Posts tagged Long Beach
$30 Minimum Wage Has L.A. Hotel Owners in Revolt
June 24, 2025 // Now, hotel owners have to contend with what local union leaders say will be the highest minimum wage in the country. The city council voted last month to boost the wage for workers in hotels with 60 rooms or more. Hourly pay, currently $20.32, will increase every year until it reaches $30 in 2028. The industry is mounting an effort to roll back the new minimum-wage law. Los Angeles hotel owners are petitioning to suspend the city’s new ordinance, and several hotel owners have also threatened to pull out of agreements to provide blocks of rooms during the Olympic Games. Some hoteliers say they were already eager to exit L.A., if only they could find an offramp. “We would love to sell” our L.A. hotels, said Jon Bortz, chief executive of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, which owns two hotels in the city and seven more in the L.A. area. “But nobody will buy them.”
Long Beach Worker Files Federal Lawsuit Challenging Structure of Biden Labor Board as Unconstitutional
August 23, 2024 // Nelson Medina, a Long Beach, CA-based employee of transportation company Savage Services, has just filed a federal lawsuit against the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) challenging the Board’s makeup as unconstitutional. Medina, who is represented for free by National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, argues that the composition of the NLRB violates separation of powers doctrines enshrined in Article II of the U.S. Constitution because it shields NLRB bureaucrats from being removed by the President.
Labor Board to Prosecute Teamsters for Illegally Threatening Long Beach Savage Services Employee with Termination and Fines
May 21, 2024 // According to the complaint, Teamsters officials, in a July 2023 letter, “threatened [Medina] with sending a letter of removal to the Employer” if he didn’t pay allegedly outstanding fees to the union, without providing the legal protections required by Philadelphia Sheraton. The complaint also says that Teamsters bosses threatened Medina with a fine for the same reason.
Hotel Maya and union workers reach agreement after months of strikes, walkouts
April 25, 2024 // Employees at the Maya and dozens of other Southern California hotels have staged strikes and boycotts since July as part of a campaign by their union, Unite Here Local 11, which represents 32,000 hospitality workers in the region. The dispute at the Maya has involved dueling complaints that the union was bargaining in bad faith and that workers were subjected to violence on the picket line, including allegations that a striking worker was grabbed and yelled at by a hotel investor, something the investor denied. In August, an altercation also resulted in a striking Maya worker being punched in the head by an unknown man, according to video of the incident.
Teamsters Officials Facing Federal Prosecution for Threats of Violence Against Long Beach Savage Services Employee
February 21, 2024 // NLRB Region 21’s complaint is the latest chapter in a long-running battle between Teamsters Local 848 union bosses and rank-and-file workers at the Long Beach Savage Services facility. Medina won a Foundation-backed settlement against the union in February 2022, which ordered Teamsters officials to pay back thousands of dollars in illegal dues they seized from about 60 of his coworkers who objected to union membership and to funding the union’s political activity. This settlement stemmed from Medina’s unfair labor practice charges asserting that union bosses had instructed Savage Services management to fire Medina and 12 other employees if they did not complete forms authorizing full union membership and dues payment.
West Coast dockworkers making $200K demand higher pay
June 12, 2023 // International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) dockworkers handle cargo across the West Coast, including at the major container gateways of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland in California, and Seattle and Tacoma in Washington. The ILWU is demanding wages and benefits in the next five-year contract that reflect dockworkers’ role in the COVID-era import boom, a one-off event that ended last year. The prior contract expired July 1, 2022. The union cited the decrease in member wages and benefits as a share of the revenues of terminal employers and ocean carriers represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA).
Southern California hotel workers head for a strike authorization vote
May 31, 2023 // Union officials say they are asking for the strike authorization vote on June 8 to jump-start sluggish negotiations and convince hotel operators to seriously consider pay increases for their workers. Petersen said the union has plans to ramp up pressure on a number of other tourism companies — other hotels as well as food operators at airports, stadiums and resorts whose contracts are also set to expire June 30. He said in total more than 20,000 Southern California tourism workers covered by roughly 100 contracts will be involved in actions this summer. The union represents non-management hotel employees, including front desk clerks, housekeepers and hotel restaurant workers. Marriott International and Hilton Hotels & Resorts are among the major employers in talks with Unite Here Local 11.
Starbucks says union broke rules by recording talks in 5 places
October 28, 2022 // The NLRB prohibits recordings or transcripts of contract negotiations and has previously argued against recording bargaining sessions
What West Coast ports’ labor negotiations mean for your packages
May 27, 2022 // The employers’ right to automate their operations has become a prominent issue in the contract. The 2002 deal introduced new technologies such as scanners and character-recognition technology, while the 2008 pact explicitly authorized automation. Last year, Total Terminals International LLC announced its intention to fully automate its Long Beach operations, a project the ILWU strongly opposed. This would make it San Pedro Bay’s fourth terminal with some automation out of the port complex’s 14 hubs.
Column: Why Starbucks has become a huge unionization target — and why the company is in a panic
April 25, 2022 // Many American consumer companies, including Amazon and McDonalds, have been dealing with a surging interest in unionization by their employees, spurred in part by the pandemic-driven recognition that their employers have consistently undervalued their contributions to business success.