The Hotel Maya on Long Beach’s waterfront and the union that represents its hospitality workers announced they’d reached an agreement to end a long-running dispute.
Employees at the Maya and dozens of other Southern California hotels have staged strikes and boycotts since July as part of a campaign by their union, Unite Here Local 11, which represents 32,000 hospitality workers in the region.
The dispute at the Maya has involved dueling complaints that the union was bargaining in bad faith and that workers were subjected to violence on the picket line, including allegations that a striking worker was grabbed and yelled at by a hotel investor, something the investor denied. In August, an altercation also resulted in a striking Maya worker being punched in the head by an unknown man, according to video of the incident.
On Tuesday, the hotel and the union released a joint statement saying they had “reached a fair settlement of our dispute.”
“The settlement includes a commitment from all parties to engage in a good-faith reconciliation process,” the statement said.
Unite Here Local 11 said in a news release that the agreement, which runs until Jan 15, 2028, has 50 pages of improvements and worker protections including:
- A $5 per hour raise in the first year
- Wage increases of 40% to 50% for non-tipped workers over the term of the agreement
- An eventual raise to $35 per hour raise for more room attendants
- Guaranteed staffing levels
- Mandated daily room cleanings
- Juneteenth as a paid holiday
Unite Here Local 11’s co-president Kirt Peterson called striking workers heroes.
“Despite living precariously close to being unhoused, they struck over and over without pay to win a living wage,” he said in a statement. “They have not only won a life changing agreement – an unprecedented $5.00 an hour in the 1st year – but they have given hope to all working people that when you fight, you win.”
The agreement is one of 41 that Unite Here Local 11 has secured amid a wave of rotating strikes and labor actions across the region. The union pledged to continue striking and boycotting at hotels that continue to hold out.
In a statement provided by the union, Mayor Rex Richardson — who chastised the hotel’s operators in a letter earlier this year — called the agreement historic, saying it “ensures hospitality workers will have the dignity of living wages and industry-leading benefits to support their families.”