Dive Brief:
- Seven more Southern California hotels reached tentative four-year agreements with union workers, bringing the total number of hotels to settle contracts in the monthslong hotel strike to 41, according to hospitality union Unite Here Local 11.
- The Grand Prix of Long Beach, Hotel Maya Long Beach, Hyatt Place Pasadena, Proper Santa Monica, Proper Downtown Los Angeles, Westdrift Manhattan Beach, Hotel June West LA and Alsace Hotel have signed within the past week, Unite Here shared.
- Though the number of hotels to end contract disputes has risen, workers are still protesting others; those at Aimbridge Hospitality-run properties in the region walked out as recently as this month.
Dive Insight:
The newly settled agreements guarantee workers raises of $5 an hour in the first year of their contract, 40% to 50% wage increases for non-tipped workers over the course of the agreement and pre-pandemic staffing levels including mandatory daily room cleaning.
Workers will also have access to the highest-paid pension plans for service workers in the country, according to Unite Here, and the contracts include new language concerning the fair treatment of workers impacted by the criminal justice system and immigration.
The union also said that most room attendants covered under the contract will earn $35 an hour by 2027.
For workers at Hotel Maya, it’s a stark turnaround from a few months ago, when striking union members called for a boycott of the hotel amid allegations of violence on their picket line.
“My coworkers and I dealt with unthinkable violence to get to this point,” said Camila Delgado, a housekeeper at Hotel Maya, in a statement. “We are proud that we never gave up, and we look forward to having the same standard raising benefits and protections other hotel workers now enjoy.”
Unite Here members continue to strike and picket elsewhere in the region, with workers at Aimbridge Hospitality-operated hotels walking out earlier this month following allegations of sexual harassment at an Aimbridge property.
And last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders joined Unite Here workers on their picket line outside of the Hotel Figueroa in Los Angeles, where speakers claimed private equity-owned hotels were to blame for protracted labor disputes.
Unite Here has been organizing multiproperty, multi-wave strikes in Southern California since last July. More than 10,000 workers at 52 hotels have struck 170 times so far in the largest hospitality industry strike in U.S. history, and Unite Here said more are set to walk out this week.
