THE 2023-2024 CONTRACT 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 had the opportunity to reclaim the right to live and work in their community. 

UNITE HERE Local 11 lined up over 60 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.

It was nearly a year-long fight, but through the strike we won unprecedented contracts that have changed the lives of thousands of hotel workers.

NBCLA: Hotel Workers and Security Clash at Strike

 

Multiple Unions Vow Financial Support for Hotel Worker Strike

Broad labor movement support raises possibility of prolonged conflict

Los Angeles – California unions announced their pledge of financial support for hotel workers who have been leading the largest wave of hotel strikes in modern history.  Collectively, the unions pledging support represent 2.1 million workers.

“At this moment when workers of practically every industry are coming together to take a stand, we as union leaders can do no less,” said Yvonne Wheeler, the President of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. “I am proud that our union sisters and brothers have come together to pool our resources to back each other up.”

The coalition of unions includes the California Federation of Labor, California Teachers Association, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, UFCW 770, UFCW Local 324, SEIU USWW, California State Firefighters’ Association, and IBEW Local 11. All of them have pledged the following:

“We will back UNITE HERE Local 11’s strikes financially and otherwise until they win. Securing living wages and financial security for working people remains forever and always our number one priority. When we fight together, we win for everyone.”

Lorena Fletcher Gonzalez, the Executive Secretary Treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, stated: “The labor movement membership in California is one of the largest in the world, and when we stand together we can match the strength and resources of any corporation.  This is how we win strikes – through the power of our solidarity.”

UNITE HERE Local 11 Co-President Kurt Petersen praised the move, stating: “We hear from the hotel companies that they think striking workers will have to cave because they don’t have the same financial resources as the multi-billion dollar companies who are enjoying record profits. The pledge to back us up takes that power away from them. The bosses always underestimate the power of their workers and the labor movement.”

SoCal Hotel Workers Call for Boycott of Three Properties Following Employer Violence

Southern California: Hotel workers at the Hotel Maya in Long Beach, Laguna Cliffs Marriott Dana Point, and Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica are calling for a boycott because of management’s use or condoning of violence during the largest hotel strike in U.S. history. The boycott announcement comes as conventions, such as the American Political Science Association, arrive in the region.

“I was punched in the face while peacefully protesting for a living wage, and hotel security and management not only did nothing to stop the violence, but actually participated in it by trying to forcibly relocate our picket line using a chain link fence. I don’t have health insurance and now on top of worrying about my bills, I have to figure out how to pay my medical expenses,” said Carlos Cheverri Canalés. “I ask the public to not spend a single penny at the Hotel Maya until they commit to paying a fair wage and ending violence against strikers.”

“For 38 years I have welcomed guests into Santa Monica, but the moment I stood up for a better life for me and my family, security tackled me to the ground while we were trying to establish a picket line in front of the hotel.” said German Martinez, dishwasher at Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica. “My legs and arms may be bruised, but my will to keep going is not. That’s why I am calling for a boycott.”

While picketing, Emilse Pineda was punched in the head by a guest at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Dana Point. “I was in shock as the punch came out of the blue,” recalls the housekeeper. “I reported the incident to hotel security, but they did nothing to help identify the man or remove him. I felt almost drunk and woozy and had headaches over the next several days. The day after the punch, I passed out and the paramedics were called. As far as I know, the hotel has done nothing about this incident.”

Last week,  UNITE HERE Local 11 filed a federal unfair labor practice charge against these hotels and the hotel industry’s bargaining group, the Coordinated Bargaining Group, alleging that the group of employers have interfered with their employees’ right to organize by unlawfully committing and/or condoning violence against employees in response to strike and picket activity, in particular at the Hotel Maya, the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica, and the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa in Dana Point. The Westin Bonaventure has come to an agreement, leaving 60 hotels with open contracts.

Kurt Petersen, Co-President of UNITE HERE Local 11 adds, “Our members have taken the step to ask the public not to ‘eat, sleep, or meet’ at the three hotels – Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica, Maya Hotel in Long Beach and Laguna Cliffs Marriott – where hotels used or condoned violence to stop workers from fighting for wages that will enable them to live in the community where they work. We will not be intimidated at the bargaining table or the picket line.”

46 HOTELS HAVE GONE ON STRIKE

Already 46 hotels have gone on strike in LA and Orange County. We had an epic rally in downtown and six LA City Councilmembers joined the party. This is what five of them said.

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.