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THE2023CONTRACT FIGHT

Since the pandemic, the region’s largest economic engine, the tourism industry, is celebrating record profits while hospitality workers are overworked, fighting to stay housed and alive. In 2023, workers have the opportunity to reclaim the right to live and work in their community.

UNITE HERE Local 11 has lined up over 100 contracts to expire this year, with the goal to lift the low standards of service workers, as the city of Los Angeles prepares for the World Cup (2026) and the Olympics (2028). We are ready to welcome millions to the region, and we intend to seize the moment to ensure our place in the economic boom headed our way.

Striking Hotel Workers Denounce Company Violence on Picket Lines; Hundreds to Rally in DTLA

Los Angeles: Hundreds of striking hotel workers will picket and rally at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown and announce the filing of an Unfair Labor Practice charge against the hotel industry’s Coordinated Bargaining Group, which represents a majority of LA’s unionized hotel employers, including Hyatt, Hilton, IHG, and Marriott.

The mass action and announcement of legal filing will denounce a pattern of ugly episodes of violence on picket lines at hotels where workers have been on strike. On Saturday, striking hotel workers led a peaceful march through Santa Monica that ended at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows, where the workers and supporters were attacked and tackled to the ground by hotel security as they sought to establish a picket line. Video of the violent episode has gone viral.

Another violent episode occurred on Saturday in Long Beach. Hotel security personnel including a manager at the Maya Hotel sought to forcibly relocate striking workers using a chain link fence while a guest ran around the fence and punched a worker in the head, pushing at least two others.

At the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Dana Point, which is owned by the University of California Retirement Fund and operated by Aimbridge, workers have been repeatedly assaulted,   threatened and had property destroyed.  The Union alleges that hotel security personnel have failed to assist the Union in identifying guests who have engaged in such conduct, and, in one instance, a hotel security leader allegedly told a guest who had threatened to assault workers that the guest should do what he wanted to do and that the security head would testify on the guest’s behalf.

Last week, John Tesar, the “celebrity chef” behind the Laguna Cliffs’ Knife Modern Steak restaurant, approached striking workers and broke a drum one of the workers was holding.  He then told the striking workers:  “Take your union and shove it up your ass.  Suck my d___.  You are a bad person. … You’re a lazy pendeja.” While Aimbridge has claimed that Tesar “has been removed from the property while we continue to investigate this incident,” his relationship to the hotel remains uncertain and, as far as the Union is aware, there have been no consequences for any company personnel or guests for the threatening and violent conduct perpetrated against the workers.

Thousands of workers continue to strike at hotels in or around West Hollywood, LAX, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Long Beach. In total, workers at 46 hotels across LA and Orange Counties have struck in the last month in the largest hotel strike in California history.

Workers are calling on the industry to follow the lead of the Westin Bonaventure, which has reached a tentative agreement that includes a living wage that will enable workers to afford to live in the cities where they work. Yet, rather than agree to provide workers the wages and benefits they are calling for, the hotel industry has tried to curtail workers’ ability to protest and in some cases condoned violence against them, even as the hotels charge top dollar for rooms during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour six-day run at SoFi Stadium.

STATEMENT ON VIOLENCE AT THE FAIRMONT MIRAMAR

Fairmont Miramar workers being attacked by the security guards at the hotel!

MERCEDES FLORES

Meet Mercedes Flores, a housekeeper and worker leader at the Sheraton Grand in DTLA. This is why she has gone on strike.

RAFAEL CASTRO

Rafael has worked at the Westin LAX for 30 years. He is fighting for the five pillars; wages, health insurance, a pension, affordable housing, and fair workloads.

WHO OWNS THE STREETS?

Hotel Housekeepers Ask Taylor Swift to Postpone Her Shows in LA

A week before her Eras Tour hits Los Angeles, dozens of hotel housekeepers published an open letter to Taylor Swift in the Los Angeles Times, asking her to support their fight for a wage that allows them to live in the city where they work. Hotels are expected to reap enormous profits from the “Swift Lift,” which has been compared to multiple consecutive Super Bowls in light of its economic benefits for the hospitality industry.

Hotel Housekeepers Ask Taylor Swift to Postpone L.A. Eras Tour Unless Hotels Pay a Living Wage

Los Angeles, CA: A week before her Eras Tour hits Los Angeles, dozens of hotel housekeepers published an open letter to Taylor Swift in the Los Angeles Times, asking her to support their fight for a wage that allows them to live in the city where they work. Hotels are expected to reap enormous profits from the “Swift Lift,” which has been compared to multiple consecutive Super Bowls in light of its economic benefits for the hospitality industry.

Housekeepers are asking Swift to postpone her six scheduled concerts in Los Angeles until they are paid a living wage. Earlier this week, Snoop Dogg canceled his upcoming concert at the Hollywood Bowl in solidarity with striking writers and actors.

The letter also points to some unexpected commonalities between hotel housekeepers and megastar Swift, comparing their fight against the hotel industry’s use of “junk fees”–extra charges that are tacked onto room rates that benefit companies, not workers–to Swift’s crusade against Ticketmaster adding junk fees to her fans’ concert tickets. As a staunch advocate for empowering women, Swift even shared the pages of TIME Magazine’s 2017 “Silence Breakers” issue with two hotel workers from Los Angeles who had also spoken out against sexual harassment.

Now, hotel housekeepers are asking for her support as they fight for a living wage. Hotel workers have reported having to sleep in their cars between shifts. Many struggle to stay housed. This plight is shared by thousands of hotel workers across 43 hotels in the L.A. area who have gone on strike in the past month for living wages, healthcare and a pension. So far, only the Westin Bonaventure has reached a tentative agreement with the Union to pay a living wage that will enable workers to afford to live in the city where they work.

The Federal Reserve has reported that Swift’s Eras Tour has significantly boosted the hospitality industry in nearly every city she has performed in, raising hotel room rates by orders of magnitude. Currently, Swift is set to perform at SoFi Stadium on August 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.The ongoing hotel worker labor unrest in Los Angeles has caused groups such as the Democratic Governors Association, the Japanese American Citizens League, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Vanderpump Rules to cancel their events.

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