Remember This! – Page 3 – Memory Work

June 11, 2005June 13, 2021

Victory at Last: Hotel workers reflect on contract victory (2005)

For 14 months during 2004-2005, UNITE HERE Local 11 mounted an assertive campaign to win a contract with employers represented by the Los Angeles Hotel Employers Council. Building on the union’s rank-and-file strategy, hotel workers organized repeated delegations to articulate their demands to hotel management. The union also mobilized community allies and the labor movement in boycotts and public demonstrations. In addition to wage and benefit demands, the union called for a contract that would expire in the fall of 2006, bringing Los Angeles into alignment with other major cities in the U.S. and Canada. According to Local 11 secretary-treasurer Tom Walsh, “having common contract expirations gives us the opportunity to speak to the same companies that operate all across the country at the same time as other unions are negotiating.” An agreement between the union and employers was brokered by mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa shortly before employers were set to lock out 2,500 workers. This short film produced for Local 11 features interviews with union members and leaders as well as scenes from delegations and demonstrations during 2004-05.

October 2, 2004February 24, 2023

David Beats Goliath: How Inglewood defeated WalMart

In 2004, voters in the city of Inglewood rejected a ballot initiative that would have allowed retail giant WalMart to bypass the opposition of the city council to their big-box store. This documentary, narrated by a local minister, describes the unprecedented labor-community coalition that defeated the world’s largest corporation.

April 15, 2000May 26, 2021

That stopped everything

Rosa Beltran reflects on the power of rank-and-file union members

Rosa Beltran (right) and Mauela Ramos (center) in 2011.

La huelga del 2000 fue una victoria— Yo estaba fuera de mi edificio piqueteando 24 horas seguidas, 24 horas deteniendo, durmiendo, pegado a los containers de basura porque como Uniones, si la Unión de los basureros miraba un janitor que estaba piqueteando, se respetaba eso. El UPS [United Parcel Service] si miraba a alguien piqueteando, respetaba eso. El correo, si miraba a alguien, no había movimiento de nada. Ahí se detenía todo; pero si no había nadie, es por eso que le digo yo de qué sirve tener un sindicato con ejecutivos con buenas ideas, si soldados no habemos. Porque los soldados somos los que llevamos a cabo todo, al final del día. Ésa es la representación que nosotros tenemos.

The strike of 2000 was a victory— I was outside my building picketing 24 hours in a row, resting and even sleeping by the dumpsters because the unions, if the sanitation workers saw a janitor who was picketing, they respected that. If UPS saw someone picketing, they respected that. The postal workers, if they saw someone, nothing moved. That stopped everything; but if there had been no one there, that is why I say what good is it having leaders with good ideas, if you don’t have soldiers. Because at the end of the day the soldiers are the ones that carry it all. That is the representation we have.

From the interview of Rosa Beltran by Andrew Gomez.

April 6, 2000June 5, 2021

Una Causa Justa | A Just Cause

This editorial from La Opinion reflects the widespread support for the Justice for Janitors campaign in the Spanish-speaking community of Los Angeles. The writer argues that the janitors' demands are modest, and that their aggressive campaign reflects a broad dissatisfaction with the power structure in LA. Translated from Spanish by Stephanie Dyer.

A Just Cause, La Opinion, April 6, 2000

Religious, political, and labor movement leaders join the janitors during their 2000 strike.

Janitors, those informal workers who are responsible for the cleaning of the nation’s skyscrapers and buildings, carry out a tough job that is generally nocturnal and poorly compensated. The majority of them are immigrants, some undocumented, with families that depend – often entirely – on their meager income. They perform a humble job that is little known but important. Every morning, when millions of office workers and professionals report to their jobs to start their workday, the janitors have already fulfilled their duty. The offices, the hallways, and the restrooms are ready so that the world of production continues to function flawlessly.

This week, the Los Angeles janitors, who are among the lowest paid in the country but have also woven an effective organization over the years to defend their interests, made the decision to resort to a strike to demand fairer wages. This is an extreme measure, certainly, but so is their situation. Even representatives of the companies they work for recognize that these workers’ wages are outdated in comparison to wage realities in Los Angeles.

As known, this is one of the most expensive areas to live in America. But it is, at the same time, one of the most privileged, especially in these times of rampant prosperity. Corporate profits have climbed to dizzying heights, but the janitors and other workers have to fight with wages that are barely above the minimum, with which one can hardly survive. There is enough wealth in California for those who clean offices to have a decent, basic wage that permits them a dignified life and resources to educate their children. This has been recognized by the county Board of Supervisors and by several local officials who have declared their sympathy for the strikers, whose latest crusade has radiated from downtown Los Angeles to cities such as Burbank, Glendale, Beverly Hills, El Segundo and Woodland Hills.

The janitors’ claim is not limited only to the interests of their labor union. In reality, the red and black banners that call for justice and have begun to rise proudly as of Monday, speak equally for other sectors that also work hard and that, like the janitors, still await the success that is boasted about so much to arrive where they are.

Translation by Stephanie Dyar

Original text: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=493361091&Fmt=3&clientId=1564&RQT=309&VName=PQD

April 1, 2000January 15, 2025

Santa Monica Living Wage – Journey for Justice

A procession of workers wearing raincoats carrying pickets marching down the Santa Monica boardwalk. Some carry red signs reading "Local 11," Purple and white signs reading "Living Wages for Hotel Workers" and green signs reading "Full Family Health Coverage." A man can be seen working through the window of one of the hotels in the foreground. The pavement appears wet and the sky looks as if it has just rained. — Santa Monica Living Wage – Journey Towards Justice, 2000

In 1999, hospitality workers and their allies formed a new coalition to expand Los Angeles’ living wage ordinance to neighboring Santa Monica. Calling themselves SMART (Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism), they advanced a proposal to increase the minimum wage for the estimated 3,000 housekeepers, valet drivers, restaurant workers, and security guards who worked in the beachfront hotel district to $10.69 an hour and to require their employers to provide health insurance. As the City of Santa Monica began studying the feasibility of the proposal, opponents of the proposal led by the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce began gathering signatures to place an alternative measure on the ballot in November which, while raising wages for some government contract workers, would have blocked efforts to increase the minimum wage for workers at private businesses, including those beachfront luxury hotels. They began circulating petitions and sent thousands of mailers to area residents alleging that their proposal (which came to be known as Proposition KK) would better protect workers and consumers in Santa Monica. SMART quickly mobilized in opposition to Proposition KK, “The Fake Living Wage,” holding a series of public demonstrations with religious leaders from CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice) to make it clear to local voters that despite claims to the contrary, Prop. KK would not provide a true “living wage” to Santa Monica workers. Their efforts were successful—more than 78% of Santa Monica voters rejected Prop. KK — but the fight to win a living wage for workers in Santa Monica continued for years.

Pictured here is one of those demonstrations, the “Journey Towards Justice” march on April 17, 2000, in which thousands of hotel workers and their supporters marched in the rain down the Santa Monica boardwalk to St. Anne’s Church, where Father Mike Gutierrez offered blessings to the workers in their efforts to win living wages for all.

Additional images of the Santa Monica Living Wage campaign available at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) records, UCLA Digital Library:

https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/z16b3b1x

https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/z1gn4frj

View more photos from the Living Wage Campaign: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uclairle/albums/72177720320809410/