In order to get better pay and benefits, thousands of hotel employees in Los Angeles, California, have gone on strike. The strike started on July 2 at dawn on a Sunday. This is expected to be one of the biggest recent hotel strikes in the United States. According to a statement made by Unite Here Local 11, the union that represents thousands of cooks, dishwashers, room attendants, servers, bellmen, and front desk executives, many of its members are unable to afford housing in the locations where they work. The union also emphasized that while industrial profits increased during the Covid, many of its members experienced job losses.
The strike was approved by 96% of Unite Here Local 11 members just last month
During a busy weekend leading up to the Fourth of July vacation, employees at hotels in the region, including the InterContinental and Hotel Indigo, reportedly walked off the job on Sunday. The strike was approved by 96% of Unite Here Local 11 members just last month. The union is now calling for increased pension contributions, better healthcare benefits, better pay, and less physically demanding labor.
The union is requesting a USD 5 hourly salary rise immediately and an additional USD 3% raise per year for the duration of the workers’ three-year contract. The union also plans to establish a “hospitality workforce housing fund” to aid employees in coping with the rising cost of living in the greater Los Angeles area. According to reports, many workers claim they cannot afford to reside close to their places of employment. “Our members were devastated first by the pandemic, and now by the greed of their bosses,” union co-president Kurt Petersen said in a statement, as reported by The Guardian. “The industry got bailouts while we got cuts.”
“The industry got bailouts while we got cuts”
“The industry got bailouts while we got cuts.”According to the Los Angeles Times, more than 500 employees at the InterContinental and Indigo hotels downtown went on strike on Saturday. Soon after, employees from DoubleTree by Hilton, the Biltmore Los Angeles, and Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa in Dana Point joined the strike. Staff reductions at the InterContinental are apparently a result of the pandemic.
As a result, there are fewer employees and a bigger workload. “We had 800 people before. Diana Rios Sanchez, a supervisor and former InterContinental room attendant, remarked, “Now we have 500. The LA Times used her as a source. “Before, we had 800 [people]. Now we have 500,” Sanchez said. “Now we’re basically doing the job of two or three.” Unite Here Local 11 “has not budged from its opening demand two months ago of up to a 40% wage increase and an over 28% increase in benefit costs”, the hotel group said in an email on Friday to the Los Angeles Times.