For its part, the industry at large says it’s trying to hire more employees, but can’t find any. “Labor shortages will continue to be one of the main challenges hoteliers face for the foreseeable future,” Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, told travel industry site Skift after an underwhelming hotel jobs report in November. “Hotels barely added more than 1,000 jobs from October to November, and it’s not for lack of trying. Wages are at near-historic levels, and benefits and flexibility are better than ever before. But a nationwide shortage of workers is preventing hotels from regaining all the jobs we lost to the pandemic.”
Worker frustration, which seems to be present across the industry, could be to blame, especially since hotels received federal bailout money during the pandemic and still cut jobs, according to Unite Here. Labor action has been taking place outside of Los Angeles, too. In Las Vegas, about 40,000 workers in the Culinary and Bartenders Unions across 18 casinos and resorts threatened to strike in November. That walk-off was narrowly avoided when a tentative agreement was reached at the last minute. The strike would have been the largest hospitality worker strike in US history. “The total compensation won by the Culinary Union for workers employed at MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts casino properties is approximately $2 billion over the total five year contract,” Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union, said in a statement.
“Tourism is flourishing,” Petersen says. “Here in LA we’re looking at the World Cup and the Olympics, and development is at a brisk pace for new hotels [as a result]. Profits are up, revenue is up.” Even if hotel occupancy rates are still lower than 2019, he says, “the rates for the rooms are much higher, and so they’re making money.”
Meanwhile, many workers’ wages are so low, they struggle to find housing within a reasonable distance from their jobs, especially as housing costs have soared recently. “Our members’ wages haven’t kept up with that inflationary jump, so that’s just created the conditions where workers are angry,” Petersen says.
For Irene, commuting is a daily hardship that adds hours onto her workday. “One of the main reasons I’m fighting is for a wage increase,” says Irene, who makes about $19 an hour. “I live in Ontario in San Bernardino County. So I have to wake up at four in the morning to get [to the hotel] by 6a.m. I just can’t afford to live in Los Angeles. And even living in San Bernardino County and paying rent there is a challenge. So the wage increase would allow me to be able to live closer to where I work.”
