Last Stand for Fair Wages

Doubletree Hotel Workers in San Pedro Continue Picketing

By Daniel Rivera, Labor Reporter 

Ten months after joining their UniteHere Local 11 compatriots on the picket line in July 2023, the hotel workers at On May 16, workers from the Doubletree Hotel in San Pedro continue walking the picket line for higher wages, increased staffing, and new pension plans. The hotel nestled behind the Cabrillo Marina is one of the 15 last holdout of 60 hotels in Los Angeles County that have signed a new contract with their workers. 

The hotel has been holding protests sporadically since negotiations began, but they have also organized several large demonstrations with this protest being the fifth. Marching with sirens, megaphones, and horns at various times of the day, the workers remain determined to get management to agree to a new contract. 

A tourist seen hurriedly leaving the hotel told this reporter he was cutting his stay short due to the noise from the protests. 

“People come and complain about us. They’ve been aggressive with us, and we just tell them it’s not that we have anything against you guys. Go in there and tell them to settle with us and to sign the contract,” Maria Gurrora, a cook for 11 years told Random Lengths News. Many workers tend to use their break times or immediately before or after their shift to protest, but Maria is out on her day off to show support along with workers from other hotel workers from the union.

Gurrora said they are grateful for the the communitysupport,  from the like of Los Angeles City Councilman Tim McOsker.

UniteHereLocal11 has won 46 contracts across the county, including the Hotel Maya in Long Beach, Proper Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, and the Hampton Inn in Santa Monica. 

Also back in April, voters in Long Beach voted on and passed Measure RW, a measure that aims to raise the wages of hospitality workers in Long Beach. 

The measure carries many of the initiatives the unions have been pushing for, but to a lesser extent, like initial $23 wage increase instead of the ones secured by the union which could be as high as $25 in contracts with similar hotels. Not only are initial wage increases higher, but the future ones are too.Measure RW aims for the minimum wage for hospitality workers to rise to $29 per hour by 2028, while the contact proposed by the union aims for$35 per hour.

“Folks are asking for the same things, standards workers have already won on wages, healthcare, staffing, and pension,” Maria Hernandez, Communications Director for UniteHereLocal11 told Random Lengths News. 

It’s the same reason the Hotel Maya workers continue to strike even though they would have been beneficiaries of Measure RW. The union views those raises as the minimum and has continued striking at various hotels across Los Angeles County. Workers across the hospitality industry have not only been feeling the economic pressure, with longer commutes and rising costs of living, they have also felt the pressure in the workplace. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, most hotels along with many other businesses have been experiencing staffing shortages after a series of cutbacks that have resulted in increased workloads that staff continue to endure three years after the pandemic. In contrast, those businesses have failed to rehire the same workforce. 

Ten-thousand workers have been on various strikes at the different hotels across LA and out of the 52 hotels that have experienced strikes over the last year, 46 have now signed contracts with UniteHere Local 11.

The contract includes a $5 wage increase as a baseline along with future promises of wage and staff, increases to decreaseworkloads. The contract also includes Juneteenth as a new paid holiday. 

Some of the  Major holdouts include the Hotel Figueroa and Aimbridge Properties like the Double Tree Hotels in Los Angeles and San Pedro with the latter being the sight of various fights and ongoing strikes.

Random Lengths News placed several calls to the management of the DoubleTree and has yet to comment on the ongoing protests.