Striking hospitality workers protest lack of negotiations
Thousands of hotel workers marched through downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, protesting “poverty wages” and the use of homeless migrants to replace striking hospitality employees as the labor unrest nears its fourmonth mark.
Unite Here Local 11, which represents the 15,000 employees involved in the walkout, said the most recent contract proposal from the hotels' Coordinated Bargaining Group falls short.
“The hotels did not meaningfully improve upon their prior position, offering no new money for wages, pension or health insurance,” Unite Here said in a statement. “Amid soaring housing costs, workers have been demanding wages that will enable them to afford to live in the communities where they work.”
Many hotel employees commute hours to and from work, the union said, with some reportedly sleeping in their cars.
CBG's latest offer includes an immediate $2.50 wage increase and a pay hike of $4 within the first nine months of the contract. By the end of the sixyear contract, workers at most of the hotels would see a $9-an-hour pay increase, union officials said.
The proposal also offers additional pension contributions and provides for the continuation of employees' healthcare coverage.
CBG spokesman Keith Grossman said Unite Here “remains unwilling to engage in actual good-faith negotiations.”
“The union appears to want to continue to hurt Los Angeles and negatively impact our employees by continuing its Los Angeles boycott and its intermittent work stoppages,” Grossman said recently.
Rep. Adam Schiff, DBurbank, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Donald Norcross, DN.J., introduced legislation Wednesday that would make striking workers eligible for unemployment insurance benefits after 14 days of striking.
Dubbed the “Empowering Striking Workers Act,” the bill has been endorsed by the United Auto Workers, American Federation of Teachers, Writers Guild of America-West and California Labor Federation, among others.
“We know that strong unions are vital to a strong middle class,” Schiff said in introducing the bill.
Southern California's hotel strike began over the July 4 weekend. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Biltmore Los Angeles and Loews Hollywood are the only ones that have reached tentative labor agreements with the union.
Unite Here workers are currently picketing the Pasadena Hilton, the Hyatt Place Pasadena, the DoubleTree San Pedro, the Hotel Maya in Long Beach and the Laguna Cliffs Marriott in Dana Point.
Then there's the issue of replacement workers, some of whom are living at the Union Rescue Mission shelter on Skid Row.
L.A. County District Attorney George GascÓn announced this week he has launched an investigation into the working conditions of homeless refugees who have been hired by hotels during the ongoing strike.
“We take these egregious allegations with the utmost seriousness,” GascÓn said in a statement. “The mistreatment of vulnerable workers and their exploitation will not be tolerated.”
In one instance, a minor is alleged to have missed school in order to work at a hotel, the union said, and some refugees say the paychecks they receive have little or no documentation regarding the hours they worked.
Southern California has emerged as ground zero for worker rallies, pickets and strikes.
More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees, including 23,000 in Southern California, reached a tentative labor agreement with the health care giant on Oct. 13 that will boost wages by 21%, increase staffing and provide other workplace benefits to employees.
That came on the heels of a three-day strike, with the threat of another walkout looming.
An estimated 700 workers at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank are on strike this week, claiming severe understaffing and high turnover are impacting patient care.
Employees at Prime Healthcare hospitals in Lynwood, Inglewood, Garden Grove and Encino held a five-day strike the week of Oct. 9 to protest severe understaffing that they say has impacted patient care.
Cooks and cashiers at a McDonald's in East Los Angeles also staged a lunchtime walkout Tuesday, claiming kitchen temperatures soared to nearly 100 degrees during last week's heat wave.