After about two months of intermitent strikes and walk-outs by hotel workers in Southern California, Unite Here Local 11, the union representing them, has called for industrial action on about 60 hotels in the greater Los Angeles/Orange County area.
If you’re travelling to Los Angeles this week (as am I), you may find pickets taking place at your hotel door (as I did!). Workers are asking for an improvement on their wages and working conditions, and for that they’ve decided to take the streets and to protest loudly about it.
The protests are taking place at about 60 hotels in Southern Californa, among them well-known properties as the Beverly Hilton, the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and others.
The protests start about 3 AM every day, and extends until about 8-9 PM, or at least that’s the case for the Hotel Indigo Dowontown, where I had a reservation for last night. I took quick walk around Downtown LA yesterday, and I found similar scenes on many of the properties around LA Live.
Courtyard/Residence Inn by Mariott Los Angeles Downtown:
Hotel Indigo Downtown:
InterContinental Los Angeles:
Sheraton Grand Los Angeles:
Hotel Figueroa:
JW Marriott Los Angeles:
CONCLUSION
It doesn’t come as a surprise that hotel workers are being overworked and underpaid all around, and with the increased cost of living and inflation, most of them are directly not making ends meet.
If your travel plans have been affected by these protests (that will last at least until tomorrow, but may be extened to next week), remember that you should claim for compensation. Hotels are in the business of selling good night sleeps, and these protests are loud and staring every night at 3 AM!!! If you’re traveling to Los Angeles this weekend, you may want to check if your hotel is affected by the protests, and in case it is, you may want to consider a hotel change if you don’t want your holiday weekend to be disrupted by these actions.
