After months spent on and off the picket lines, employees at about three dozen Southern California hotels, including some of Los Angeles’ most high-end properties, voted this weekend to approve new contracts that deliver higher wages for thousands of housekeepers, cooks and other workers.
The deal brings a partial end to the long-running labor dispute that has roiled the local hotel industry since last summer, when workers at about 60 hotels launched a strategy of intermittent strikes to protest wages and work conditions. The contracts approved this weekend cover only 34 of those hotels.
The overwhelming approval of the four-year agreements — 98% of votes were in favor of them — was announced Monday by Unite Here Local 11, the union representing the workers.
The contracts, which cover luxury hotels such as the Beverly Hilton and the Waldorf Astoria, include an almost immediate raise of $5 per hour for workers who don’t typically earn tips including front desk clerks, dishwashers and hotel housekeepers. Those workers will see a total hourly wage boost of $10 over the course of the contract that expires in January 2028.
Under the terms of the agreements, hotels will also increase pension contributions and investments in healthcare, the union said.
Labor leaders trumpeted the deal as an unmitigated win.
“The agreement — we are using the term ‘life-changing’ because it truly is — is 50 pages of total victory, from affordable health insurance to probably the best pension for service workers in the country,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, in an interview. “The real game changer is the wages. We said this about people being able to afford to live where they work, and we’ve taken an enormous stride to enable people to do that.”
The ratified contracts formalize tentative deals, many of which were inked in the closing months of last year and earlier this year.
Major hotel brands praised those earlier agreements.
“Our purpose is to care for people so they can be their best. Our colleagues are the heart of our business, and their well being continues to remain a top priority,” D’Angelo said.
Hilton spokesperson Karla Visconti said, when announcing tentative agreements with the union for workers at the Beverly Hilton, Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and Hilton Anaheim in December, that Hilton welcomed the end of negotiations and looked “forward to continuing to welcome our guests with our signature hospitality.”
Hyatt and Hilton representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the union’s move to ratify the contracts.
Hotel workers have said their pay hasn’t kept pace with soaring housing costs, and as a result, many have been displaced from neighborhoods near their workplaces and forced into long commutes. In sometimes contentious contract negotiations, the union initially demanded a $5 immediate hourly wage increase and a $3 boost each subsequent year of the three-year contract, for a total of $11. At a bargaining session in September, the union slightly lowered that proposal to $10.50.
The terms of the 4½-year collective bargaining agreement strike close to those initial demands, with non-tipped workers receiving a retroactive $2.50 hourly pay boost beginning Sept. 1, 2023; another $2.50 boost beginning April 1; a $1 bump at the start of 2025, another $1 bump Jan. 1 of 2026, with additional $1 bumps every six months after that, totaling $10 over the course of the contract.
Housekeepers, called “room attendants,” will earn $35 per hour, or $73,000 per year at most hotels by July 1, 2027. Top cooks will earn $41 per hour, or $85,000 per year.
The contracts also prohibit hotels from using E-Verify, a federal system used to check work eligibility of employees, as a way to protect immigrants working in the country illegally.
“We are pleased that Unite Here has finally ratified the agreements,” said Peter Hillan, a spokesperson for the California Hotel and Lodging Assn., an industry group. “Having our employees under contract so they can return to serving guests is good news for everybody.”
But strikes continue at dozens of other hotels where tentative agreements and formal contracts have remained elusive, including the Hotel Figueroa, Hotel Maya and Doubletree Downtown Los Angeles.
Last week, workers at Proper Santa Monica, Hotel June, San Pedro Doubletree and Proper Downtown Los Angeles walked off the job. The strike lasted for several days.
Over the course of the contract campaign, Petersen and other union officials have said their demands are crucial protection as Los Angeles gears up to host the World Cup in 2026 and the Summer Olympics in 2028. Petersen said that some brands pushed to extend the contract expiration date in an effort to avert labor unrest around the Olympics, but the union declined, to hold on to leverage to ensure workers are compensated fairly.
