Hotel workers at five Santa Monica properties went on strike early Monday after negotiations came to a standstill last week. The workers, represented by Unite Here Local 11, which represents thousands of employees in Los Angeles and Orange counties, are demanding significant wage increases in response to the housing crisis. Last month, the union called for a boycott of hotels that had not signed new contracts with their workers, affecting over 15,000 employees at 60 properties.
In recent months, Unite Here Local 11 has been pushing for an immediate $5 hourly wage increase, followed by an additional $3 increase each year for the three-year contract, totaling an $11 raise. The strike has been ongoing since July 2, with intermittent work stoppages.
During the September 21 bargaining session, the union reduced its wage proposal to a total raise of $10.50. However, talks collapsed when the hotel company representatives failed to offer a counterproposal after a three-hour break. Keith Grossman, representing Southern California hotel owners and operators, criticized the union for not making any significant concessions and called for genuine negotiations.
This bargaining session was the first held in nine weeks. Grossman did not address specific issues that arose during the negotiations. He has previously faulted the union for not reaching out to resume talks, while the union maintains that the hotel group’s wage offers have fallen well short of their demands.
The Hotel Association of Los Angeles spokesperson, Peter Hillan, stated that the union’s proposal was a step back from the hotel owners’ perspective, as it moved up the start date of hotel contributions to a health and welfare fund, increasing the contract’s overall cost.
The union filed a labor complaint, alleging that German Martinez, a dishwasher at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows, was tackled during an August picket line. Martinez expressed disappointment that the employer did not acknowledge or apologize for the incident during the negotiations.
While workers were authorized to strike earlier this summer, they are not all walking off the job simultaneously. Instead, they are participating in rolling work stoppages, with groups of hotel workers engaging in strikes for a few days at a time. Unite Here Local 11 views this approach as a strategic move to keep the hotels on edge and uncertain, while also alleviating financial strain for the workers.
This strategy bears similarities to the United Auto Workers’ recent strike against Detroit’s car companies. Some have drawn comparisons to a tactic used by the Association of Flight Attendants in 1993, which employed limited and unpredictable strikes instead of a mass work stoppage.
So far, the Westin Bonaventure is the only hotel to have reached a tentative agreement, thereby avoiding a strike just as contracts were set to expire on June 30. The following is a list of Santa Monica hotels that are currently affected by the strike:
Denial of responsibility! Vigour Times is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
