TRAVEL AGENT CENTRAL: U.S. Hotel Workers are Once Again on Strike

In the shadow of the Hollywood Bowl, hotel workers at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Hollywood started a picket line at 6 a.m. local time today. The 160-room property, owned by RLJ Lodging Trust and operated by Aimbridge Hospitality, expected high occupancy this weekend for one of the last Hollywood Bowl concerts of the year.

In Philadelphia, workers at the Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District hotel—also owned by RLJ Lodging Trust and operated by Aimbridge—walked off the job earlier today, just ahead of the Thanksgiving travel season.

Workers at Aimbridge-operated hotels in Los Angeles and Philadelphia strike simultaneously

In the shadow of the Hollywood Bowl, hotel workers at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Hollywood , owned by RLJ Lodging Trust and operated by Aimbridge Hospitality, started picketing at 6 AM Saturday November 8, hours before the last concert of the season at the Hollywood Bowl.

In Philadelphia, workers at the Wyndham Historic District hotel—also owned by RLJ Lodging Trust and operated by Aimbridge—walked off the job earlier today, just ahead of the Thanksgiving travel season.

Workers both hotels walked off the job in effort to win wages and benefits that enable them to afford to raise families in the cities where they work

Outside a brown hotel building, workers with red t-shirts and drums picket with signs reading "UNITE HERE Local 11 ON STRIKE" and "UNITE HERE Local 11 EN HUELGA"

Workers at Aimbridge-operated hotels in Los Angeles and Philadelphia strike during event-filled weekend, UNITE HERE reports

Workers at hotels owned by RLJ Lodging Trust on both coasts walk off the job in effort to win wages and benefits that enable them to afford to raise families in the cities where they work

CONTACT: Rachel Sulkes | [email protected] | 602-327-4084

PHOTOS AVAILABLE; CLICK HERE

LOS ANGELES: In the shadow of the Hollywood Bowl, hotel workers at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Hollywood started a picket line at 6 AM local time today.

The 160-room hotel, owned by RLJ Lodging Trust and operated by Aimbridge Hospitality, expected high occupancy this weekend for one of the last Hollywood Bowl concerts of the year.

In Philadelphia, workers at the Wyndham Historic District hotel—also owned by RLJ Lodging Trust and operated by Aimbridge—walked off the job earlier today, just ahead of the Thanksgiving travel season.

“Whether we strike is up to the employers and how willing they are to pay us fairly for the work we do,” said Maria Christina Velasquez, a shop steward with UNITE HERE Local 11 and laundry attendant at the Hilton Garden Inn Hollywood since 2019. “We’re ready for anything.”

“Hotel workers like me go on strike to win raises that keep up with the rising cost of living, pensions, high quality union healthcare, and safe workloads,” said Brent Allen, a restaurant server and member of UNITE HERE Local 274 at the Wyndham Historic District since 2023. “We’re going to welcome millions of visitors to Philly in 2026, but most of us can’t pay our basic bills. We deserve to be able to live dignified lives but that can only happen if the hotel owner and operator pay us what we deserve.”

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE: RLJ) owns a portfolio of nearly 100 hotels across 23 states and the District of Columbia. The company just this week announced a year-over-year drop in both revenue and net income. According to campaign filings, between July and September of this year, RLJ Lodging Trust contributed $25,000 to the effort to defeat a $30 minimum wage for hospitality workers that the Los Angeles City Council passed in May.

Aimbridge hospitality operates hotels across the world under known brands like Hilton, Hyatt, and Windham. Aimbridge-operated properties were among the last to settle during the 2023–2024 Southern California Hotel Strike, the largest hotel strike in modern U.S. history.

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UNITE HERE Local 11 is more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona who work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers, and airports.

UNITE HERE LOCAL 274 is 4,000 private-sector hotel and food service workers at stadiums, universities, cafeterias, and hotels throughout the Philadelphia region.

Both are affiliates of UNITE HERE, a labor union representing 300,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America. 

PHOTOS

Los Angeles

Looking up from the sidewalk outside a hotel to see traffic cones, signs that read "UNITE HERE Local 11 ON STRIKE," and two women in red T-shirts with drums and drumsticks

Outside a brown hotel building, workers with red t-shirts and drums picket with signs reading "UNITE HERE Local 11 ON STRIKE" and "UNITE HERE Local 11 EN HUELGA"

Philadelphia

On a beautiful November day outside a building marked "Wyndham" in blue letters, striking workers picket with signs reading "ON STRIKE! at Wyndham Philadelphia" and "Philly UNITE HERE Local 274" On a beautiful November day outside a building marked "Wyndham" in blue letters, striking workers picket with signs reading "ON STRIKE! at Wyndham Philadelphia" and "Philly UNITE HERE Local 274"

PRE-GRAMMY PARTY: Rat Allegations Soil Influencer Favorite W Hollywood Hotel

Los Angeles–Dozens of cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen, and front desk agents from across the LA area will stage an action outside of the Sky Terrace at W Hollywood. Workers and supporters will wear rat costumes and related props while the restaurant’s soft launch takes place.

The action will draw attention to workers’ allegations, as reported in the LA Times last December, that they have repeatedly observed what appeared to be rats in the dry food storage room of the Hotel’s basement and on the building’s rooftop Sky Terrace restaurant, both operated by Mosaic. Workers documented alleged rodent sightings as recently as mid-October of 2023. Concerned for their health and safety, workers submitted a complaint to Cal/OSHA on November 16, 2023 and requested that their employer take action. The complaint with Cal/OSHA remains pending investigation.

The Sky Terrace is located on the rooftop of the W Hotel building. Both the W Hollywood Hotel, operated by Marriott, and Sky Terrace, operated by Mosaic, have been embroiled in protracted labor disputes with their employees since union contract expired last summer. The Sky Terrace is also the subject of pending unfair labor practice charges filed by workers after the restaurant fired eight employees who had participated in the campaign for improved wages and working conditions.

Workers across Los Angeles hotels have been in an ongoing labor dispute with hotel employers since July, fighting for better wages and working conditions in what has become the largest hotel worker strike in modern history. The workers’ primary contract goals include wage increases to keep pace with the soaring cost of housing in Los Angeles, quality and affordable health insurance, a pension to retire with dignity, and humane workloads.

The W Hollywood building is owned by private equity firms Oaktree Capital Management and Trinity Investments. Los Angeles-based Oaktree, which has $189 billion under management, states on its website that “Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) considerations directly and materially impact investment outcomes,” but has failed to resolve the escalating labor disputes at the W Hollywood and Sky Terrace.