Southern California hotel workers ratify new contracts, ending strikes for some
Suhauna Hussain March 25, 2024
After months spent on and off the picket lines, employees at about three dozen Southern California hotels, including some of Los Angeles’ most
high-endluxurious
properties, voted this weekend to approve new contracts that deliver higher wages for thousands of housekeepers, cooks and other workers.
The deal brings a partial end to the long-running labor dispute that has roiled the local hotel industry since last summer, when workers at
aboutsome
60 hotels launched a strategy of intermittent strikes to protest wages and work conditions. The contracts approved this weekend cover
s
only 34 of those hotels.
The overwhelming approval of the four-year agreements 98% of votes were in favor of them was announced Monday by Unite Here Local 11, the union representing the workers.
The contracts, which cover luxury hotels such as the Beverly Hilton and the Waldorf Astoria, include an almost immediate raise of $5 per hour for workers who don’t typically earn tips including front desk clerks, dishwashers and hotel housekeepers. Those workers will see a total hourly wage boost of $10 over the course of the contract that expires in January 2028.
Under the terms of the agreements, hotels will also increase pension contributions and investments in healthcare, the union said.
Labor leaders trumpeted the deal as an unmitigated win.
The agreement we are using the term life-changing because it truly is is 50 pages of total victory, from affordable health insurance to probably the best pension for service workers in the country, said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, in an interview. The real game changer is the wages. We said this about people being able to afford to live where they work, and weve taken an enormous stride to enable people to do that.
The ratified contracts formalize tentative deals,
many of which were inked
in the closing months of last year and earlier this year.
Major hotel brands
have
praised those earlier agreements.
When four Hyatt hotels Hyatt Shay in Culver City, Hyatt Regency Long Beach, Hyatt Centric The Pike Long Beach and Hyatt Andaz West Hollywood and the union
announced tentative agreements in February
,
Michael DAngelo, Hyatt Hotels Corp.s head of labor relations overseeing the Americas,
region
said the terms of
the a tentative agreement fo ur Hyatt properties signed in February
have our colleagues best interests in mind.”
Our purpose is to care for people so they can be their best. Our colleagues are the heart of our business, and their well being continues to remain a top priority, DAngelo said
in an emailed statement Feb. 9
.
Hilton spokesperson Karla Visconti said, when announcing tentative agreements with the union for workers at the Beverly Hilton, Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and Hilton Anaheim in December, that Hilton welcomed the end of negotiations and looked “forward to continuing to welcome our guests with our signature hospitality.
Hyatt and Hilton representatives
did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the union’s move to ratify the contracts.
Hotel workers have said their pay hasnt kept pace with soaring housing costs, and as a result, many have been displaced from neighborhoods near their workplaces and forced into long commutes. In sometimes contentious contract negotiations
that at times became tense
, the union initially demanded a $5 immediate hourly wage increase and a $3 boost each subsequent year of the three-year contract, for a total of $11. At a bargaining session in September, the union slightly lowered that proposal to $10.50.
The terms of the 4-year collective bargaining agreement strike close to those initial demands, with non-tipped workers receiving a retroactive $2.50 hourly pay boost beginning Sept. 1, 2023; another $2.50 boost beginning April 1; a $1 bump at the start of 2025, another $1 bump Jan. 1 of 2026, with additional $1 bumps every six months after that, totaling $10 over the course of the contract.
Under the terms,
Housekeepers,
also
called “room attendants,”
at most hotels by July 1, 2027
will earn $35 per hour, or $73,000 per year
at most hotels by July 1, 2027
. Top cooks will earn $41 per hour, or $85,000 per year.
Wages range for tipped workers who receive tips, such as doorman, restaurant servers, and banquet workers, and others, see a range of wages depending on their classification. Economic improvements under the contracts, include double-time pay for holidays, vacation, and sick days; increases in workers share of service charges; and an automatic 20% gratuity in full-service restaurants to be split by staff.this graf is unclear
The contracts also prohibit
sincludes gains in healthcare, pensions, workload and a policy against
hotels from using E-Verify, a federal system used to check work eligibility
of employees
, as a way to protect immigrant
sworkers
working in the country illegally.
In June of last year, thousands of hotel workers at some 60 hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties authorized what the union has said was the largest hotel strike in modern U.S. history. They began targeting the hotels with a series of sporadic strikes after contracts covering more than 15,000 housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers, and front desk workers expiredJune 30Peter Hillan, a spokesperson for the California Hotel and Lodging Assn., an industry group, said some of the contracts should have been ratified months ago, with the union having touted a tentative deal with the
in downtown L.A. just as
.
The union announced deals in September
with the Biltmore in downtown L.A.s financial district and in October with
and
Laguna Cliffs Marriott in Dana Point.
a Progress picked up around the holiday season in December and January, with the union securing another two dozen tentative agreements.
We are pleased that Unite Here has finally ratified the agreements,
Hillan
said
Peter Hillan, a spokesperson for the California Hotel and Lodging Assn., an industry group
. Having our employees under contract so they can return to serving guests is good news for everybody.
Hillan said that his association is not involved in the on-going negotiations for outstanding hotels. The Hotel Association of Los Angeles, which recently appointed new leadership, is more closely involved, he said. The Hotel Association of Los Angeles did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Major hotel brands have praised the agreements. When four Hyatt hotels Hyatt Shay in Culver City, Hyatt Regency Long Beach, Hyatt Centric The Pike Long Beach and Hyatt Andaz West Hollywood and the union
announced tentative agreements in February
, Michael DAngelo, Hyatt Hotels Corp.s head of labor relations overseeing the Americas region said the terms of the agreement have our colleagues best interests in mind.”Our purpose is to care for people so they can be their best. Our colleagues are the heart of our business, and their well being continues to remain a top priority, DAngelo said in an emailed statement Feb. 9.Hilton spokesperson Karla Visconti said, when
announcing tentative agreements
with the union for workers at the Beverly Hilton, Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and Hilton Anaheim in December, that Hilton welcomed the end of negotiations and looked “forward to continuing to welcome our guests with our signature hospitality.Visconti did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the union’s move to ratify the contracts. But strikes continue at dozens of other hotels where tentative agreements and formal contracts have remained elusive, remain unsettled, including the Hotel Figueroa, Hotel Maya and Doubletree Downtown Los Angeles.and the LA Grand, the site of the city-operated Inside Safe Program, where workers have continued picket lines and work stoppages
Last week, workers at Proper Santa Monica, Hotel June, San Pedro Doubletree and Proper Downtown Los Angeles walked off the job. The strike lasted for several days.
Over the course of the contract campaign, Petersen and other union officials have said their demands are crucial protection as Los Angeles gears up to host the World Cup in 2026 and the Summer Olympics in 2028. Petersen said that
while
some brands pushed to extend the contract expiration date in an effort to avert labor unrest around the Olympics, but the union declined, to hold on to leverage to ensure workers are compensated fairly.
