Posts tagged hotel workers
Hotel workers strike at five Santa Monica properties after negotiations stall again
September 27, 2023 // Unite Here Local 11 — which represents thousands of cooks, housekeepers, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents in Los Angeles and Orange counties — has been urging hotels to agree to sweeping wage increases given how deeply the housing crisis affects workers. The union last month urged convention organizers and visitors to “stay away from strike-ready hotels” that haven’t signed new contracts with more than 15,000 workers at some 60 properties. Unite Here Local 11’s key demand for months had been a $5 immediate hourly wage increase and a $3 boost each subsequent year of the three-year contract, for a total raise of $11. Southern California hotel workers have been on strike on and off since July 2.
As Hollywood strike drags on, Biden’s relationship with unions becomes complicated
September 6, 2023 // For example, in the 2020 election, labor unions contributed $27.5 million to Biden’s campaign while his opponent, former President Donald Trump, received less than $360,000, according to Open Secrets. The states with the largest concentration of union workers are hardline Democratic states, like Hawaii, New York, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey and California. In 2022, 10.1% of American wage and salary workers belonged to unions compared to 20.1%, in 1983, signifying a large drop in membership. But this hasn’t translated to a drop in popularity for unions, at least according to recent polls.
Political scientists confront real world politics dealing with hotel workers strike
September 5, 2023 // Last week, Unite Here Local 11 broadened its call for solidarity by asking all conventions to stay away from Los Angeles until the hotels meet their demands. The union and the hotels are far from reaching an agreement. That means political scientists likely won't be the last group to navigate their Los Angeles events in the midst of major labor action.
Los Angeles: hotel workers’ strike ignites backlash among academics
August 18, 2023 // Leaders of the association’s Latino caucus said they were “withdrawing” from this year’s annual conference “in solidarity with the union and hotel workers”. About one in 15 of the association’s members identify as “Latino or Hispanic American”, whereas around two out of three identify as “non-Hispanic White or Euro-American”, according to membership data as of August 2022. “We continue to stand in solidarity with the heavily Latina and immigrant hotel workers of Los Angeles and southern California,” said a statement posted to Twitter, now called X. Others also flocked to the platform to express their frustration, saying the decision to keep the meeting in Los Angeles leaves members in the lurch. “Just the idea of trying to find someplace else is overwhelming,” said Lindsay Mayka, the chair of Latin American studies at Colby College, who is choosing to skip this year’s conference because the hotel she had originally booked is on strike and she does not support the event. “It’s kind of being presented as, you know, everyone has to do what’s right for themselves.” Maria Hernandez, a spokesperson for the union, told the Guardian it contacted “hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals” and confirmed the political science group was the largest it asked to cancel.
When California’s public workers go on strike
August 11, 2023 // On Tuesday, thousands of city workers across Los Angeles, including staff at LAX and Van Nuys airport, City Hall, animal shelters, public swimming pools and other facilities, walked off the job for a 24-hour strike, reports the Los Angeles Times. There have been some efforts in the Legislature to expand strike rights for public workers. State Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat from Santa Ana, has proposed a constitutional amendment that would enshrine every worker’s right, including public sector employees, to join a union and negotiate with their employers “to protect their economic well-being and safety at work.” Another measure, authored by Democratic Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes of San Bernardino, would protect public employees from disciplinary action if they join a sympathy strike, refuse to cross a picket line or refuse cover work for striking co-workers.
Who’s on strike and who’s close? Labor unions are flexing
August 8, 2023 // Recent decades suggest there won’t be a strike at more than one at once. UAW (United Auto Workers) typically picks one “target” at which to focus negotiations and possibly strike and then demand that the other two unionized automakers agree to the same “pattern” deal. That one really has the chance to hurt the Democrats since the union is very upset about the auto industry plans to shift to EVs (electric vehicles). They see EVs as a jobs killer because of so many fewer parts – it takes about one-third fewer jobs to build an EV than an internal combustion engine (ICE) car. And many of the EV jobs are at battery plants being built nationwide right now, but which are joint ventures between the automakers and foreign battery companies, and thus not guaranteed to be unionized. Even if those battery plants end up with a union, it’s not clear the joint venture will agree to UAW-level wages. The one UAW-represented plant in Ohio pays roughly half of what workers are paid at an engine or transmission plant owned by one of the Big Three (US automakers) and represented by the UAW.
‘It feels like it’s strike summer’: US unions flex muscles across industries
July 31, 2023 // “In the wake of the Patco strike, companies saw strikes as opportunities to weaken unions or even break them. That’s not the case today. Today there’s no fear that calling a strike will result in disaster,” said Lichtenstein. “Today there’s a sense that unions are on the offensive,” Lichtenstein continued. “Take the actors. They say they don’t want just a good contract. They want a transformative contract.”
Summer of discontent: will US strikes spell trouble for ‘union guy’ Biden?
July 24, 2023 // On Thursday he was at the Philadelphia Shipyard in Pennsylvania to promote “Bidenomics”, a recently adopted slogan. The president said: “We have a plan that’s turning things around pretty quickly. ‘Bidenomics’ is just another way of saying ‘Restore the American Dream’.” But that message is still struggling to break through with voters. In a CNBC All-America Economic Survey released this week, 37% approve of Biden’s handling of the economy and 58% disapprove. In a Monmouth University poll, only three in 10 Americans feel the country is doing a better job recovering economically than the rest of the world since the pandemic. There is a baffling disconnect between these opinions and data that shows America defying predictions of recession and curbing price rises faster than other major economies. Inflation has fallen from 9% to 3% and is now at its lowest point in more than two years.
USC housing workers unionize in hopes of boosting pay, benefits
June 21, 2023 // Mike Long, a spokesman for SEIU Local 721, said the climate is good for union action. “You can’t ignore the regional context with the Hollywood writers out on strike,” he said. “And there has been a flurry of activity across Southern California with hotel workers.” More than 15,000 Southern California hotel workers voted earlier this month to authorize a strike as they bargain for a $5-an-hour pay hike, more affordable health care, a secure pension plan and “safe and humane” workloads. Unite Here Local 11, which represents the room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, front desk agents, servers and food service workers, said it would be “the largest hotel worker strike in modern U.S. history” and could happen as early as the July 4 weekend.