LOS ANGELES — UNITE HERE Local 11 launched a new series of strikes at Hotel Figueroa Jan. 21 and DoubleTree by Hilton Jan. 22, both downtown here, and at Sheraton Park in Anaheim where hundreds of workers protested Jan. 25. DoubleTree by Hilton and Sheraton Park are operated by Aimbridge Hospitality, which the union announced this week will be the target of a boycott.
“I’ve worked at the DoubleTree San Pedro for 11 years, and I still struggle to pay my bills,” Maria Gurola, a cook at the hotel, said in a Jan. 22 press release. “We need Aimbridge to show us the respect we deserve and agree to a contract that lets us live in the city we work in.”
The union says pickets outside Hotel Figueroa were shot at, apparently with an air rifle, Jan. 21 and 22. The police did not arrive for three hours after strikers notified them.
UNITE HERE has reached tentative agreements with 29 hotels out of some 60 in Los Angeles and Orange counties during a series of strikes that started last July. The contracts have yet to be voted on. Union spokesperson Maria Hernandez told the media that the contracts would raise wages, strengthen pensions and increase company payments to health insurance plans.