On Saturday, July 1, up to 15,000 hotel workers, members of the UNITE HERE! Local 11 union went on strike against 65 hotels in the Los Angeles Metro Area, following the expiration of their contract at midnight on June 30. By Monday afternoon, employees at 18 of those hotels—including the Biltmore and JW Marriott in downtown Los Angeles, the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica and the Laguna Cliffs in Dana Point, Orange County—had walked out. Hotel housekeepers, bellhops, servers, dishwashers and front desk staff have joined the picket lines. Also picketing in solidarity with the hotel workers are striking members of the Writers Guild of America, on strike since May 2.
Workers “remained on the job at a number of other Local 11-represented hotels,” according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
Many of the measures that these hotels took during the pandemic-induced lockdowns, such as the elimination of daily room-cleaning for guests, the reduction in work force and speed-ups and long hours for those who remained on the job, have been retained and normalized, restoring and increasing profitability globally.
Two days before the contract expired, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown LA announced it had reached a tentative deal for higher pay and benefits with Local 11 representing its employees. The Westin Bonaventure, the largest and most luxurious of downtown LA hotels with its iconic cylindrical glass towers, employs 600 workers. This is the overture to a...
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