Hollywood – Hotel housekeepers and immigration rights activists gathered in front of the new W Hotel in Hollywood on Friday, Aug. 26, to condemn the W for demanding Latina housekeepers show proof of social security numbers, more than one year after being hired. The hotel is owned by HEI.

The W’s demand came just four days after housekeepers complained about heavy workloads at a union negotiating session.  The housekeepers also recently filled out missed break complaints to be filed with the State of California’s Department of Labor.

By Greggory Moore

Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community is staging a rally today in front of the Hilton Long Beach to protest the April 20 firing of five employees who were participating in a state investigation into whether HEI Hotels & Resorts has been in violation of various tax and labor codes concerning the women's employment at the Hilton Long Beach.

According to the Coalition and to Leigh Shelton of UNITE HERE Local 11, despite doing the same work as other housekeepers at the hotel, the "Hilton 5" were paid via an intermediary agency that provided them with lower wages, no benefits, erratic schedules, and inequitable job demands.

By Eugene Fields

About 50 housekeepers and union supporters staged a demonstration Thursday morning at the Irvine Embassy Suites hotel in support of a state Assembly bill that – if passed – would require hotels to use fitted sheets and provide mops to housekeepers.

Unite Here Local 11, which has about 2,100 members that work at Disney-owned  Paradise Pier Hotel, Grand California Hotel & Spa and Disneyland Hotel, sponsored the demonstration.

LOS ANGELES – As University of California Regents prepare to vote for another tuition hike next week, students and workers gathered July 8, to protest drastic higher education cuts, while corporations like Disney win generous tax breaks.

Students and workers targeted their protest at media CEO Monica Lozano, who is the publisher of La Opinion newspaper and a University of California Regent. As a UC Regent, Lozano has approved seven recent tuition hikes, while simultaneously serving on the Disney corporate board, which last year won millions in potential tax breaks.

UNION CAMPAIGN RESEARCHER 

UNITE HERE Local 11 is recruiting a full-time Campaign Researcher to conduct research, develop strategy, and move campaigns to win justice for low wage workers.  This is an entry level position available in Los Angeles in early-mid April.

UNITE HERE is known throughout the labor movement for innovative and effective campaigns utilizing corporate campaign strategies and impressive grassroots mobilization of workers and community allies to win justice for low-wage workers in the service-sector (specifically, in hotels, gaming, food service, laundry and apparel manufacturing and retail). Through organizing and winning good contracts, UNITE HERE members have made hundreds of thousands of traditionally low-wage jobs into good, family-sustaining, middle class jobs. UNITE HERE boasts a diverse membership - largely Latino and Asian immigrants and African Americans – with a majority being women.

A new Web site launched today, Monday, Feb. 7, sheds unfavorable light on two Walt Disney Company Board of Directors’ past connections with failed insurance giant AIG and belly-up bank Washington Mutual.

The site, DisneyOverpaysExecs.org, encourages shareholders to take a closer look at Disney’s executive compensation practices, particularly because Fred Langhammer, a former AIG director who served on the compensation committee, now heads the same committee for Disney. While Langhammer served, AIG endured criticism for showering large bonuses and lavish junkets on top executives as the company imploded.