More hotel strikes could mean more stress for meeting planners, as members of UNITE HERE Local 11 votes 96 percent in favor of authorizing strikes.
The strikes would represent about 7,500 hotel workers at 24 hotels in the Los Angeles area if contract negotiations don’t reach an agreement. And this time, properties from Hilton Hotels & Resorts will be joining the Marriott International properties that have already seen strikes these past few months.
Labor contracts at the local hotels expired on Nov. 30, and for these hotel workers, the items at stake are similar to the ones from workers that initiated the other Marriott strikes across the country. The union is pushing for higher wages (about $25 an hour, according to Los Angeles Times reports), affordable healthcare and housekeeper protection from sexual assaults.
On Dec. 12, about 800 hotel workers already took to the streets in front of five high-end hotels: the Westin Bonaventure, Beverly Wilshire, Fairmont Miramar, Hilton Anaheim and Sheraton Park Hotel, according to the Los Angeles Times. Workers marched with signs, banged drums and chanted throughout most of the day, giving a preview of what it would be like if the strikes were to ensue.
The hope is to reach similar agreements that were made at hotels in other cities with similar costs of living. In San Francisco, for example, union workers won a contract that increased wages by $1.75 an hour from a previous $23 an hour wage.
