L.A. County DA launches probe into hotels hiring refugees amid strike

When Sebastian and his family arrived in the U.S. earlier this year, they were fleeing violence from their home country of Venezuela.

They landed in Texas but ended up in Los Angeles and have been living at the Union Rescue Mission shelter on Skid Row ever since. Prospects for work seemed bleak, so when Sebastian (who declined to give his last name) was offered a job at the Le Meridien Delfina hotel in Santa Monica he was elated.

But his short-lived tenure there and at the Four Points Sheraton during Southern California's hotel strike has been anything but pleasant.

“I worked stocking housekeeping carts and towels,” the 34-year-old worker said, speaking through a translator. “But when they paid me it would be in cash, through Zelle … or other times I had to wait to get a check. It was confusing. And I was only able to work while a hotel was on strike.”

Sebastian's experience isn't unique. As the strike drags on, hotels have hired refugees — some of whom are homeless, according to Unite Here Local 11 — to fill in the gaps while employees are on the picket line.

L.A. County District Attorney George Gascon said he has launched an investigation into the working conditions of unhoused refugees who have been hired by Southern California hotels during the ongoing hotel strike.

The migrants include workers who entered the country to seek asylum in Texas and were bused to California and other states by Gov. Greg Abbott. Some are from Mexico and some are from Central America, while others hail from countries as far away as Venezuela.

Refugees and asylum seekers can legally seek work in the U.S., and federal labor laws allow businesses to hire replacement workers during strikes, a move unions refer to as “scab labor.”

Unite Here, which represents the 15,000 striking hotel employees, asked Gascon to investigate potential violations of wage and child labor laws by hotels and their subcontractors.

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.

“We take these egregious allegations with the utmost seriousness,” Gascon said in a statement issued Monday, Oct. 23. “The mistreatment of vulnerable workers and their exploitation will not be tolerated.”

Gascon said he will work with Unite Here and other stakeholders to ensure strict compliance with labor laws while protecting “the rights and dignity of all workers.”

At a news conference on Monday, state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, expressed anger over the allegations against the hotels and staffing agencies.

“It makes me furious,” said Durazo, who once served as president of Unite Here Local 11.

It also puts temporary migrant workers in an uncomfortable position. Sebastian said he was intimidated when he showed up to work at the Le Meridien Delfina and saw a hoard of striking hotel housekeepers, front desk workers, cooks and others out front.

“When I first saw them I thought, `What kind of work am I walking into?' he said. “But when I found out they are fighting for the rights things — that there is a necessity to the strike — I understood.”

Southern California's hotel strike began over the July 4 weekend and the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Biltmore Los Angeles and Loews Hollywood are the only ones that have reached tentative labor agreements with the union.

The Coordinated Bargaining Group, which represents the hotels, recently offered a six-year contract proposal aimed at breaking the labor gridlock.

It includes an immediate $2.50 wage increase and a total boost of $4 within the first nine months, and $9 in increases over the sixyear term for most LA hotels. The proposal also offers an increase in pension contributions and the continuation of affordable healthcare coverage.

“The proposal was a serious effort to jump-start the stalled negotiations,” CBG spokesman Keith Grossman said. “It gets meaningful money in employees' hands right away while also satisfying the union's request for a pension increase.”

Meanwhile, thousands of striking workers from 50 Southern California hotels marched through downtown L.A. on Wednesday to protest what they call “poverty wages and the hotels' exploitation of unhoused refugees to replace striking workers.”