WGA Members Join Striking Hotel Workers On Picket Line In L.A.

Lynette Rice
·2 min read

Members of WGA West showed solidarity for hotel workers over the last 24 hours by joining their downtown protest over low pay and limited benefits.

Members of United Here Local 11, which represents more than 32,000 hotel workers in Southern California and Arizona, are fighting for raises. They walked off the job Sunday.

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They were soon joined on the picket line by WGA negotiating committee members David Goodman, Ashley Gable and Chris Keyser. The trio joined the picketing hotel workers in Santa Monica Sunday.

The union has been negotiating for a new contract since April, according to the Los Angeles Times. They want a $5 hourly wage increase now and a $3 boost annually for three years. The union reps cooks, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front-desk agents at hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

“Our members were devastated first by the pandemic, and now by the greed of their bosses,” Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11 said in a statement obtained by the Los Angeles Times. “The industry got bailouts while we got cuts. Now, the hotel negotiators decided to take a four-day holiday instead of negotiating. Shameful.”

Several WGA picketers tweeted about joining the other union in their fight. Some writers even suggested how to update their picket signs to show solidarity to the hotel workers.

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