http://www.supportlahotelworkers.com/pressroom/articles/050112independent.html

1/12/2005

by Rosanna Mah 

The Los Angeles Independent

West Hollywood is among a growing number of cities that are urging a quick resolution to the long-running contract dispute between the hotel workers union and a group of nine upscale Los Angeles-area hotels.

At the Monday night meeting, community leaders and clergy testified before the West Hollywood City Council in a show of support for the hotel workers, some of whom brought forth a myriad of complaints including higher health insurance costs, discrimination and unfair dismissals.

Jose Contreros, a Hollywood resident who works as a dishwasher in a downtown Los Angeles hotel, said he lives with a "terrible pressure" as a result of prolonged contract negotiations.

"We have not had a contract for six months, and we are really being pressured in the hotels," he said, in translated Spanish.

Contreros added that he cannot afford the $10 weekly co-payments for health coverage and also implied that union workers are being spied on by hotel management with the use of four newly-installed surveillance cameras.

Efrhin Delgado, of West Hollywood, also alleged he was fired from the Century Plaza Hotel four months ago for being gay and serving as a leader in the union.

Jaime Rapaport, program director for Progressive Jewish Alliance, a union supporter, said: "These workers, who are the backbone of the Los Angeles region tourism industry, have spent a good part of the last year struggling to maintain what can only be considered basic rights.

"These rights - fair workload, affordable health care and a just living wage - are a necessity not only for survival but to achieve the American Dream we so proudly assert is a possibility for everyone."

In the latest round of negotiations, Unite Here Local 11 rejected the hotels' contract offer and demanded a two-year contract that would expire in 2006 in exchange for small wage increases. Hotels negotiators had proposed a five-year contract.

However, the union has an overall strategy to line up contracts with 10 major cities and lead the way towards a national labor strike.

In West Hollywood, several elected officials, community groups and clergy have vowed to honor the union's request to avoid eating, meeting or sleeping at the targeted hotels which include the Hyatt West Hollywood, Millennium Biltmore, Bonaventure, Hyatt Regency, Wilshire Grand, Regent Beverly Wilshire, Century Plaza, St. Regis and the Sheraton Universal.

The goal is to have a resolution, says West Hollywood Mayor Pro Tem Abbe Land, who had earlier pledged her support to the boycott, and to let people know we are standing up for these workers, and they are not there by themselves.

Union officials said their boycotting efforts since November and the ensuing publicity and support of their campaign have cost the group of nine hotels upwards of $1 million over the past six months.

The group of hotels have reportedly suffered from the ensuing negative publicity increased room cancellations since the union boycott was made public in November.

According to Land, the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce changed the venue of their Jan. 26 annual chamber installation event which was to be held at the Hyatt West Hollywood to the Wyndham Bel Age.

"It's wonderful to be able to sit up here and not only have all of the council support the hotel workers and their efforts, but to have our business community support the workers as well, I think, sends a very strong message," Land said.