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   Vol. 68/No. 36           October 5, 2004  
 
 
Hotel laundry workers in Los Angeles protest lockout
 
BY NAOMI CRAINE  
LOS ANGELES—When the 17 workers in the laundry room of the downtown Wilshire Grand hotel here reported for work September 16, they were met with the following notice posted at the employee entrance: “Attention laundry employees Local 52 UNITE HERE bargaining unit members: You are hearby LOCKED OUT until further notice. Do Not attempt to enter the facilities” (emphasis in the original). The hotel is using replacement workers through a temporary agency to keep the laundry operating.

Local 52 represents about 100 laundry workers at several hotels in Los Angeles, whose contract expired September 15. Negotiations were still in process when the Wilshire Grand hotel bosses imposed the lock out. This followed a September 13 vote by 2,800 workers at that hotel and eight other Los Angeles hotels, represented by UNITE HERE Local 11, to authorize strike action if needed in their fight for a decent contract. Among the central issues in the dispute are wages, medical benefits, and workloads. The two union locals are pushing for two-year contracts, which would give them a common expiration date with workers at major hotels in other cities. The companies are demanding five or six year agreements. Hotel workers in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., are also threatening to strike.

A major issue for the laundry workers is a company demand to allow subcontracting, which would undermine the union contract, said a member of Local 52 who works at the Century Plaza hotel and was helping leaflet September 19 outside the Wilshire Grand. One of the hotels, the Sheraton Universal, wants to close its laundry entirely. And the hotel bosses want to impose a wage freeze for six months, followed by 20-cent raises every six months after that. “This is not enough,” the worker said.

The 17 locked out workers are handing out informational flyers to hotel guests and passers-by. Members of UNITE HERE locals 52 and 11 from other hotels, as well as other workers, have stopped by to offer their solidarity.  
 
 
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