By J. Patrick Coolican

Unionized workers at Hyatt-owned Andaz in West Hollywood and the Hyatt in Century City have been without a contract since December, and next week they'll take to the streets at the Andaz in what is sure to be an entertaining labor demonstration.

The chief sticking points in the negotiations are health care and hours cut during the recession but not restored despite the recovery in business and leisure travel, said Leigh Shelton, spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 11, the hotel union. The union represents a bit more than 700 Hyatt workers, about 600 of them at the Century City Hyatt, though no doubt West Hollywood is a better venue for protest.

About 325 union members and supporters protested in the Disneyland area about hotel employees' ongoing contract dispute with Disney.

About 2,100 Disney hotel employees have worked without a contract for about two and a half years -- a time period marked by dozens of protests, a one-day strike, walkouts, a week-long hunger strike and arrests. On Monday, union members from other Disney-area venues joined the protest as a way to send a message to their employers to avoid such turmoil during contract negotiations.

By Patrick J. McDonnell

The Hilton Los Angeles Airport hired scores of workers through a subcontractor in an illegal scheme to circumvent a city law mandating that airport-area hotel employees receive a "living wage," according to a lawsuit announced Wednesday.

The civil suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of some 150 current and former hotel workers allegedly cheated out of legal wages, seeks back pay for affected employees and a court injunction mandating that Hilton comply with the city living wage laws in the airport area. 

By Barbara De Lollis

Disney hotel workers in California walked off their jobs Friday, the day that Disney opened its multi-million dollar World of Color attraction.

Disney visitors faced a picket line along the street that leads into the theme park, the Associated Press reports. Union representatives say that Disney hotel guests faced other disruptions, since the hotels lacked housekeepers, bellman and other staff.