A major hotel workers’ strike continued Tuesday in Southern California, with about 15,000 housekeepers, cooks and bellhops walking off the job in the middle of the busy holiday weekend.
The strike began Sunday when members of the UNITE HERE Local 11 union began picketing outside some of the largest hotels in Los Angeles and the Orange counties, resulting in hotels struggling to accommodate guests.
Hospitality workers told CBS News that strikes are no longer a choice but a necessity.
“It’s really expensive. It’s hard,” said maid Eledia Manzo.
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Even working 40 hours a week cleaning hotel rooms isn’t enough to keep Manzo and their three children afloat, she said.
“It’s really hard to pay the rent and the bills,” Manzo said.
She is one of thousands of workers demanding a pay rise to live closer to the cities where they work, where housing costs are among the highest in the country.
“The workers have told them what they need to actually live and survive here,” union member Maria Hernandez told CBS News.
The union is demanding an immediate pay rise of $5 an hour. The hotels offer $2.50. For an employee working 40 hours a week, that’s a difference of over $5,000 a year.
The union also wants better health care, higher pension contributions and less strenuous workloads.
Hotels have shed jobs during the pandemic, but as the tourism industry rebounded, workers say they are still being asked to do more with less.
In a statement, the negotiating group, representing most of the hotels involved, said “the Union has shown no desire to engage in productive, good faith negotiations.”
“The hotels aim to continue to provide high wages, affordable, quality family health care and a pension,” the statement said.
Hotels say they plan to continue serving their guests in the short term while staff are asking guests for support by moving their business elsewhere.