Cheers and chants of “se puede” filled the civic plaza outside the Long Beach City Council chambers Tuesday night following the council’s unanimous vote in favor of the city’s hotel workers, who had been asking for a $25 minimum wage measure to be placed on the ballot in March.

At the council’s direction, the city attorney will now draft the ballot measure outlining an industry-specific minimum wage increase, which will start at $23 and see hotel workers’ wages spike to $29.50 by the 2028 Olympics if they work at Long Beach hotels with 100 or more rooms.

The vote is a major victory for workers and the union that represents them. Unite Here Local 11 and its members across the region have been rallying all summer for higher wages amid contentious contract negotiations.

The ballot measure is an avenue for those union workers to circumvent collective bargaining with hotel operators. Long Beach’s 27 hotels employ about 2,500 people.

“This is crucial,” said Unite Here Co-President Ada Briceno, whose union represents over 32,000 hotel, restaurant, airport, convention center and sports arena employees in Southern California and Arizona. “I think it’s important to show that the council is standing with workers, that they believe wages should increase and that people should live where they work.”

Hotels in Long Beach with at least 100 rooms are already required to pay workers an hourly minimum of $17.55 because of an ordinance passed in 2012, but council members said annual...

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