(CNS) Posted Friday September 3, 2010 - 9:10am
About 200 hotel workers were picketing this morning at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City, a union spokeswoman said.
The strike today was expected to involve as many as 500 Hyatt Regency Century Plaza workers, said Leigh Shelton of UNITE HERE Local 11, a Los Angeles hospitality workers union.
The union plans to picket until 10 p.m. today.
This strike comes a day after a similar strike at the Hyatt Andaz in West Hollywood, Shelton said.
"Nearly 5,000 hotel workers in Los Angeles have been without a contract for more than seven months,' Shelton said. "About 700 of them work at Hyatt hotels, where employees are taking a stand to stop Hyatt from taking unfair advantage of the recession.'
On Thursday, Michel Morauw, general manager of the Hyatt Andaz, issued a joint statement with David Horowitz, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza that read in part:
"While working to achieve an agreement fair to all parties, Hyatt has been honoring the terms of our expired contract with Unite Here Local 11 since November 2009. We are deeply disappointed that rather than engaging in productive negotiations at the bargaining table, which is the only way we will reach resolution on the issues important to our associates and to us, the union is choosing instead ... to strike.'
The union protested outside Century Plaza last Thursday, which led to 13 arrests when protesters refused to move from sitting in the middle of the intersection at Constellation and Ave of the Stars.
