Last year was a big one for the U.S. labor movement, filled with historic wins and achievements for UPS workers, automakers, and writers and actors in Hollywood. However, the struggle of thousands of hotel workers, mostly Latina women from immigrant communities, continued in 2024 without attracting the same amount of public attention.
Hotel workers in California led one of the largest waves of strikes to hit the US hotel industry to secure wage increases they say should enable them to afford to live in the areas where they work. Their actions coincided with the “hot labor summer,” which saw ultimately successful union campaigns by Hollywood writers, actors and others.
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Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California have gone on strike more than 100 times since last July, demanding new union contracts with workers demanding historic wage increases, benefits and protections commensurate with the intense workloads and challenges hotel workers are experiencing in the wake of the crisis. Covid-19 pandemic.
They used tactics similar to the United Auto Workers’ successful “Stand Up” strike strategy; Instead of an all-out strike, they carried out short-term strike actions against targeted hotels.
Twenty-eight hotels in Southern California have reached agreements with Unite Here Local 11 so far, but a handful of hotels, including Doubletree DTLA, Doubletree San Pedro, Sheraton Park Anaheim, Holiday Inn LAX, are still struggling to agree to similar agreements. Santa Monica Hampton Inn, Santa Monica Courtyard Marriott, Hilton Pasadena, Blackstone’s Aloft, Fairfield El Segundo, Hotel Maya, Hyatt Place Pasadena and the Hyatt Regency at Los Angeles international airport.
Workers represented by Unite Here Local 11 are participating in picketing and strike action. boycotts Pressuring the remaining hotels to sign new contracts with workers.
Yesenia Reyes, a single mother of six who has worked as a maid at the Hyatt Regency for nearly 10 years, works two full-time jobs. It is seeking improvements in wages and protections to offset the enormous workload it faces, worsening workloads in the hotel industry as services were cut during the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.
“It has been extremely difficult since the pandemic. They were no longer servicing the rooms every day, so after cleaning rooms that had not been cleaned for three or four days, the workload became very heavy and the hotels were still making money, meanwhile our workload became difficult,” Reyes said. “We are human beings like everyone else, we have families that we try to support and care for.
“With picketing, with everything we do, we want to send a message that what we are fighting for is fair and just. For many of us, our rent and rent continues to rise. We have landlords who sell the building, then new owners come and increase the rent. “It is becoming increasingly impossible to live everywhere.”
In December, at least 18 workers at the Hyatt Regency at Los Angeles international airport faced disciplinary action for striking, according to Unite Here Local 11.
Ricardo Blanco had worked in the food and beverage department of the Hyatt Regency for nearly 24 years and was one of the workers assigned to participate in the strike protest.
“I always felt safe because of what I knew, knowing my job and knowing what was required of me. “But right now I feel like I’m in the air,” he said. “The message they’re giving us is, if we keep doing this, we’re going to get fired,” Blanco said. “We are people who seek what is fair in order to survive and get along in California. “We are only looking for respect and dignity, not intimidation.”
Noting that the hotel is owned by a different union, the Southwest Carpenters Union pension fund, he argued that workers need to understand why they are pushing for pension and livable wage increases.
“Many of my colleagues, including myself, are over 50, so we are really worried about our retirement plans. We are just getting older, but the company is not moving forward,” Blanco added. “Instead of getting answers, we get disciplinary measures.”
Several Unite Here locals and other labor groups have signed a letter to the board of trustees of the Southwest Carpenters Pension Fund urging them to take a leadership role in resolving the contract dispute with the hotel. The union and the pension fund did not respond to the letter and did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.
Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, criticized the ownership and role of public and union pension funds in this hotel and how these funds were used to deny fair wages to workers at the Hyatt Regency and to discipline workers from exercising their rights.
“The idea that our money is being used not only to deny workers a living wage but also to punish them for exercising their rights should not happen,” Petersen said.
He also highlighted the gains made by other hotel workers and the tremendous public support for the strikes. Details of the tentative agreements have not yet been made public, but Petersen argued that the contracts bring the city’s hotel workers to a new level.
“This has been a transformative campaign for both the industry and our members,” Petersen added. “It would not be an exaggeration to say that people are more militant and determined today than when they went out in July. I think the industry knows this. “I’m afraid they’ve lost a generation of workers out of all loyalty because they fought instead of listening to their employees’ demand for a wage that would allow them to live in the city.”
Hyatt did not respond to multiple requests for comment.