContinental in downtown Los Angeles, JW Marriott LA Live, Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Hotel Figueroa, Le Meridien Delfina Santa Monica, Viceroy Santa Monica, Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, Sheraton Universal Hotel, DoubleTree Los Angeles and Laguna Cliffs in Dana Point.

Picketing continued early Monday morning, with workers marching on sidewalks in front of hotels, chanting, waving signs and in some cases banging drums as they walked -- making it difficult for hotel guests to sleep.

The union, which represents up to 15,000 workers employed at 65 major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties, had announced Friday in an Instagram post that its members "could strike at any moment" during the Fourth of July weekend.

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 its employers, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles.

Contract agreements are unresolved with the remaining hotels.

Hotel officials have told reporters their facilities will remain open with management and other nonunion staff filling in if the union strike materializes.

On June 8, 96% of the union's members approved a strike authorization. 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.

The workers include thousands of cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellhops and front desk agents.

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.

The union is also seeking to create a hospitality workforce housing fund. Many union members say they're now commuting hours from areas like Apple Valley, Palmdale, California City and Victorville.

"Our members were devastated first by the pandemic, and now by the greed of their bosses," Unite Here Local 11 Co-President Kurt Petersen said in a statement put out by the union. "The industry got bailouts while we got cuts. Now, the hotel negotiators decided to take a four-day holiday instead of negotiating. Shameful."

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.

Representatives for the hotels accused workers of being inflexible in their demands.

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. From the outset, the union has shown no desire to engage in productive, good faith negotiations with this group," the reps said in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times.

Attorney Keith Grossman of Hirschfeld Kraemer, one of two firms representing the hotel coalition, told The Times that employers have offered raises of $2.50 an hour in the first 12 months and $6.25 over four years. He said housekeepers at unionized hotels in Beverly Hills and downtown Los Angeles, who currently make $25 per hour, would get a 10% wage increase in 2024 and make more than $31 per hour by January 2027.

"If there is a strike, it will occur because the union is determined to have one," Grossman said.

Some tweets showed members of the Writers Guild of America joining the hotel workers on picket lines in a show of support. Writers walked off the job on May 2 in a dispute with producers over compensation for streaming services and other issues, and continue to picket in front of studios.

City News Service