More interested in political theatrics, Unite Here Local 11’s failure to negotiate is harming hotel employees – Press Enterprise

Why is there even a hotel strike?

I am president & CEO of the California Hotel & Lodging Association and write on behalf of the entire Southern California hotel industry.  The short answer as to why there is an ongoing work stoppage is that Unite Here Local 11 clearly wanted a strike.

It’s easy to assume I have self-serving motives to question Local 11’s motives as the union enters their third month of contentious intermittent work stoppages and picketing. However, the union’s members are first and foremost hotel employees and contrary to Local 11’s narrative, we care about their well-being.

Hotel employees are frustrated with the lack of progress at the bargaining table and with Unite Here’s dedication to perpetuating the “hot labor summer” rather than prioritizing negotiations. That’s why so many hotel employees have crossed picket lines and resigned their union membership even with the union’s aggressive efforts to intimidate them. Hotel employees know the truth – that Local 11 has walked away from discussions and has not responded to inquiries about future talks.

To reach a contract settlement, a union actually has to negotiate. Local 11 has not sought to meet with the hotel employers since July 18. Instead, the union has ignored offers to return to the bargaining table after Labor Day made by the Coordinated Bargaining Group (CBG) – a group of 44 Southern California Hotels currently attempting to negotiate with Local 11 that was formed specifically to expedite bargaining and with the Union’s consent.

This is unlike Chicago, where Unite Here Local 1 negotiated in good faith and reached an agreement with hotel employers before their contract ended and without a strike or any labor disruptions.  Interestingly, the Chicago deal is comparable to the CBG’s last offer. Local 11, however, seems hellbent on strikes with a focus on their political agenda rather than the employees they are paid to represent.

Local 11 is misleading hotel employees and not being truthful to city officials and all Angelenos. For example, the union has claimed publicly to have a contract with the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, but I have my doubts. There has been no ratification vote and none has been scheduled and not a single employee has received any wage increases under the purported “Bonaventure deal” that allegedly had been completed more than two months ago.

Separately,  why does Local 11 continue to push hotels to publicly support a ballot measure to put homeless persons in hotels?  It would jeopardize greatly the safety of hotel workers and especially housekeepers. It also will negatively affect LA tourism, which already has a declining national reputation.

There are several important realities about hotel employees that aren’t mentioned by Unite Here and their paid advocates such as Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE):

• Hotel employees are well paid and not “low-wage workers” as the Union and its advocates try to claim. The current minimum hotel wage in the city of Los Angeles is $19.73 per hour and most non-tipped hotel employees, especially those in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Downtown are paid well above that minimum wage. The hotel-only minimum wage rate is 17 percent more than the minimum wage for all other workers in Los Angeles.
• Hotel employees receive outstanding benefits, such as family healthcare, retirement programs, and free hotel stays.
• They are safe – all Los Angeles hotels provide their hotel employees with effective personal safety devices.
• They have long, successful careers in one of the few remaining economic sectors that provide for accelerated advancement based on merit.
• As hoteliers we stand with our employees, while Local 11 demands they give up pay checks, turn away conventions and support a homeless-in-hotels ballot measure, which  puts their own members at risk and threatens the entire tourism industry of Los Angeles.

Hotels are ready to talk and always have been.

Lynn S. Mohrfeld is President and CEO of the California Hotel & Lodging Association.