Union launches dueling ballot measures, escalating fight over LA's tourism worker wage hike

Miami Herald

17-06-2025

The hospitality union that won a major increase in the minimum wage for Los Angeles hotel and airport workers is escalating its fight with a hotel and airline industry group, which recently launched a campaign to repeal the wage hike.
Unite Here Local 11, which represents hotel and restaurant workers, filed paperwork Monday for a pair of ballot proposals.
One would raise the minimum wage for all workers in the city to $30 by July 2028. The other would force a public vote on the construction of large hotels or major hotel expansions.
That measure would also require a public vote on the development or expansion of "event centers," such as sports stadiums, concert halls or the city's Convention Center.
Union officials described the proposed ballot measures as a response to an effort launched last month by a group of airlines and hotel businesses to overturn a city ordinance hiking the minimum wage of hotel and airport workers in Los Angeles to $30 an hour by 2028 by forcing a citywide vote on the measure.
Unite Here Local 11 co-President Kurt Petersen said the wage proposal addresses criticism from business groups that the tourism industry had been singled out for wage increases.
"We agree that all workers should make more," Petersen said. "We are hopeful since (airlines and hotels) think that only giving a living wage to one group is unfair, that they will immediately endorse it."
Petersen said the second proposal would give voters a direct say in major hotel and event center projects subsidized by the city, as well as those that could take up valuable real estate that otherwise could be used to develop housing.
The proposal would require that major development projects - including the creation of new hotels with 80 or more rooms, or 80-room expansions to existing hotels - seek voter approval before receiving construction permits.
The development of event spaces with more than 50,000 square feet or with a seating capacity of 1,000 seats would similarly require voter approval, as would any development projects that receive a city subsidy, such as a gift of land or tax rebates.
Petersen had previously said it was hypocritical for business leaders to fight wage increases at the same time they were pressing the City Council to spend tens of millions of dollars preparing for a renovation of the Los Angeles Convention Center, a decision made in April.
The council voted last month to approve the airport and hotel worker wage hikes, which were championed by Unite Here Local 11 and Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West.
The unions billed the proposal as an "Olympic wage," one that would ensure that their members can keep up with the rising cost of food and rent. They also argued that corporations should not be the only ones to benefit financially from the Olympic Games, scheduled to be held in L.A. in 2028.
Soon after, a coalition of businesses, known as the L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress, filed paperwork to halt the law and put the issue on the ballot instead, hoping to persuade voters to repeal the ordinance.
The alliance has argued for several weeks that the wage hike will hurt the industry, forcing businesses to lay off workers and thwarting the development of new hotels.
On Monday, the group described the plan to require public votes on hotel and convention center projects as "one union killing other union jobs."
"The initiative being proposed will kill the Convention Center project that union workers would otherwise have and the tourism industry would benefit from," the alliance said in a statement. "The union can play its games, but we remain focused on protecting L.A. residents from lasting, widespread job loss."
One business leader separately voiced alarm about the hotel union's citywide minimum wage wage proposal, warning it would cause companies to pull out of L.A. and relocate to neighboring cities, counties and states.
"People will lose their jobs. Businesses will close," said Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, which is based in the San Fernando Valley. "The city will become a barren land of empty storefronts and empty office buildings as employers go elsewhere."
An official at the city's tourism department declined comment on the event center proposal, saying he had not yet read it.
To successfully place the measure on the ballot in an upcoming election, the union and other backers would need to collect about 140,000 signatures within 120 days, organizers said.
The hotel minimum wage, approved by the council in 2014, currently stands at $20.32 per hour. The minimum wage for private-sector employees at Los Angeles International Airport is $25.23 per hour, once those workers' $5.95 hourly healthcare payment is included.
For nearly everyone else in L.A., the hourly minimum wage is $17.28, which is 78 cents higher than the state's.
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