As the Fourth of July arrives and tourists flock to California for the holiday, hotel workers in Los Angeles have gone on strike, protesting low pay in an area with high housing costs. The strikers intend to continue for “multiple days”, according to Kurt Peterson, who is the co-president of the union involved, Unite Here Local 11.
Los Angeles City Council member Hugo Soto-Martinez, who helps organize the union, says that workers are frustrated with the problems of “homelessness” and “cost of housing”. On average, hotel workers in Los Angeles earn about $49,000 a year; however, studies estimate that an individual must earn a yearly salary of $76,000 in order to live there comfortably.
One such worker is Diana Rios-Sanchez, who is a housekeeping supervisor at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, and who is struggling to take care of her three children in the face of rising prices and insufficient wages. The family lives in a one-bedroom apartment, and she is unsure whether they can afford to stay in Los Angeles.
In addition to the low pay, she is also unhappy with her workload. Many hotels laid off employees during the pandemic, resulting in workers now “doing the job of two or three,” according to Rios-Sanchez. “All we do in hotels is work and work and get by with very little,” she said.
With Independence Day approaching, the strikers are hoping to take advantage of the increasing tourism to help them attain their goals. The union is asking for hourly wages, currently between $20 to $25, to increase immediately by $5, with an additional increase of $3 a year for the next three years.
Keith Grossman, a representative for the bargaining group including more than 40 hotels in the region, states that hotels “want to continue to provide strong wages, affordable quality family health care and a pension”. However, representatives have also claimed that the union had the intention of disrupting business operations for the hotels, and had refused to bargain with them when they offered increasing the hourly wage by $2.50 in the first year, with an additional total of $6.25 over the next four years.
The strike is only one of many in the recent months by workers in Southern California. Dockworkers in Los Angeles slowed business in ports until finally reaching an agreement in June, while Hollywood screenwriters have been on strike for two months now. Across these industries, workers are unsatisfied with salaries that fail to support a comfortable life.
Source:
https://ktla.com/news/california/this-is-how-much-people-need-to-earn-to-live-comfortably-in-california/#:~:text=The%20data%20used%20in%20the,comfortably%2C%E2%80%9D%20the%20data%20shows.
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Hotel-Salary-in-Los-Angeles,CA#:~:text=%2440%2C000%20is%20the%2025th%20percentile,Salaries%20below%20this%20are%20outliers.&text=%2462%2C900%20is%20the%2075th%20percentile.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/02/southern-california-hotel-workers-strike
Los Angeles City Council member Hugo Soto-Martinez, who helps organize the union, says that workers are frustrated with the problems of “homelessness” and “cost of housing”. On average, hotel workers in Los Angeles earn about $49,000 a year; however, studies estimate that an individual must earn a yearly salary of $76,000 in order to live there comfortably.
One such worker is Diana Rios-Sanchez, who is a housekeeping supervisor at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, and who is struggling to take care of her three children in the face of rising prices and insufficient wages. The family lives in a one-bedroom apartment, and she is unsure whether they can afford to stay in Los Angeles.
In addition to the low pay, she is also unhappy with her workload. Many hotels laid off employees during the pandemic, resulting in workers now “doing the job of two or three,” according to Rios-Sanchez. “All we do in hotels is work and work and get by with very little,” she said.
With Independence Day approaching, the strikers are hoping to take advantage of the increasing tourism to help them attain their goals. The union is asking for hourly wages, currently between $20 to $25, to increase immediately by $5, with an additional increase of $3 a year for the next three years.
Keith Grossman, a representative for the bargaining group including more than 40 hotels in the region, states that hotels “want to continue to provide strong wages, affordable quality family health care and a pension”. However, representatives have also claimed that the union had the intention of disrupting business operations for the hotels, and had refused to bargain with them when they offered increasing the hourly wage by $2.50 in the first year, with an additional total of $6.25 over the next four years.
The strike is only one of many in the recent months by workers in Southern California. Dockworkers in Los Angeles slowed business in ports until finally reaching an agreement in June, while Hollywood screenwriters have been on strike for two months now. Across these industries, workers are unsatisfied with salaries that fail to support a comfortable life.
Source:
https://ktla.com/news/california/this-is-how-much-people-need-to-earn-to-live-comfortably-in-california/#:~:text=The%20data%20used%20in%20the,comfortably%2C%E2%80%9D%20the%20data%20shows.
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Hotel-Salary-in-Los-Angeles,CA#:~:text=%2440%2C000%20is%20the%2025th%20percentile,Salaries%20below%20this%20are%20outliers.&text=%2462%2C900%20is%20the%2075th%20percentile.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/02/southern-california-hotel-workers-strike
