UNITE HERE local 11 represents hospitality workers in five major airports in Southern California and Arizona. We represent servers, baristas, cooks, bartenders and other concession and retail workers at LAX, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, John Wayne Airport, Long Beach Airport, and the Ontario Airport.
Our members work for HMS Host, SSP, Hudson News, Areas, Paradies, to name a few. We also represent airline catering workers who work for Sky Chefs and Flying Food Group.
DEFEND THE WAGE PRESS CONFERENCE
Don’t let the airport and hotels CEOs’ deceptive ballot initiative take money out of the pockets of hard-working LA families! If someone approaches you to sign a ballot measure this month, DON’T SIGN. Instead, report their location at defendthewage.la or by calling (909) 326-0042. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!
LA DAILY NEWS: LA tourism workers rally against referendum to overturn $30 minimum wage
PRESS RELEASE: Tourism Workers Launch “Defend The Wage LA” Campaign for $30 Olympic Wage and Other Protections Against Billionaire Bosses’ Misleading Petition
Los Angeles: Over a hundred room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, airline catering and airport workers, volunteers and allies announced massive field efforts “Defend The Wage LA” to inform the public of the misleading petition led by the tourism industry to overturn the Olympic Wage.
Workers are urging voters not to sign the misleading petition and encouraging the public to report any petition gatherers online or by calling the Defend The Wage hotline at 909-326-0042.
“I didn’t fight for over two years for this wage because I want to buy another yacht like the CEO’s backing the phony petition. I fought for the Olympic wage so that I could keep a roof over my head and provide for my family back in Honduras. I am planning to move to Louisiana with my husband because the $20.63 is not enough, living in Los Angeles is becoming more impossible every day.” said Maria Torres, dishwasher at Flying Food Group, an airline catering company that prepares meals for international flights out of LAX and member of UNITE HERE Local 11. “I will be out there every day educating voters about the bosses’ phony petition and urging them to not sign.”
“We stand at another biblical moment in our historic fight – David versus Goliath. Delta and United Airlines—along with the hotel industry—want to steal wages from workers by erasing this critical law. Let’s call it what it is: grand theft larceny by modern-day robber barons. Workers and volunteers will be at every grocery store, park, farmers market and neighborhood defending the Olympic Wage and asking voters to not sign. If you see the anti-Olympic Wage petition circulators, report them!” said Kurt Petersen, Co-President UNITE HERE Local 11.
Rather than paying workers what they deserve, the industry which has already spent over 1 million dollars to stop their workers from earning a livable wage, is expected to spend millions more on this referendum. The efforts have major funding from Delta Airlines, United Airlines and the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Over the two years since the ordinance was introduced, the combined compensation of Delta, United, Hilton, and Marriott’s CEOs reached over $330 million. In just 2024, each of these CEOs’ raises ranged from 155% to over 602% of what they made in 2022. Meanwhile, over two years the minimum wage of tourism workers rose an average of $1.35 an hour.
“The airlines and hotels would rather spend millions to overturn the living wage than give workers a dime now,” said David Huerta, President of SEIU United Service Workers West. “These are billion-dollar companies fighting to make sure that working families in L.A. don’t get a raise. Don’t be complicit. Don’t sign the CEO’s petition.”
“My co-workers and I spent two years trying to get this ordinance passed while still working long shifts at LAX. We missed time with our families and loved ones,” said Jovan Houston, a Customer Service Agent at LAX. “It’s heartbreaking to learn that the airlines, which we work so hard to make successful, would spend millions of dollars to make sure we get nothing.”
“We’ve beaten back these dirty tricks before,” said Jessica Durrum, Director of LAANE’s Tourism Workers Rising coalition. “For the past 30 years, we have seen big business and corporate lobbyists try to overturn hard-won living wage protections. And time and again, we’ve shown that when workers and the community stand together, we can and will uphold our living wage laws to ensure workers are healthy and housed.”
Airport and hotel workers fought hard to pass the Olympic Wage of $30 by the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Workers marched, picketed, occupied city hall, and met council members for two years to win this historic wage to lift up hospitality workers across the city. Last December workers fasted for days to pass the Olympic and Paralympic Wage.
This is not the first time UNITE HERE Local 11 has led the way in passing historically strong living wage laws for tourism workers. In 2016 they increased wages for hotel workers in Santa Monica, 2021 in West Hollywood, in 2022 in the City of Glendale and in 2024 voters in Long Beach passed a similar wage increase.
PRESS RELEASE: Third Woman Alleges Sexual Harassment Against Flying Food Group at LAX, File Complaints Againts Airline Catering Giant
Inglewood, CA: A third woman has filed a complaint against Flying Food Group, an airline catering giant LAX following two other women who did the same last month. All three are alleging that Flying Food Group failed to protect them from sexual harassment and gender discrimination on the job
In November of last year, two women employees of Flying Food Group, Nelly Hernandez and Sandra Ruiz, filed charges with the California Civil Rights Department alleging that they were subject to repeated sexual advances by their supervisor, including in the form of sexual comments, inappropriate staring, and multiple instances of unwanted physical touching at work.
Earlier this week, Patricia Hernandez Marquez, a former employee of Flying Food Group, joined Miss. Hernandez and Ruiz by filing her own charges, which allege that the same supervisor harassed her while she worked for Flying Food and drove her to quit.
The women are asking the Civil Rights Department to investigate Flying Foods Group’s practices, including whether the conduct they have alleged constitutes illegal discrimination under California law.
Nelly Hernandez stated, “My supervisor has caused me to feel unsafe at work. I’m afraid to clean the upstairs areas by myself in case he’ll find me there. I stopped wearing perfume to work after all his comments. I decided that I needed to do something. Others need to know what is happening and that they, too, can combat this kind of injustice in their workplaces.”
Sandra Ruiz said, “After all that my supervisor has done, I feel anxious just to see him at work. I get headaches and stomach aches and have lost weight in recent months. The stress I feel having to come into work every day is too much for me to handle some days. After I learned about my co-workers speaking out, I knew I wasn’t alone. I decided I had to come forward and demand respect, too, so that this stops happening.”
“This is not the first time Flying Food has been accused of failing to protect its employees,” said Susan Minato, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, the union that represents all complainants. “Time and again, workers have raised complaints about sex discrimination and other issues to the company. It’s time for Flying Food to own up to its responsibility to the workers and hold management accountable for this kind of behavior. No woman should have to work under the kind of harassment Nelly, Sandra, and Patricia have described.”
“Sexual harassment and discrimination isn’t just humiliating to workers,” said Jennifer Reisch, supervising attorney for the University of California at Irvine’s Workers Law and Organizing Clinic, which filed the charges on behalf of Flying Food employees. “It also can be a tool for employers to divide workers and undermine their efforts at organizing and building solidarity in the workplace.”
Workers at Flying Food Group have been embroiled in a labor dispute since April 2023, when they went on strike for 28 days. Since that time, labor negotiations have continued to drag on without an agreement. The company has also been at the center of numerous legal battles; last month, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board announced that it would be moving to trial on seven unfair labor practices charges filed against the company, while a dozen more unfair labor practice charges remain under investigation. Flying Food Group also paid out $1.2 million in damages earlier this year to employees for failing to recall them in a timely manner after the COVID-19 pandemic in accordance with the states’ Right to Recall law.
CAPITAL & MAIN: LA City Council Advances Motion for $25 Minimum Wage for Hospitality Workers
FOX 11: LA tourism workers to receive increase in minimum wage
LA TIMES: L.A. City Council backs $30 minimum wage for hotel and LAX workers in 2028
PRESS RELEASE: Los Angeles City Council Votes for Historic Olympic Wage
Ordinance will increase wage for LAX & hotel workers to $30/hour by 2028, increase access to quality healthcare
Los Angeles: After dozens of tourism workers fasted for three days outside City Hall, the Los Angeles City council voted to move forward the Olympic Wage for tourism workers that would bring the wage to $30 an hour by the time the Olympics come to Los Angeles in 2028 and ensure workers have access to quality health coverage. The fasting workers are members of SEIU-United Service Workers West and Unite HERE Local 11 who work at LAX and some of LA’s major hotels.
LA DAILY NEWS: Unions will hold a three-day hunger strike outside of Los Angeles City Hall
LA TIMES: She’s 80, washing dishes, and fighting for a better deal for younger workers