Posts tagged hospitality
Op-ed: Can Zohran Make NYC a Union Town Again?
September 9, 2025 // The new mayor could host big online unionization trainings with the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have already done. If this led even a small fraction of Zohran’s 60,000-plus volunteers and over 6 million social media followers to start organizing their own workplaces—or to take a strategic job to unionize it—this could potentially generate thousands of new unionization campaigns. And were Mamdani to act upon our proposal to launch a broad Movement for an Affordable New York (MANY), then the pool of new potential workplace organizers would grow significantly.
All major Las Vegas Strip casinos are now unionized in historic labor victory
August 5, 2025 // For 25 years, her employer, the Venetian, had resisted organizing efforts as one of the last holdouts on the Strip, locked in a prolonged standoff with the Culinary Workers Union. But a recent change in ownership opened the Venetian’s doors to union representation just as the Strip’s newest casino, the Fontainebleau, was also inking its first labor contract. The historic deals finalized late last year mark a major turning point: For the first time in the Culinary Union’s 90-year history, all major casinos on the Strip are unionized. Backed by 60,000 members, most of them in Las Vegas, it is the largest labor union in Nevada. Experts say the Culinary Union’s success is a notable exception in a national landscape where union membership overall is declining.
Today’s hospitality union battle is over wages. The next one might be about tech.
December 5, 2024 // The following year, the Culinary Union added language around technology adoption to its contract. In its contracts negotiated in 2023, the union “protected and expanded” that clause, Bethany Khan, a union spokesperson, told Hotel Dive. For members of the Culinary Union, their technology-related worries go beyond robot replacements — encompassing everything from workflow-optimizing apps to artificial intelligence. And while the union’s contract language offers protections around how technology is used at hotels, it does not prevent companies from deploying new technologies in the first place.
New UCSD Report Shows Younger Workers Are Supportive of Unions
August 28, 2024 // Younger workers are far more likely to support but also be uncertain about unions, according to a report released today by UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. The report, published by the Economics Policy Institute, identifies three major shifts occurring among U.S. workers: a recent, marked decline in opposition to labor unions, a rise of workers who are interested in — but unsure about — unions and an emerging generation gap in attitudes toward unionization.
What the Biden Administration Could Learn From California’s Attempt To Ban Independent Contracting
April 8, 2024 // In other words, the president promised to replicate AB 5 nationally but has failed. I can only surmise that the Los Angeles Times doesn't pay much attention to California news, either. As noted above, AB 5 isn't the victim of Congress or industry—but of massive, angry blowback from California freelancers, many of them Democrats—in multiple professions who didn't appreciate losing their jobs. The story focused on San Francisco's settlement with a company that connects workers with hospitality industry jobs, so AB 5 is still wreaking havoc. The most aggravating part of the Times article cites a study from the pro-union Economic Policy Institute, which finds "blue-collar workers classified as contractors are losing out on as much as $16,700 a year compared with what they would have made as regular employees." Perhaps it should show how much money these workers are losing when companies axe their jobs because of the AB 5-style mandates. When it comes to economics, union think tanks, reporters, and the Biden administration are as clever as those proverbial worms.
Biden’s new rule on independent contractors wages war on workers, women and entrepreneurs
February 26, 2024 // In the past year alone, 64 million Americans freelanced, half of whom were women. Women choose independent contractor status because of the flexibility it affords them, a particularly important factor for those raising children or aiding in caring for parents or other family members. Ninety-two percent of female workers prioritize flexibility over stability when it comes to their careers. Flexibility in the workplace is no longer a commodity, it is a necessity.
Over half a million Americans went on strike last year—a 141% increase
February 20, 2024 //
Restaurant workers wanted to unionize at this L.A. hotel. Now the restaurants are closing
February 5, 2024 // The case is playing out at the Hotel Figueroa in downtown, home of Sparrow Italia, Cafe Fig, Bar Magnolia, the Cafeteria and La Casita at Driftwood. The historic building has for the last two decades built a following for its Mediterranean-inspired space and stylish dining rooms, but behind closed doors, tension has loomed between the third-party management company behind the restaurants, called Noble 33, and the estimated 100 food and beverage workers who run them. Discontent between Noble 33 and its employees at Hotel Figueroa started soon after the hospitality group took over food and beverage operations for the hotel in 2021, according to workers and union organizers who spoke with The Times.
Despite Biden’s Efforts to Empower Unions, Membership Rates and Wage Advantages Fall to All-Time Lows
January 24, 2024 // So, why have unionization rates and union wages been falling despite significant union-organizing efforts at places such as Starbucks, Amazon and Trader Joe’s, as well as President Joe Biden’s “whole of government” approach toward increasing unionization? Primarily, it’s because unions aren’t providing things that workers want or need. Many workers don’t like unions spending their dues on politics instead of representation, their not infrequent deception and coercion to gain support or their rigid structures that impede flexibility and prohibit performance-based pay. Meanwhile, by engaging directly with their employers, workers have been able to achieve stronger wage gains (albeit entirely erased by inflation), increased workplace flexibility, expanded benefits (such as paid family leave) and a multitude of educational opportunities.
More SoCal hotel workers agree to new deal with Marriott, Hilton
December 18, 2023 // More than 1,700 housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers and front desk workers signed the deal, according to Unite Here Local 11, which said 20 high-end Southland hotels have now signed new contract agreements. Those employees work at the Irvine Marriott, W Hotel Westwood, SLS Beverly Hills, Westin LAX, Sheraton Grand DTLA, JW Marriott LA Live, Ritz-Carlton LA Live, Courtyard Marriott DTLA, Residence Inn DTLA and Hilton Irvine. - Language improvements, including historic Equal Justice language that, among other things, will help to provide access to union jobs for formerly incarcerated individuals and unprecedented protections for immigrant workers.