The Fair Games Coalition, which is comprised of more than 60 organizations, launch a campaign for a New Deal for our Future to ensure the games benefit working families. Over the next three years, Los Angeles will become the first city to host the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic & Paralympic Games back-to-back, making it the mega-events capital of the world. We are demanding that these mega-events serve our communities and leave a positive legacy. We are calling on LA28 and corporations to negotiate a New Deal for Our Future—or face the possibility of massive protests and strikes on the opening day of the 2028 Olympics.

 

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!

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. 

BREAKING NEWS: Politically Powerful UNITE HERE Local 11 Passes Highest Wage in the Nation

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.

FOX 11: LA tourism workers to receive increase in minimum wage

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.

“As a single mother of three who commutes over two hours from Bakersfield to work at LAX’s airline catering company LSG Sky Chef’s, it makes me happy to see this finally move forward . With the $20 I make it’s not nearly enough to help me live in Los Angeles. I am proud that city leaders are taking concrete steps to help better the lives of thousands of working families like mine ahead of the Olympics and Paralympics.”said Lorena Mendez, member of UNITE HERE Local 11 and faster.

“I have been fighting for this update to the Living Wage Ordinance for over 600 days because workers like me who are predominantly Black, brown, and immigrants and make LAX run deserve better. We deserve to be paid a wage we can live on. We deserve access to quality healthcare, so I can treat the COPD I developed from working at and living near LAX. I deserve access to the care my son needs to treat his asthma. Today’s City Council vote is a step in the right direction, demonstrating that when workers fight, workers win,” said Jovan Houston, LAX customer service agent, SEIU-USWW executive board member, and faster.

Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, said “Hotel and airport workers, the backbone of our thriving tourism industry, have made history. Through their strikes, marches, and even fasting, they won the nation’s highest minimum wage and the first-ever Olympic and Paralympic Wage. This is a critical first step to ensure that mega-events like the Olympics improve the lives of working Angelenos by providing affordable housing and good jobs, rather than simply enriching tourism CEO’s.”

“LAX workers have been fighting for the dignified wages and healthcare benefits that reflect the value of the essential work they do daily to anchor the transportation and tourism industries and will provide as our city prepares to host mega events like the World Cup and Olympics,” said David Huerta, President of SEIU-USWW. “LAX workers — predominantly Black, brown, and immigrant — took on the airlines and corporate special interests and even when faced with years of setbacks, they never gave up. Now, the LA City Council, thanks largely to the leadership of Councilmembers Soto-Martinez and Price and Council President Dawson has taken the righteous step to move the modernization of the Living Wage Ordinance forward, demonstrating that when LA responds to the needs of its workers, it can be a beacon of hope and live up to its name as the City of Angels.”

“Today’s vote is continuing the noble legacy of uplifting working families as the city gets ready to host the World Cup and the Olympics,” said Jessica Durrim Director at LAANE.

The vote marks a significant move forward after tourism workers first presented this ordinance in April 2023. The policy now goes to the City Attorney to draft and come back to the full council for a final vote. Tourism workers in Long Beach, another Olympics and Paralympics host city,  are similarly advocating for an Olympic wage.