PRESS RELEASE: UNITE HERE Local 11 Files Cal/OSHA Complaint Alleging Rat, Cockroach and Maggot Sightings at The Westin Long Beach

Hotel workers protest The Westin Long Beach to demand a fair contract, safe working conditions

Long Beach–Hotel workers at the Westin Long Beach concerned for their health and safety have submitted a complaint to Cal/OSHA.

Workers plan to protest outside the Westin Long Beach on Saturday July 20, 2024 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Supporters will wear rat costumes and related props to draw attention to workers’ allegations that they have observed what appeared to be rats in the food storage room of the Hotel’s kitchen and roaches in the Hotel’s banquet kitchen. Workers documented alleged rodent sightings as recently as mid-June of 2024. In July 2023, a worker also documented an alleged sighting of what appeared to be maggots on unwashed dishes in the Hotel’s banquet kitchen.

The Westin Long Beach has been embroiled in a fierce labor dispute with its employees since the union contract expired on June 30, 2024. Westin employees join workers across the Los Angeles area who have fought for and won better wages and working conditions in what has become the largest hotel worker strike in modern history. The workers’ primary contract goals include wage increases to keep pace with the soaring cost of housing in Long Beach, quality and affordable health insurance, a pension to retire with dignity, and humane workloads.

“As hotel workers we strive to provide the best customer service to our guests, and we deserve a safe and healthy working environment. We urge the hotel to take immediate action to ensure that our workplace is safe. They need to listen to us as we fight for what we deserve,” said Wendy Bonilla, one of the complainants and a worker at the Westin Long Beach.

ON STRIKE: Westin Long Beach Hotel Workers On Strike As 4th of July Weekend Continues

One year after the nation’s largest hotel strike began, workers at Westin Long Beach walk out

Long Beach: Room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, front desk agents, servers, and other workers of the Westin Long Beach  walked out this morning. The strike at the hotel comes one year after the largest hotel strike wave in modern US history began.

The hotel have yet to sign on to a contract along the lines of those already inked by more than sixty hotels in the region, including the Hotel Maya and DoubleTree San Pedro, and Westin hotels in Los Angeles and Phoenix, Arizona. These contracts ensure that workers earn wages that keep pace with the soaring cost of housing, maintain affordable benefits, and receive reasonable workload assignments.

CONGRATULATIONS MAYA WORKERS!

TWO MORE WINS!

7 New Hotels, Including Hotel Maya Long Beach, Sign with UNITE HERE Local 11, Raising the Total to 41 Agreements  

Recalcitrant Aimbridge Hospitality, Hotel Figueroa remain focal points of bitter labor dispute 

Los Angeles:  Following the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the Hotel Maya Long Beach has signed a tentative contract agreement. In the past week, the Hyatt Place Pasadena, Proper Santa Monica, Proper Downtown Los Angeles, Westdrift Manhattan Beach, Hotel June West LA, and Alsace Hotel also signed the historic accord.

UNITE HERE Local 11 and Hotel Maya issued this statement: “The Hotel Maya and UNITE HERE Local 11 are pleased to announce we have reached a fair settlement of our dispute. The settlement includes a commitment from all parties to engage in a good-faith reconciliation  process.”

The seven new agreements come at the heels of overwhelming ratification votes at 35 hotels, for a total of 41 settled contracts.

More than 10,000 workers at 52 hotels have struck 170 times so far in the largest strike in the history of the nation’s hospitality industry. Workers at five hotels struck last week and several more are set to go out this week.

The new contract has the largest economic increases of any industry-wide contract in the last 30 years.

  • $5.00 an hour raise in the first year; workers will have $10,400 more to pay for rent, to feed their families

  • 40 to 50% wage increases for non tipped workers over the 4.5 year term of the agreement

  • Most room attendants will earn $35.00 an hour by July 1, 2027

  • Guaranteed pre-pandemic staffing levels and mandatory daily room cleaning

  • One of the highest paid pension plans for service workers in nation

  • 50 pages of improvements, including Juneteenth as a paid holiday, unprecedented language for the fair treatment of workers impacted by the criminal justice system and protections of immigrant rights.

The contract will expire January 15, 2028, just before the world turns its attention on Los Angeles for the XXXIV Olympiad.

The membership has resolved to continue striking and boycotting until all hotels, including the Hotel Figueroa, all of the boycotted Aimbridge properties like the Doubletree Downtown Los Angeles, and the LA Grand, the site of the city-operated Inside Safe Program.

“My coworkers and I dealt with unthinkable violence to get to this point. We are proud that we never gave up, and we look forward to having the same standard raising benefits and protections other hotel workers now enjoy.” said Camila Delgado, Housekeeper at Hotel Maya.

“The workers at the Maya and the newly settled hotels are heroes. Despite living precariously close to being unhoused, they struck over and over without pay to win a living wage,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11.  “They have not only won a life changing agreement – an unprecedented $5.00 an hour in the 1st year – but they have given hope to all working people that when you fight, you win.  It is time for the greedy few who remain – including Hotel Figueroa and private equity titans Blackstone and Aimbridge – to sign a fair contract.”

“Congratulations to members of UNITE HERE Local 11 and Hotel Maya Long Beach on reaching a historic contract agreement that ensures hospitality workers will have the dignity of living wages and industry-leading benefits to support their families,” said Mayor Rex  Richardson, “Over the next four years, as we prepare for the 2028 Olympics and welcome visitors from around the world to our vibrant Long Beach community, we can be proud that our local tourism economy continues to thrive, while placing value on the workforce that keeps our hospitality industry running.”

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UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona that work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers and airports

GRAND PRIX STRIKE ALERT: Hotel Maya Workers Vow to Walk Out if No Deal Reached During Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

PRESS RELEASE: 04/18/2024
PRESS CONTACT: Maria Hernandez | 623-340–8047

Long Beach: Hotel Maya workers are prepared to strike during the biggest event in Long Beach, the Acura Grand Prix, if the hotel does not reach an agreement. 

“My family and I share a small apartment with two other families because we cannot afford anything else. That is why I am out here peacefully taking action, to secure a better future. We are ready to strike during the Grand Prix if we do not get a contract.” said Camila, housekeeper at Hotel Maya.

The workers’ primary contract goals include wage increases to keep pace with the soaring cost of housing in Los Angeles, quality and affordable health insurance, a pension to retire with dignity, and humane workloads. Workers are demanding that Ensemble Investment and its operated properties, including Hyatt Place Pasadena, sign the standard-setting agreement, which 35 other hotels across the region have agreed to. 

Workers there have been met with violence and various labor issues since they have been fighting for a contract. UNITE HERE Local 11 has raised concerns with Ensemble after a disturbing incident on December 13 outside of the hotel. According to workers, a housekeeper was participating in a peaceful picket line at the Maya Hotel with a sign and a megaphone when a man, since identified as an investor in the hotel, approached her. According to these allegations, the man grabbed and tried to yank the megaphone out of the housekeeper’s hand while yelling at her. 

The hotel workers’ union has filed federal labor charges about the incident, as well as a charge alleging the company failed to provide video footage and access to the guest registry in order to investigate.

This is not the first incidence of violence at the hotel. As is alleged in the letter, during another incident on August 5, Maya hotel security and guests attempted to use a chain link fence to forcibly relocate a group of striking workers while they peacefully picketed on a sidewalk, while a guest came around the fence and punched a worker in the head.  The worker experienced injuries and medical expenses as a result.  The attack was captured on video which has been circulated widely and reported in the press. 

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UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona that work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers and airports

PRESS RELEASE; CA Labor Commissioner Issues $4.8 Million Citation to Hyatt Regency Long Beach for Failing to Rehire Laid Off Workers

Long Beach, CA –  The California Labor Commissioner’s Office issued a citation Monday totalling $4.8 million to the Hyatt Regency Long Beach, alleging that the hotel failed to recall, or to timely recall, workers to their former positions in violation of state law. The citation is the largest citation known to have been issued against a hotel company in state history.

Signed into law in 2021, SB-93 requires hotels, event centers, and other hospitality businesses to offer employees whom they laid off due the COVID-19 downturn in tourism an opportunity to return to work in open positions for which they are qualified in order of seniority. The law, recently extended until  December 31, 2024,  provides job protection to some 700,000 laid-off housekeepers, cooks, waiters, and others across the state. 

Rigoberto Villagrana, who was laid off by the Hyatt Regency after working at the hotel since 1996, said, “Being laid off during the pandemic has been devastating for me and my family. We’ve struggled to pay our mortgage and keep food on the table. I am really glad to see the state stepping in to make sure Hyatt Regency complies with the law.”

The Labor Commissioner’s Office, which is led by Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower, conducted an investigation in response to complaints from workers alleging violations of the recall law. 

“Some of these employees had as much as 24 years of experience, and were suddenly out of work due to a public health emergency,” said Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower. “The employer failed to offer them their old jobs back in compliance with the law.”

After investigating Hyatt Regency’s recall practices, the agency issued a citation to Hyatt Regency for $4,799,563.84 in liquidated damages and interest owed to dozens of workers and civil penalties for the hotel’s alleged failure to recall, or timely recall, workers laid-off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, the hospitality workers’ union that fought for the law and helped the workers file complaints, said, “The Hyatt Regency in Long Beach has treated its veteran workers like they are disposable. This kind of behavior is not only immoral, but as the agency’s massive citation shows, it can also be illegal.” He continued, “I commend the Labor Commissioner for conducting such a thorough investigation and showing that our worker protection laws have real teeth.”