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UNION VICTORIES

ALICE STANFORD

Meet Alice Stanford, a banquet server at the JW Marriott. Alice moved to LA after high school, but the high cost of living left her sleeping in her car. After securing a union job, she was able to afford a two-bedroom apartment and felt a sense of stability—until the LA fires forced her to evacuate in the middle of the night. Although her building stood, smoke damage left her home uninhabitable, and her landlord refused to fix it. Thanks to her union’s hardship fund, Alice found temporary housing and the union’s legal fund is now fighting to hold her landlord accountable. This is the power of standing together

ARTURO HUESO

Meet Arturo, a worker at the Fairmont Miramar for 31 years. Thanks to his union health insurance, Arturo didn’t have to worry about the cost of cancer treatment after his 2020 diagnosis. So, when his contract expired in 2023, he joined his coworkers on the picket line to fight for that same security and protection. Today, he’s proud of the victories they won—showing why it’s always better in a union.

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.

CONGRATULATIONS EMBASSY SUITES IRVINE WORKERS

A group of two dozen Hotel Figueroa workers in black work uniforms pose emotionally in a tiled dining area.

Hotel Figueroa Reaches Agreement with UNITE HERE Local 11, Will Rehire Fired Food and Beverage Workers

Workers to Picket at Holdouts Cameo Beverly Hills, Hilton Garden Inn El Segundo and Glendale Hilton

Los Angeles:  After a year of striking and picketing, workers at Hotel Figueroa have won a life-changing contract. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, when food and beverage employees at the hotel’s subcontracted restaurant sought to unionize, the hotel’s food and beverage subcontractor shut down operations and terminated the workers. Under the historic new agreement, the hotel will assume operations of Café Fig and Bar Magnolia and rehire the fired employees.

“It was a long hard fight, but my coworkers and I stuck together. With the support of community and faith leaders we were able to keep going and in the end we got everything we needed,” said Nohelia Rodriguez, a Hotel Figueroa housekeeper for three years. “This new contract is going to change my life and the lives of so many families.”

Workers at unsettled hotels like the Glendale Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn El Segundo, and Cameo Beverly Hills will continue to picket. Also, in the last month as the country’s largest hotel strike approached the one-year mark, more than 1,500 workers at 11 hotels overwhelmingly ratified new contracts.

Hotel workers at 68 hotels have now achieved a standard that is transforming hotel jobs into middle class professional positions. Improvements include:

  • $5.00-an-hour raise in the first year of the contract

  • 40% to 50% wage increases for non-tipped workers over the 4.5 year term of the agreement

  • Room attendants will earn $35.00 an hour by July 1, 2027

  • Guaranteed pre-pandemic staffing levels and mandatory daily room cleaning

  • One of the nation’s highest pensions for service workers

  • 50 pages of improvements, including Juneteenth as a paid holiday, new rights for immigrants and workers impacted by the carceral system

The Hotel Figueroa’s contract will also expire January 15, 2028, before the world turns its attention on Los Angeles for the Olympic Games.

Community members have declared they are ready to risk arrest in solidarity with workers at unsettled hotels like Cameo Beverly Hills, which is operated by Remington, Westin Long Beach, and Glendale Hilton if no deal is reached.

FOUR MORE WINS!

LOCAL 11 STRIKE WINS!

FIVE MORE WINS

FIVE WINS! AGAIN!

CONGRATULATIONS MAYA WORKERS!