LOS ANGELES — “We struck four times. Most important for me is that health care co-pays were held down,” Rosa Merino, a housekeeper at the Indigo hotel downtown here, told the Militant. She was part of a meeting of 150 at the Westin Bonaventure downtown hotel here organized July 10 by UNITE HERE Local 11. Participants were celebrating and thanking community supporters after winning more than 60 contracts at area hotels since the union began a series of rolling three- and four-day strikes a year ago July 2.
“If the bosses try to give me more work, I’ll tell them talk to my union. They respect us more now,” said Merino. In addition to the actions at the Indigo, Merino said she joined picketing at four other area hotels, at a Sheraton hotel in Phoenix, and joined a union-organized protest in Washington, D.C.
The crowd included a number of union representatives, local politicians and religious figures associated with Clergy and Laity Organized for Economic Justice, which has supported the union in the hard-fought struggle. The program was chaired by two of the three Local 11 co-presidents, Ada Briceño and Kurt Petersen. Videos of photos taken during the strikes were shown on two large screens.
Petersen explained that because of the new contracts most hotel workers will receive a $10 an hour pay raise, with $5 beginning immediately. The contracts also require daily housekeeping at hotels unless a hotel guest opts out.
Paychecks will include a 20% gratuity charge for union servers and bartenders at nonluxury hotels. Some hotels also agreed to increase staffing levels to pre-pandemic levels. In all the contracts, employers agreed not to use E-Verify federal immigration checks for nonprobationary workers.
Workers were introduced to the crowd. “We were transformed in this struggle because we passed difficult moments,” said Vicki Martinez, who worked at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. “I never thought we would have to fight so hard for something that was just.”
These four-and-a-half-year contracts expire in 2027, a year before the Olympic Games, which will be held in Los Angeles, Petersen said. This puts the union in a strong position for the next round of negotiations.
During the yearlong struggle employers sought to foster divisions among workers, bringing in recent immigrants from Venezuela and other countries as strikebreakers. The bosses also tried to sow frictions by using African American workers as strikebreakers in hotels that have been mostly staffed by Latinos.
Briceño introduced Thomas Bradley, an African American worker who had joined the union struggle, to cheers from the crowd. Bradley told the Militant that he was working for a temporary agency at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel during the strikes there. He talked to striking union members who explained the issues. “I wanted to do the right thing so I joined the picket line. I am now working part time there as a member of UNITE HERE, and the union is supporting me in getting a full-time position.”
Bosses at seven hotels are still refusing to agree to contracts with the union. Picketing will continue there.