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State Legislators Call on City Council for "Living Wage"
City News Service - November 3, 2006
By Art Marroquin
State legislators called on the City Council today to approve a proposed "living wage" ordinance for about 3,500 employees working in 13 hotels along Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport.
The City Council is scheduled on Wednesday to consider whether hotels should pay their employees a minimum of $9.39 an hour with health benefits, or $10.64 an hour without health benefits. The typical hotel employee working at an LAX-area hotel currently earns $6.75 an hour with no health benefits.
The council is also to decide whether hotel employees should have at least 12 days of paid vacation or sick time, and up to 10 additional days of unpaid sick days.
"It's really a very simple idea. It's the notion that if you work full- time, you ought to be able to live on the wages that that yields," Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, said during a news conference outside City Hall. "These hotels would not be on Century Boulevard were there not an international airport there. I mean, what are the sights to see there?" Goldberg said. "Those hotels near LAX depend on the city-owned LAX as a huge taxpayer-funded investment in LAX to keep them open and running."
Goldberg, along with 14 other state legislators and 33 religious leaders signed a letter asking the City Council to approve the ordinance.
The Hotel Association of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce oppose the measure, saying it would result in higher room rates and damage the tourism industry. Chamber and hotel association officials have said they will initiate a ballot referendum to give Los Angeles voters a chance to overturn the ordinance if it is approved by the City Council.
"We respect these people a great deal, but I don't think they have really fully read these proposed ordinances," said Harvey Englander, a spokesman for the Hotel Association of Los Angeles. "They're poorly drafted, they embarrass the city and they need to be discussed further," Englander said. "This plan takes the minimum wage policya way from the state and gives it to the city, sending a message to businesses across that country that Los Angeles is not business-friendly."
Officials with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, the group pushing for the living wage ordinance, said local voters would likely oppose efforts to overturn the proposed ordinance. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars would be spent on a political campaign like that, and it's really a shame that the hotel industry would spend those funds on a referendum campaign rather than reimbursing their workers," said Vivian Rothstein, deputy director for the alliance.
Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said she welcomes a challenge to the ordinance. "We have got to do a better job and not continue to be the poverty and low-wage capital of the country," Durazo said. "That is not good for Los Angeles."
The council will also consider a "Hotel Worker Retention Ordinance" to protect the jobs and pay levels of lodging employees if their company is sold to another hotel chain. Under that plan, the new employer would be required to evaluate each retained employee after 90 days of taking over, and let the workers stay if their performance is satisfactory. Additionally, the council will decide whether service charges typically charged by hotel operators for large events should go directly to employees who performed the services.
The Century Boulevard Corridor has the largest concentration of hotel rooms in Los Angeles County, along with the lowest room rates, according to a report released earlier this year from the Gateway to L.A. Blue Ribbon Commission, headed by former Councilwoman Ruth Galanter. Hotel wages in the area are 20 percent lower than at downtown hotels and 30 percent lower than in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, according to the study.
"I'm marveled at their loyalty," Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, said of LAX-area hotel workers. "Some of them have worked there for 20 years or more and yet, even with a full-time job, they cannot make ends meet," Chu said. "Sometimes they have to take two jobs just to feed their children, and this is a problem the living wage ordinance is addressing."
The proposed ordinances include a provision that would allow hotel owners to opt out if their workers are allowed to unionize. James Elmendorf, a senior policy analyst for Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, said the stipulation allows for flexibility in negotiations with hotel owners. The proposed ordinances come after about 1,500 protestors marched along Century Boulevard during a choreographed protest on Sept. 28 as part of a push for higher wages and improved benefits for airport-area hotel workers. Hundreds of "pre-registered" protesters were arrested for civil disobedience after sitting in the middle of the street, blocking rush-hour traffic during the late afternoon demonstration.
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For over 20 years, Isabel “Segunda” Brentner has worked at the LAX Hilton, keeping her focus on her family and her job. “My priorities [were] to help my family,” says Brentner, who, along with raising her own children, cared for both her father and grandmother when they were ill. 
Enedina Alvarez, a 54-year-old single parent, says she must be both mother and father to her teenage children. Yet, with two jobs, she has barely enough money to house, feed and clothe them—and precious little time to spend with them. Although she receives health insurance through her job, she cannot afford to insure her children. Alvarez says, “I pray to God that my kids do not get sick because I cannot pay the medical bills.” 
Nearly all hotel housekeepers are women. The majority are women of color and immigrants.
