Thousands of Southern California hotel workers begin strike
Source: CNBC
Just as the July Fourth holiday weekend gets into high gear, thousands of hotel workers in Southern California began striking Sunday morning seeking to negotiate a contract with higher wages and other benefits, according to the union representing the workers.
Members of UNITE HERE Local 11, which says it represents more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona, are striking at more than a dozen hotels throughout Los Angeles and Santa Monica after their contract expired just after midnight, according to posts on the union’s Twitter page. Participants include cooks, dishwashers, servers, front desk workers and room attendants, the union said in a news release. A union representative said Friday that the contract covered about 15,000 workers at 65 hotels.
The union’s key demands include a $5-an-hour wage increase, access to affordable family health care benefits and stronger workplace protections. A spokesperson for the union could not immediately be reached Sunday to offer more specific details. Negotiations began April 20, the local said. Last month, 96% of UNITE HERE Local 11 members voted to authorize the strike.
The union also says that while hotels received billions in federal bailouts during the pandemic and have since bounced back and exceeded pre-pandemic profits, wages have not kept up with rising housing costs. Affordable housing advocates have said skyrocketing rents are fueling homelessness throughout California, where nearly 1 million fewer affordable rental homes are available for extremely low-income renters, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/03/thousands-of-southern-california-hotel-workers-begin-strike.html
Heard this on the local news radio here.
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