“The business group looking to repeal a $30 per hour minimum wage for Los Angeles hotel and airport workers failed to secure enough signatures to qualify the proposal for the ballot…”
Los Angeles, CA: On Tuesday, over a hundred hotel room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, server, airline catering workers and airport workers plan to rally outside Los Angeles City Hall and celebrate the Olympic wage going into effect after the Los Angeles City Clerk announced the deceitful multi-million dollar referendum campaign funded by Delta, United and American Hotel and Lodging Association failed to qualify. Delta is a founding sponsor of the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics.
The Defend The Wage LA Coalition, comprised of UNITE HERE Local 11, SEIU-United Service Workers West (USWW), and Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), released the following statement:
“Tourism workers demand airlines and hotels Pay Up Now! In a historic victory over some of the world’s largest corporations who spent over $3 million in a campaign that deceived Angelenos, workers mobilized and defeated the CEOs’ campaign to lower wages. The Olympic Wage must be implemented immediately. After years of speaking up at City Council meetings, protesting at City Hall and LAX, and even fasting for three days before a Council vote, workers have yet again triumphed over corporate interests. Elected officials must do right by the workers who will make mega-events like the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics happen and stand strong against corporations who seek to undermine workers and Angelenos who have again supported raising wages.”
The announcement comes after a full signature count by the Los Angeles County Registrar found that the referendum campaign did not meet the qualifications to be placed on the ballot.
During the signature-gathering process, the campaign funded by airlines and hotels were accused of misleading voters by claiming the referendum petition would increase wages, when it would actually overturn a recently-enacted minimum wage increase. Authorities were presented with extensive documentation of these and other deceptive practices. In some cases, signature gatherers were themselves deceived by the initiative organizers into believing the petition was to raise the minimum wage.
Additionally, volunteers accused signature gatherers of violence against canvassers seeking to educate the public about the actual impact of the referendum and to keep the Olympic Wage intact. The referendum signature gatherers even set up shop in Skid Row, allegedly paying cash to unhoused people to register to vote and sign the referendum petition. A record of more than 120,000 Angelenos submitted forms to revoke their signatures on the referendum petition when they learned the petition would actually upend the Olympic Wage.
On Friday September 5th in Long Beach the Olympic wage for convention and airport workers went into effect, bringing their wages up to $25 immediately and to $29.50 by the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028.
Winning the Olympic wage was the first step towards building a more equitable Games that benefits working people. UNITE HERE Local 11, which leads the Fair Games coalition with LAANE and another 60 plus organizations, last month launched a vision calling on LA 28, IOC, corporate CEOs, and elected leaders for a New Deal for Our Future. The new deal would include union jobs and living wages, funding for 50,000 units of housing for working families, a ban on airbnb style short-term rentals to protect our homes, and safe and dignified treatment of immigrant communities.
Local 11 members can receive free legal assistance! Through the fund, eligible workers and their dependents will receive legal assistance with specified matters in several areas, including:
Phone: (213) 996-0330
Website: https://www.hadsellstormer.com/legal-fund-fondo-legal/
Congratulations to workers at Desert Diamond Arena, Hudson at Sky Harbor Airport, Talking Stick Resort Amphitheater, Ontario Convention Center, and Toyota Arena workers on joining the union!
Get to know the Fund’s newest dental provider!The UNITE HERE Local 11 Health Benefit Fund (formerly Santa Monica UNITE HERE Health Benefit Fund) is proud to announce the opening of our own Dental Office — just for Local 11 members and their eligible family members.
The new Dental Office at the UNITE HERE Health Center opened on July 28 and has already begun taking patients! Beginning August 1, 2025, it is also the primary dental facility for former Delta Dental PPO members who live 20 miles or closer to the new Health Center.
This private dental office is managed by the Fund in partnership with DYNTL. As a member, you can trust the advice of DYNTL’s dentists and specialists, who will provide the oral care and treatment you need, without “upselling” unnecessary and costly procedures.
1122 W. Washington Blvd, Ste 315 Los Angeles, CA, 90015
Phone: 310-894-8095
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.dyntl.com/local11
The Dental Office is a part of the new UNITE HERE Health Center, operated by the UNITE HERE Health Benefit Fund in partnership with DYNTL and MLK Community Health Care.
Congratulations to Aramark workers at the Anaheim Convention Center who voted to ratify their new contract!
Los Angeles: UNITE HERE Local 11 which represents over 32,000 cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, airport workers across Southern California and Arizona led the way for the Los Angeles City Council to raise the wage for tourism workers ahead of the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games.
“This wage increase is going to change the life of my daughter and I. As a single mother, I will no longer be forced to choose between paying the bills or buying her healthy food and saving for college. This Olympic and Paralympic wage will be good for working families like mine, the city and our overall economy,” said Sonia Ceron, dishwasher at Flying Food Group and airline catering company that prepares and packages meals for international flights for airlines like Japan Air, Singapore, Qantas and more.
The new law, dubbed the Olympic and Paralympic Wage, is the highest minimum wage in the United States. It will raise the wage of workers in airports and hotels in the city of Los Angeles to $30 by the 2028 Olympic and Paralympics. Mayor Bass is expected to sign the law in the coming weeks, and go into effect July 1st.
“Tourism workers have once again made history by winning the highest minimum wage in the nation! The Olympic and Paralympic Wage is the first step to ensure these mega events benefit hard working families and not just bosses and billionaires,” said Kurt Petersen co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11.
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.
While 10,000 hotel workers won historic wage increases in the largest hotel strike in U.S. history led by UNITE HERE Local 11 in 2023 and 2024, thousands more in airports and hotels will benefit from the City of Los Angeles passing an Olympic Wage by modernizing the Living Wage Ordinance to raise hourly wages to $30/hour by 2028 and improve access to quality healthcare. UNITE HERE Local 11’s hotel, airport and stadium contracts are set to expire in 2028, months before the Olympics and Paralympics.
Workers were joined throughout their over two year fight by LAANE, CLUE and many other community organizations as they repeatedly made their way to Council to demand a wage that would support working families across the Los Angeles region.
Meet Luis Dominguez, housekeeper at the Doubletree DTLA and proud UNITHERE Local 11 member. In 2023, he and his coworkers went on strike and won a historic new contract, and he’s ready to do it again in 2028 if that’s what it takes!
Alaink works at the Waldorf Astoria. Going on strike for the first time was scary—but absolutely worth it. The raises, protections, and life-changing benefits he and his coworkers won? Unforgettable.
