Hospitality workers walk off job at dozens of Southern California hotels

Workers at dozens of major Southern California hotels went on strike Sunday, July 2, forming picket lines at many of the businesses in an effort to secure higher pay and improvements in health care and retirement benefits.

“BREAKING: Southern California hotel workers are ON STRIKE! Thousands walked off the job at properties across DTLA & Santa Monica. Dozens more properties remain without a Union contract,” Unite Here Local 11 tweeted at 6:01 a.m. Sunday.

That tweet was followed by several more that showed workers picketing Sunday morning at sites including the InterContinental in downtown Los Angeles, JW Marriott LA Live, Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Hotel Figueroa, Le Meridien Delfina Santa Monica, Viceroy Santa Monica, Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, Sheraton Universal Hotel, DoubleTree Los Angeles and Laguna Cliffs in Dana Point.

Workers at the DoubleTree Los Angeles are joining the fun ON STRIKE with thousands of their UNITE HERE Local 11 siblings. #SoCalHotelStrike pic.twitter.com/gVxlIYMmWk

— UNITE HERE Local 11 (@UNITEHERE11) July 2, 2023

The union, which represents up to 15,000 workers employed at 65 major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties, had said Friday in an Instagram post that its members “could strike at any moment” during the Fourth of July weekend.

The contract between the hotels and Unite Here Local 11 expired at 12:01 a.m. Saturday although the union reached a deal Wednesday night with the largest of its employers, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown L.A.

Contract agreements are unresolved with the remaining hotels.

Hotel officials have told reporters their facilities will remain open with management and other nonunion staff filling in if the union strike materializes.

On June 8, 96% of the union’s members approved a strike authorization that could result in one of the nation’s largest hotel worker strikes.

Union officials said a recent survey of its members showed that 53% said they have moved in the past five years or will move in the near future because of soaring housing costs in the Los Angeles area.

Union officials said their members earn $20 to $25 an hour. Negotiators are asking for an immediate $5 an hour raise and an additional $3 an hour in subsequent years of the contract along with improvements in health care and retirement benefits.

With the Westin contract settled, the Coordinated Bargaining Group is negotiating on behalf of 44 of the other unionized hotels. The remaining 21 hotels would adhere to that same agreement.

15,000 Southern California hotel workers vote to authorize a strike