By: Jonathan Han
Thousands of Los Angeles hotel workers went on strike on Sunday, asking for higher pay and more benefits just as tourists poured into the region for the Fourth of July.
Kurt Peterson, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, the union representing the workers, stated, “Workers have been pent up and frustrated and angry about what’s happened during the pandemic combined with the inability to pay their rent and stay in Los Angeles. So, people feel liberated, it’s Fourth of July, freedom is reigning in Los Angeles, and hotel workers are leading that fight.”
It is one of numerous labor actions in the United States’ second-largest city, where high living costs have made it difficult for workers to sustain themselves. Recently, workers across the Southern California region have been making efforts to gain higher pay and improved working conditions by threatening to strike or walk off.
Dockworkers halted operations at the essential ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for weeks before reaching a tentative agreement in June, while screenwriters have been protesting outside the Hollywood studio gates for two months. Hugo Soto-Martinez, a Los Angeles Council member, claimed that the various industries involved in labor conflicts revealed irritation, particularly among younger workers. “It’s homelessness, it’s the cost of housing,” he said.
The summer tourism season is just getting started when hotel workers go on strike, and labor leaders say they intend to take advantage of this momentum. Last year, tourism in LA reached its pinnacle since the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 46 million tourists and $34.5 billion in business sales were recorded in 2022, according to the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board. Many workers like Diana Rios-Sanchez complain that their salary prevents them from keeping up with rampant inflation. “All we do in hotels is work and work and get by with very little. We take care of the tourists, but no one takes care of us,” said Ms. Rios-Sanchez. In response to the recent strikes, business groups say that requesting higher wages from employers doesn’t address the severe problems contributing to California’s sky-high living costs.
The union has asked that housekeepers’ hourly wages, currently $20, be promptly raised by $5 and then increased by $3 each year of a three-year contract. Keith Grossman, a spokesman for the coordinating bargaining group of over 40 hotels, said that the hotels had proposed to raise the hourly wage for housekeepers in Beverly Hills and downtown Los Angeles, who presently make $25, to more than $31 by January 2027. On Thursday, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites declared that a contract agreement had prevented a staff walkout. This year’s agreements will establish compensation levels before the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, which are anticipated to be substantial tourist magnets for the area.
The strike will continue for multiple days, according to Mr.Peterson, and hotels will continue serving visitors via The Hotel Association of Los Angeles.