SACRAMENTO–California’s hospitality workforce is experiencing unprecedented levels of unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) introduced Assembly Bill 1074, supported by hotel workers and UNITE HERE Local 11, to make sure hospitality workers are able to return to work when their employers can safely resume business operations.
“Latinos have made up the backbone of the hospitality industry for decades. Many stayed with the same employers for years in order to work their way up and earn a stable living. They have already disproportionately suffered the brunt of this pandemic,” Assemblywoman Gonzalez said. “When hotels and event centers can safely reopen, the least we must do is ensure workers can return to the jobs they previously held. AB 1074 is commonsense policy that provides the support our local communities need to recover from this economic crisis.”
Earlier today, Assemblywoman Gonzalez joined dozens of workers who caravanned from Los Angeles and Orange County to La Jolla for a press conference outside JC Resorts’ corporate headquarters. JC Resorts owns and operates hotels and golf courses across California, including the Terranea Resort in Ranchos Palos Verdes, which terminated much of its workforce amid the pandemic without making a binding commitment to rehire longtime workers when the hotel reopened. Gonzalez’s AB 1074 would help ensure job security for these workers by establishing statewide rehiring and retention protections for California’s hospitality workforce.
Nearly 40% of all California jobs lost during the pandemic have been in the hospitality industry. AB 1074 would save hundreds of thousands of jobs and boost long-term economic recovery by ensuring qualified, laid-off employees in the hospitality industry are offered employment when their jobs become available as businesses reopen. The bill would prevent discriminatory hiring practices designed to cut costs by replacing longtime employees with a less experienced workforce at lower rates of pay.
“California’s hospitality workforce has been decimated by COVID-19, and these employees deserve basic protections which will allow them to return to the jobs and wages they earned before the pandemic as the industry reopens,” Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angles), principal co-author of AB 1074, said. “This bill effectively addresses the concerns Governor Newsom raised to our prior effort.”
A number of local jurisdictions across the state have already passed similar ordinances to ensure hospitality workers have the right to return to their previous jobs, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Long Beach, and Pasadena.
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez represents California’s 80th Assembly District, located in southern San Diego County, including the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, and National City. She serves as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Appropriations and Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Latina Inequities. For more information on Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, visit http://asm.ca.gov/gonzalez
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“Latinos have made up the backbone of the hospitality industry for decades. Many stayed with the same employers for years in order to work their way up and earn a stable living. They have already disproportionately suffered the brunt of this pandemic,” Assemblywoman Gonzalez said. “When hotels and event centers can safely reopen, the least we must do is ensure workers can return to the jobs they previously held. AB 1074 is commonsense policy that provides the support our local communities need to recover from this economic crisis.”
Earlier today, Assemblywoman Gonzalez joined dozens of workers who caravanned from Los Angeles and Orange County to La Jolla for a press conference outside JC Resorts’ corporate headquarters. JC Resorts owns and operates hotels and golf courses across California, including the Terranea Resort in Ranchos Palos Verdes, which terminated much of its workforce amid the pandemic without making a binding commitment to rehire longtime workers when the hotel reopened. Gonzalez’s AB 1074 would help ensure job security for these workers by establishing statewide rehiring and retention protections for California’s hospitality workforce.
“California’s hospitality workforce has been decimated by COVID-19, and these employees deserve basic protections which will allow them to return to the jobs and wages they earned before the pandemic as the industry reopens,” Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angles), principal co-author of AB 1074, said. “This bill effectively addresses the concerns Governor Newsom raised to our prior effort.”
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez represents California’s 80th Assembly District, located in southern San Diego County, including the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, and National City. She serves as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Appropriations and Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Latina Inequities. For more information on Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, visit http://asm.ca.gov/gonzalez
UNITE HERE Local 11 Urges President-Elect Biden to Appoint Julie Su as Labor Secretary
Hospitality union throws its weight behind CA’s Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development
Los Angeles – Today, the Co-Presidents of UNITE HERE Local 11 sent a letter to President-Elect Biden, urging him to appoint Julie Su to the position of Secretary of Labor. Su has earned a reputation as a strong, effective, and results-oriented leader over a twenty-five-year career, recovering the largest amount of unpaid wages on behalf of California workers in the state’s history.
Co-President Susan Minato notes, “She will be a Secretary for all of America’s workers—women and men, white workers and people of color, citizens and immigrants alike. She is absolutely the right person for the extraordinary challenges confronting our country today.”
“We know firsthand Julie’s record of accomplishment in California—as a groundbreaking workers’ rights and civil rights lawyer, as Labor Commissioner, and now as California’s Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development,” says Co-President Kurt Petersen. “As Secretary of Labor for California, she has helped to lead the state’s response to the economic crisis posed by COVID-19.”
Ada Briceño says, “Julie Su’s nomination for Secretary of Labor would be recognition of her strong record here in California, and it would also reflect President-Elect Biden’s commitment to diversify the Cabinet with women and people of color who have been ignored by previous administrations..
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UNITE HERE Local 11 in Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia: UNITE HERE Local 11 celebrates the victories of Senators-elect Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the US Senate after leading a five-week ground operation with nearly 400 canvassers knocking on 550,000 doors to get out the vote in Georgia.
“I am so proud of UNITE HERE Local 11, whose laid-off members canvassed side-by-side with community partners to help win the US Senate runoff race. Our Arizona team moved to Georgia at Thanksgiving and knocked on 550,000 doors in Dekalb and Gwinnett Counties. We had 150,000 conversations with voters about how significant these races were to their lives. They listened and showed up to vote in record numbers.” said Susan Minato, Co-President of UNITE HERE Local 11.
UNITE HERE Local 11 was the largest contingent of the overall UNITE HERE program whose cumulative goal was to knock on 1.5 million doors with more than 1,000 canvassers in Georgia.
“This victory is not just for Georgia, but for all workers of color like myself who, though severely impacted by this pandemic, chose to rise up and fight back together. We will continue to push and make sure that healthcare, relief, jobs and justice are made a priority,” said Marilyn Wilbur, laid off service worker from Arizona State University canvassing in Georgia.