Hotel workers in LA go on strike demanding higher wages

Thousands of hotel workers in Los Angeles, California have gone on strike demanding better wages and benefits. The strike began on Sunday morning (July 2). This has kicked off what is expected to be one of the largest US. hotel strikes in recent history.

Unite Here Local 11, a union which represents thousands of cooks, dishwashers, room attendants, servers, bellmen and front desk executives, released a statement and said that the union members are struggling to afford housing in the cities where they work. The union also underlined that many of its members have faced job cuts during the Covid pandemic while industry profits soared.

A union spokesperson said workers at hotels across the region, including the InterContinental and Hotel Indigo, had walked off the job on Sunday, during a busy weekend ahead of the July Fourth holiday.

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Just last month, members of Unite Here Local 11 voted 96 per cent in favour of the strike. The union is now demanding better wages, improved healthcare benefits, higher pension contributions along with less strenuous workload.

The union is asking for an immediate increase of USD 5 in hourly wages and an annual boost of threeper cent in the workers' three-year contracts.

Additionally, the union is intending to create a "hospitality workforce housing fund" in order to help workers tackle the soaring cost of living in greater Los Angeles. Many employees are reportedly saying that they cannot afford to live near their jobs.

“The industry got bailouts while we got cuts”

“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.”

Kicking off Saturday's strike, more than 500 workers at the downtown InterContinental and Indigo hotels, walked out, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. The striking workers were joined shortly by those at DoubleTree by Hilton, the Biltmore Los Angeles and Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa in Dana Point.

The InterContinental reportedly has seen staff cuts during the pandemic. This has resulted in fewer workers with a greater workload

“Before, we had 800 [people]. Now we have 500,” said Diana Rios Sanchez, a supervisor and former room attendant at the InterContinental. She was quoted by the LA Times.

“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 per centwage increase and an over 28 per centincrease in benefit costs”, the hotel group said in an email on Friday to the Los Angeles Times.

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