Thousands of LA hotel workers demand higher wages
STORY: Some hotel employees have been on the picket lines since July.
For Joshua Pineda, a Barista at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the strike is about fair wages, healthcare, and dignity.
"We're fighting for pensions. We're fighting for healthcare. We're fighting for the American dream. Everything that we were promised to work hard, pay your taxes, and be a good citizen. We want to be treated like human beings and treated fairly," he told Reuters.
The march included a dozen additional striking hotels, said Maria Hernandez, spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 11, in a news release.
According to their website, Unite Here Local 11 represents some 15,000 workers employed at about 60 major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Its members include cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents.
Over the last several months, a handful of hotels have reached tentative agreements with the union and its workers. Hernandez says there is still work to be done with the remaining hotels.
"There's still about more than 50 hotels that haven't [reached an agreement]. So work is going to continue," she said. "Take to the streets, go to the negotiating table and continue to push anywhere and everywhere they can to make sure they get the contract."
