Scores L.A. County workers employed in hospitality, tourism, food service, entertainment and other industries plan to rally in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, May 26 to call for higher wages, better benefits and safer workloads as they struggle to keep pace with high housing costs.
The union employees, whose labor contracts have expired or are set to expire this year, are looking to “lift the low standards” amid a major housing crisis. Their contracts are overseen by nine labor unions that collectively represent more than 200,000 workers.
They include SEIU Local 721, Writers Guild of America, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Unite Here Local 11, among others.
Yvonne Wheeler, president of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, said Friday’s event will allow the employees to speak with one powerful voice.
“As gas, food and housing continue to skyrocket, Los Angeles’ thousands of unionized workers will be uplifting each other to demand a fair share to provide housing and food for them and their families in the second most expensive market in the U.S.,” Wheeler said in a statement.
Employees from the various unions plan to gather at 5 p.m. Friday at the corner of 12th St. and Figueroa where a variety of labor leaders will speak.
Following that, they will march to a California Democratic convention that’s being held at the JW Marriott hotel.
The workers’ concerns are reflected in the “hospitality worker bill of rights” ordinances that have passed in such cities as L.A., Santa Monica, Glendale and West Hollywood.
Those measures have increased base wages, but employees say it’s not enough.
L.A.’s ordinance, for example, boosted the minimum wage for employees working in hotels with 60 or more guest rooms to $18.86 an hour, up from $17.64. But Unite Here Local 11 said an employee earning that wage would still have to work 17 hours a day to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the city.
Christopher Lillian, a food stand attendant at…
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