Hotel Workers Negotiate for a New Contract

Three thousand hotel workers in LA have been without a contract for several months. They are demanding higher wages and benefits and a reduction in their workload, but their key demand is a two-year contract that would expire at the same time as hotel workers in six other cities and Hawaii. This global expiration date would give the employees more leverage to negotiate their next contract. Saying they have offered a “really good” five-year package, the Los Angeles Hotel Employers Council rejected the contract demand. On Monday evening the hotel workers voted to authorize a strike. Larry Mantle discusses the issue with Tom Walsh, Secretary/ Treasurer of Local 11 of UNITE/HERE, and Matthew Wakefield, an attorney with the firm of Ballard, Rosenberg, Golper and Savitt, representing the Los Angeles Hotel Employers Council.