Hospitality workers ratify new contract with 34 Southern California hotels, press 30 others to sign

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repeated strikes since the summer, their union announced Monday. Workers won higher pay, increased employer contributions to pensions and fair workload guarantees, among other provisions of a contract that received 98% approval, Unite Here Local 11 said in a summary of highlights of the pact which runs until Jan. 15, 2028.

The union has yet to reach settlements with 30 other hotels. Room attendants, cooks and other non-tipped workers will receive wage hikes of $10 an hour over the term of the contract, representing a 40% to 50% increase, the union said. Half of the increase will come in the first year.

Room attendants at most hotels will earn $35 an hour by July 2027 and top cooks will earn $41 an hour, the union said. Tipped workers will see such improvements as double-time pay for holidays, vacation, sick days and increased shares of service charges. Automatic 20% gratuities at full-service restaurants will be 100% shared by staff.

The union also stressed that the contract maintains health insurance in which workers pay no more than $20 monthly for full family coverage. “We have won a life-changing contract that transforms hotel jobs from low-wage service work to middle-class professional positions," Kurt Petersen, co-president of Local 11, told workers at a rally outside a downtown Los Angeles hotel. Characterizing their demands as a fight for wages that will allow members to live in the cities where they work, more than 10,000 employees in greater Los Angeles began rolling strikes at 52 hotels in July 2023.

Workers repeatedly went on strike, picketed and later returned to work. The union represents 15,000 workers but staff at some hotels have not engaged in strikes. The union scored a major achievement just before