By Daniel Rivera, Labor Reporter
On Apr. 23, UniteHereLocal11 signed a contract with the Hotel Maya and six other hotels after a string of ongoing protests including a weekend walkout during the Grand Prix races in Long Beach.
The new deal will include a raise of about $5 in the first year and a 50% wage raise for non-tipped workers over the next 4.5 years. The contract expires on January 15, 2028, six months before the start of the Los Angeles-hosted Summer Olympics. Some of the other benefits include the addition of a new paid holidays, like Juneteenth, and increased staff hiring to pre-pandemic levels to lessen workloads among other benefits.
In a released statement, UniteHere touted the agreement, stating, “ “We have reached a fair settlement of our dispute. The settlement includes a commitment from all parties to engage in a good-faith reconciliation process.”
The deal was reached nearly a year after the old contract expired in 2023. After a bitter contract negotiation, two violent incidents, and a mix of back peddling, false starts, and seemingly poor communication throughout talks.
“They gave us a proposal and the workers signed it and they backed out of it,” said David Ventura, a bellman on the picket line. Allegedly, the union offered a deal that management accepted about two weeks prior a deal was accepted and rejected.
Ensemble Hospitality, the firm that manages the Hotel Maya, provided Random Lengths News with public statements alleging that they have already attempted to negotiate and they are unaware of why the union is picketing.
During a heated Apr. 19 exchange, workers and union representatives confronted Hotel management in the lobby, pushing them to sign a contract.
According to Ensemble, the Hotel has been active in talks and has repeatedly requested in-person bargaining dates and would give no date.
Ensemble refused to provide further clarification on whether or not they were provided with or accepted a deal throughout the negotiations or the validity of the other allegations.
During the confrontation with Hotel Maya management, the workers’ union representatives pushed them to sign the new contract. In contrast, Ensemble Hospitality told them they were uninvolved in the negotiations and were largely left ignorant of the proceedings until a deal was reached.
“The owners who are negotiating on behalf of this union… we do not know those details, I personally never sat in on negotiations,” Greg Guthrie, hotel management told the workers during the exchange.
About 35 hotels have already signed an agreement and the union states they refuse to accept less.
“We won’t take less than what the other hotels are getting… they’ll be able to live and not have to commute two hours to housing,” Maria Hernendez, UniteHere Communications person told Random Lengths News.
However, when directly asked whether Unitehere accepted or ignored offers for negotiation, Hernendez didn’t confirm or deny it.
While communication was strained now both parties are meant to go through steps to reconcile.
Another component of this is Measure RW, which was supposed to automatically raise the wages of the hotel workers in Long Beach. This will take effect in July and hit every hotel with over 100 workers.
The raise will lift the wages of certain workers from $17.55 to about $23 amounting to a raise of about $7 immediately and eventually $29 by the end of 2028.
The wages the union secured are higher than the promised amount by the city in the immediate and future with a $35 per hour minimum wage in 2027.