Thousands of Southern California hotel workers begin strike

Just arsenic the July Fourth vacation play gets into precocious gear, thousands of edifice workers successful Southern California began striking Sunday greeting seeking to negociate a declaration with higher wages and different benefits, according to the national representing the workers.

Members of UNITE HERE Local 11, which says it represents much than 32,000 hospitality workers successful Southern California and Arizona, are striking astatine much than a twelve hotels passim Los Angeles and Santa Monica aft their declaration expired conscionable aft midnight, according to posts connected the union's Twitter page.

Participants see cooks, dishwashers, servers, beforehand table workers and country attendants, the national said successful a quality release. A national typical said Friday that the declaration covered astir 15,000 workers astatine 65 hotels.

The union's cardinal demands see a $5-an-hour wage increase, entree to affordable household wellness attraction benefits and stronger workplace protections.

A spokesperson for the national could not instantly beryllium reached Sunday to connection much circumstantial details.

Negotiations began April 20, the section said. Last month, 96% of UNITE HERE Local 11 members voted to authorize the strike.

The national besides says that portion hotels received billions successful national bailouts during the pandemic and person since bounced backmost and exceeded pre-pandemic profits, wages person not kept up with rising lodging costs. Affordable lodging advocates have said skyrocketing rents are fueling homelessness throughout California, wherever astir 1 cardinal less affordable rental homes are disposable for highly low-income renters, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The national has besides said plans for Los Angeles to host the soccer World Cup successful 2026 and the Summer Olympics successful 2028 could worsen the lodging crisis.

In a statement, Kurt Petersen, a co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, said it was "shameful" that "the edifice negotiators decided to instrumentality a four-day vacation alternatively of negotiating."

The Hotel Association of Los Angeles said successful a connection Thursday that edifice absorption representatives had been "actively engaged successful bully religion corporate bargaining" with the union.

"The edifice assemblage volition proceed to supply fantabulous work successful welcoming guests to the Los Angeles country arsenic we ever do," it added.

And attorneys Keith Grossman and Ken Ballard said successful a connection released Friday connected behalf of the Coordinated Bargaining Group — the 44 Los Angeles County and Orange County hotels progressive successful the negotiations — that the national "has shown nary tendency to prosecute successful productive, bully religion negotiations with this group."

The connection besides said the Coordinated Bargaining Group projected wage increases of $2.50 per hr successful the archetypal year, rising to a $6.25 hourly summation implicit the adjacent 4 years.

The onslaught comes days aft the Westin Bonaventure, the city's biggest hotel, came to an statement affecting its 600 workers, who volition person accrued wages and pension contributions, among different benefits, the national said.

It is besides happening during the Anime Expo, a four-day lawsuit focused connected Japanese popular civilization taking spot astatine the Los Angeles Convention Center that attracts 100,000 radical from astir the world, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The onslaught besides comes amid the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike. And the Screen Actors Guild, which represents immoderate of Hollywood's biggest stars, agreed to widen its contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to July 12 to avert a strike.