Hotel workers throughout Southern California are starting to strike at 18 hotels in the region while employees at other hotels could walkout at any time.
Just two days after contracts expired, workers walked out on Sunday as they demand $5 more an hour to help cover rising housing costs, kicking off the largest hotel strike in recent history.
Ada Briceño, co-president of Unite Here Local 11 – a union which represents tens of thousands of hotel workers in Southern California and Arizona, said in a Sunday phone interview some employees are couch surfing.
“We’re striking because people’s livelihood is unaffordable now. Rents are sky high,” she said. “We need to adjust our pay so people can keep a roof over their heads.”
It comes right before the Fourth of July holiday and after union hotel workers overwhelmingly voted to strike last month.
Briceño said picket lines have formed outside the Laguna Cliffs Hotel in Dana Point, with workers carrying signs and others banging drums. She said the strike started at 3 a.m. Sunday.
She adds more could join workers striking at 18 hotels throughout Southern California at any moment.
The union is trying to secure $5 an hour more for workers during the first year of the new contract followed by an annual $3 bump in the second and third year.
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