LAX-Area Hotels Launch Drive Against City's Living-Wage
Association Will Gather Signatures for a Referendum Seeking to Overturn Ordinance
The Daily Breeze - December 1, 2006
By Dan Laidman
The political campaign surrounding a living-wage ordinance for Los Angeles International Airport-area hotel workers began in earnest Thursday as the business community launched a petition drive to overturn the law and labor advocates announced a new series of demonstrations.
The city clerk certified the Hotel Association of Los Angeles' petition, allowing the group to begin gathering signatures. To trigger a referendum -- likely in May -- the group needs to gather 49,308 names by Dec. 29.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, the nonprofit, pro-labor group that spearheaded the living-wage effort, announced that more than a dozen hotel workers will embark on a hunger strike next week while living in a "tent city" in front of a Century Boulevard hotel.
"It is to draw attention to the conditions that they work under, and also to get Los Angeles residents engaged in the defense of this living-wage ordinance," said Vivian Rothstein, deputy director of the alliance.
A representative of the hotel association said the group had no comment.
The activity comes less than a week after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed into law three new ordinances aimed at improving working conditions for about 3,500 employees at the string of hotels on Century Boulevard between LAX and the San Diego (405) Freeway.
The labor community has been trying to organize the nonunion hotels for the past year, while the Alliance for a New Economy pushed the package of new city laws. The hotel association does not plan to challenge new ordinances making it more difficult for the businesses to fire workers when hotels change ownership, and requiring them to pass along service charges directly to workers. The association aims to overturn only the living-wage law.
Under the new law, the hotels have to pay employees at least $10.64 per hour, or $9.39 with health benefits. It is the first such requirement in Los Angeles for any businesses that do not have contracts with the city.
Proponents have justified the laws by saying the hotels derive much of their business from their proximity to city-owned LAX. Critics say the hotels are being unfairly singled out, and that the law could set a precedent that could be applied in other areas.
The hotel association has promised a robust campaign if its referendum qualifies. The group is working with a prominent election law firm with deep political ties, and its petition lists four current and former city commissioners as proponents of the referendum.
The Alliance for a New Economy, meanwhile, announced that former U.S. senator John Edwards supports the LAX-area living-wage law, as does the national head of the Service Employees International Union, both of whom were in Los Angeles on Thursday to speak at the group's annual dinner.
National labor groups would likely support the campaign to defend the ordinance if the referendum qualifies, Rothstein said.
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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.
