LAX hotel workers walk out in second wave of strikes

Thousands of workers at hotels near the Los Angeles International Airport area walked off the job Monday morning in a second wave of strikes that has hit Southern California’s hospitality sector this summer.

Starting at 5 a.m., workers from eight El Segundo hotels walked out demanding higher pay and better benefits. The list of hotels on strike include the Aloft El Segundo, Fairfield Inn & Suites El Segundo, Four Points Sheraton LAX Hotel, Hilton Garden Inn LAX/El Segundo, Holiday Inn LAX, June Hotel, Sheraton Gateway Hotel and Westin LAX Hotel.

“Sheraton escucha! Estamos en la lucha,” (“Sheraton, listen! We’re in the fight!”) yelled workers in red shirts at the Sheraton Gateway as they blew whistles and banged on an array of drums, buckets, pots and pans.

After contracts expired June 30, Unite Here Local 11-represented workers at more than 60 hotels authorized what could be the largest U.S. strike for the industry in recent memory. Not all hotel workers have walked out, per a strategic rollout decision made by union leadership.

The LAX walkouts follow a three-day strike that predominantly affected downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Orange County over the busy Fourth of July weekend.

“LAX has the largest concentration of hotels in the state in one block. It’s the gateway to the city. Those workers used to live in Inglewood and surrounding areas and they’ve been completely priced out and they’re heading more inland. The fight continues until we win a wage that will allow them to live here where they work,” Unite Here Local 11 co-President Kurt Petersen said.

The union represents 32,000 workers in the industry in Southern California and Arizona and has been negotiating a new contract since April. The union has proposed an immediate $5 hourly wage increase and a $3 boost annually for three years.

Irene Andrade has worked 16 years at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel as a room attendant. She used to live in Inglewood, but moved out to Ontario in San Bernardino County to be able to afford rent. Every day, she wakes up at 1:30 a.m to commute to the Sheraton Gateway, where she says she earns $19.80 an hour.

“I have a 7-year-old girl and I have to leave her. I hardly see her,” Andrade said.

Lilia Sotelo, a room attendant of 20 years at the Sheraton, currently resides in Hawthorne. Although her three kids are grown up, they have decided to live with her to save money.

“They are all grown up. But just like me right now, my children are concerned that even though they want to become independent, they can’t,” said Sotelo, who also earns $19.80 an hour.

Bargaining between hotels and the union has reached an impasse. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown L.A., the union’s biggest employer with more than 600 workers, reached a tentative deal June 28 and is the only hotel that has averted a strike. The union has urged other employers to adopt that agreement.

“Our position is that the hotels can and should sign the agreement that we reached at the Bonaventure. Negotiations mean negotiating for less. They know what they need to do. The pattern has been set. They need to follow the pattern,” Petersen said.

Last week, a group of 44 Southern California hotels filed an unfair labor practice charge, accusing Unite Here Local 11 of bargaining in bad faith by striking over “nonmandatory subjects.” This includes a measure set for the 2024 ballot that would require hotels in Los Angeles to rent vacant rooms to unhoused people.

Keith Grossman, an attorney with Hirschfeld Kraemer, one of two firms representing the hotel coalition, has said the coalition has offered meaningful wage increases, proposing raises of $2.50 an hour in the first 12 months and $6.25 over four years. Grossman said that pushing to include policy proposals that “have nothing to do” with the employees it represents and striking over them is “not only unlawful, but it is also a real obstacle to reaching agreement on a contract.”

“I think they’re the only people in Los Angeles who don’t want to talk about housing and the cost of housing,” Petersen said in response to the unfair labor practice charge. “We’re going to talk about the cost of housing at the table ‘cause that’s what this is all about.”

According to union spokeswoman Maria Hernandez, no new bargaining sessions have been scheduled.

In late June, Unite Here Local 11 hospitality workers also staged a sit-out protest near Los Angeles International Airport, which halted traffic on Century Boulevard. Nearly 200 protesters were arrested, including Los Angeles City Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martínez and Nithya Raman and Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles).

LAX area hotels serve as a first stop in the region’s tourism sector, which last year reached its highest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic pummeled the travel industry in 2020.

There is no set end date for the LAX strike, but union officials anticipate the strike expanding to other hotels soon.

“There will be more coming this week,” Petersen said.