By: Yiling Sun

On July 2, many workers in Los Angeles walked out of their jobs, advocating for improved pay and benefits.

Kurt Petersen is the co-president of Unite Here Local 11, the union representing the workers.

“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,” Petersen said. “So people feel liberated, it’s Fourth of July, freedom is reigning in Los Angeles, and hotel workers are leading that fight.”

Keith Grossman is a spokesman for the coordinated bargaining group of more than 40 Los Angeles and Orange County hotels.

“The hotels want to continue to provide strong wages, affordable quality family health care, and a pension,” Grossman said.

Diana Rios-Sanchez and her three children reside in a one-bedroom apartment. She works as a housekeeping supervisor at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown. Sometimes, she contemplates the length of time that her family can sustain their stay in the urban area.

“All we do in hotels is work all day and get by with very little,” Rios-Sanchez said. “We take care of the tourists, but no one takes care of us.”

Hugo Soto-Martinez, a Los Angeles City Council member who worked as an organizer for Unite Here Local 11 organizer, said that the workers were progressively getting unhappier.

“It’s homelessness, it’s the cost of housing,” Soto-Martinez said. “I think people are understanding those issues in a much more palpable way.”

The city of Los Angeles has agreed to increase hotel workers’ wages, enabling them to afford their houses in the future.