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Los Angeles, California. Representatives of the hotel workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 11, submitted paperwork late Monday with the Los Angeles City Clerk to file two voter initiatives.

The first initiative would boost the citywide minimum wage to $25.00 an hour initially and raise the minimum wage to $30 an hour on July 1, 2028, when the Olympics and Paralympic Games are scheduled to start in Los Angeles.

Last month, the City Council passed an ordinance with similar minimum wage increases for tourism workers, dubbed the Olympic Wage.  Major corporations, including United Airlines, Delta Airlines, and hotel chains launched a costly campaign to overturn the law, arguing that all workers—not only tourism workers—should get wage increases. The new initiative proposes to extend the wage increases to workers in all industries across the city.

The second initiative would require voter approval for hotel and event center development projects in which the City grants subsidies, such as tax rebates or below-market prices for city-owned land, to developers.  It would also require voter approval for major hotel developments involving 80 or more guest rooms or event center developments adding more than 50,000 square feet or 1,000 seats and require that the City Council make findings that the developments are compatible with and beneficial to the local community.

In addition, the union and its allies have launched massive field efforts to “Defend The Wage LA” and inform the public of misleading signature-gathering efforts in the campaign led by the tourism industry to overturn the Olympic Wage. A complaint filed last week alleges that paid signature-gatherers for a petition funded by Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt have falsely claimed that the petition would increase workers’ wages when the referendum actually seeks to overturn the recently passed tourism minimum wage law. The complaint was filed with the offices of the California Attorney General, Los Angeles District Attorney and Los Angeles City Attorney by the hotel workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 11.

“Tourism corporations often get massive subsidies from taxpayers.  But we question whether big companies that find tens of millions to pay their CEOs each year and are now spending millions more to overturn a minimum wage hike for their lowest-paid workers really need these subsidies.  At the very least, voters should get a say on whether their tax dollars should be handed over to these corporations,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11.

Petersen added: “Since the initiative advances the position proclaimed by these big tourism companies like United, Delta, and hotel owners that all workers need an increase, we expect them to promptly get on board and endorse the new minimum wage initiative.”