Workers at Westin Long Beach ratify new contract with 60% pay increase

Hotel workers at the Westin Long Beach have unanimously ratified a new contract that will increase their pay by 60% over the next three and a half years, union officials said.

Unite Here Local 11, which represents more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona, announced the ratification Friday.

Earlier this summer, approximately 100 Westin workers, including room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, front desk agents, servers and others, walked off the job. The action was one of more than 175 strikes involving more than 10,000 hotel workers since July 2023.

Agreements have been reached with dozens of hotels in Los Angeles and Orange County since the rolling strikes began last summer.

The new contract gives workers an immediate $5 per hour raise, with another $6.25 an hour by the time the contract expires on Jan. 15, 2028. In addition to what the union called a “historic” wage increase, the agreement also guarantees pre-pandemic staffing levels, mandatory daily room cleaning and one of the highest service worker pensions in the country, officials said.

“We now need a new deal for the Olympics,” Unite Here Local 11 co- President Kurt Petersen said in a statement. “The current scheme is for developers, airbnb and hotels to reap enormous profits while working people shoulder the costs. That must change.”

Officials with the hotel bargaining group did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

The announcement about the Long Beach workers comes as other hotel workers represented by Unite Here were staging walkouts in eight cities across the United States on Sunday, including San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose.

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