Striking hotel workers call for DTLA convention boycott
LOS ANGELES - Striking hotel works gathered in downtown Los Angeles Thursday calling for the boycott of the APSA Convention until they receive living wages.
UNITE HERE Local 11 hotel workers picketed at multiple properties including the JW Marriott LA Live in a continued fight for wages to keep up with the rising cost of housing and a new contract.
The strike comes as the citywide convention of the American Political Science Association began Wednesday.
Joining the workers' call were APSA members, SEIU Local 99, AFSCME Local 3299, and others.
"As a mother I often have to choose between paying for my rent and buying groceries. The solution is simple, hotels need to agree to the wages that we need to stay housed. Until then, we will continue to call on all groups and conventions coming to Los Angeles to boycott," said Delmy Cabañas, housekeeper at the JW Marriott L.A LIVE.
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"Strikes and disruption will be the norm at LA hotels until the industry pays its workers a living wage. We are saddened that APSA leadership sided with greedy hotel corporations over the call of workers for a living wage. We applaud those political science professors who stayed away from LA. Those professors who came to LA will reside in, to borrow the hotel industry's new slogan, ‘Hotel Hell.’ Dirty rooms and non stop noise will be the only amenities," said Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11.