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PRESS RELEASE: UNITE HERE Local 11 Unveils Results and Terms of Historic Deal Reached At 34 Hotels

Los Angeles:  On Monday, March 25, UNITE HERE Local 11 announced the results and terms of the historic accords in a press conference outside of the Intercontinental Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. Thursday, March 21st, thousands of hotel workers at 34 hotels in Southern California began voting to ratify tentative labor agreements with a range of hotel companies. 98% of workers voted to ratify the agreement. At 11 properties 100% of workers voted in favor of the new contract.

Since July 1, 2023, from Laguna Beach to Long Beach to Beverly Hills to Pasadena, more than 10,000 workers at 53 hotels have struck more than 160 times, making this the nation’s largest hotel worker strike wave in modern history. Hotel-worker wages, like those for all Angelenos, have not kept up with soaring housing costs. The striking workers have demanded that the hotel industry, which is enjoying record post-pandemic profits, cough up major wage increases so that workers can live near where they work.

As workers at 34 hotels held ratification votes, dozens of hotels remain unsettled, including the Hotel Figueroa, Hotel Maya, Doubletree Downtown Los Angeles, and the LA Grand, the site of the city-operated Inside Safe Program. At these hotels, workers continue to strike, picket, or boycott for their contract. Last week, workers at Proper Santa Monica, Hotel June, San Pedro Doubletree, and Proper Downtown Los Angeles walked out on strike.

“We have won an unprecedented agreement in every way, from wages, pension, and healthcare to job security, to fair staffing guarantees.  But our members’ tenacity and fearlessness is even more impressive. No one has fought harder to win a living wage, sacrificing pay and overcoming physical violence and abuse than room attendants, cooks and servers. They are  heroes,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11. “And this dogged determination should signal to the rest that we will not stop until every worker has won the same magnificent contract.”

The announcement also comes days after the politically powerful union’s ground game was key in passing the highest minimum wage in the country in Long Beach ahead of the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics, and securing Nithya Raman’s seat on the Los Angeles City Council.

PRESS RELEASE: Boycott of Hotel Figueroa and Restaurant Operator, The Botanical Group, Declared Following Firings, Shootings, and Unsettled Labor Dispute; Letter Signed by Hundreds Delivered

LOS ANGELES:  UNITE HERE Local 11 and dozens of workers and clergy leaders from CLUE held a press conference calling for a boycott of the Hotel Figueroa and The Botanical Group, which is the newest restaurant operator, on Thursday.  The worker-called boycott marks a significant escalation in a months-long labor dispute that began last July.

“I’m calling for a boycott of the hotel because our jobs are very difficult, and the company’s response to our strike and their failure to sign a fair contract has shown that they don’t value or respect us,” said Noelia Gonzales, room attendant at the Figueroa Hotel.

The hotel’s workers, who have been protesting and striking for wages enabling them to afford to live in Los Angeles amid soaring housing costs, have faced violence on the picket line.  During a strike in January, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, workers were fired upon by a sniper, apparently using an air rifle, with large metal ball bearings.  They have taken to wearing bullet proof vests and helmets on the picket lines.  The unknown assailant remains at large.

“I was shot twice with metal ball bearings from across the street while on strike with my coworkers. I was hit on my neck and feet. We do not deserve to risk our safety simply because we are advocating for ourselves. I want there to be justice, and for the violence that we endured to not go unnoticed, that is why we are calling for a boycott,” said Felix Vanegas, houseman at the Figueroa Hotel.

Making matters even worse, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, more than one hundred food and beverage workers were fired in February by the hotel’s former food and beverage operator after workers began an effort to unionize.  After a brief closure, a new operator reopened the Cafe Fig and other outlets, but without the workers who had staffed the restaurant for years.  UNITE HERE Local 11 has requested that the Office of Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto investigate potential violations of Los Angeles’s Hotel Worker Retention Ordinance.

Workers and community allies delivered a letter signed by nearly 500  people demanding that the hotel bring back the “Figueroa 100.” Workers are calling for tourists and visitors to choose alternatives for any travel and events until all of the workers have won the dignity and respect they deserve and the fired restaurant workers are returned to work.

“We denounce the violence picketing workers have endured with metal ball pellets shot at them while on strike and we demand the hotel bring back the Figueroa 100. Why should workers have to be out in the street subjecting themselves to this kind of violence-literally picketing in bulletproof vests, helmets, and goggles?  It should not take this kind of bravery to simply get a company to pay wages that workers can live on.  You cannot treat people like this,” said Ada Briceño, co-president UNITE HERE Local 11.

Joining the workers was Reverend Edgar Colon of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, “CLUE will join the boycott of this establishment, and will neither eat, meet, sleep or gather here until the issues that the workers have laid out have been resolved.