The union Unite Here Local 11, which represents thousands of hotel workers who are striking in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, reported to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office that some hotels hire asylum-seeking migrants to replace striking employees.
The office by prosecutor George Gascón announced that there will be an investigation into these alleged labor practices by the hotels.
Unite Here Local 11 He said hotels hire homeless migrants living in a Skid Row shelter to fill the spots of unemployed workers, particularly for cleaning activities.
“We are going to make sure this is investigated thoroughly. It will be a fair and impartial investigation,” Gascón said at a news conference Monday in front of @LeMeridien Delfina hotel in #SantaMonica, one of the hotels said to be using unhoused migrants as replacement workers.
— UNITE HERE Local 11 (@UNITEHERE11) October 23, 2023
Since July, the Workers at several hotels in Los Angeles and Santa Monica are on strike to demand better working conditions, salary increase, health insurance and pensions. Employees include receptionists, bellhops, cooks and housekeepers, among others.
Keep reading: Messi and Inter Miami support workers’ strike and change hotels in Los Angeles
In a Los Angeles Times publication, it was reported that about a dozen refugees, mainly from Venezuela and Colombia, They confirmed that they were hired in hotels whose workers were on strike.
Some of the migrants said that employers gave them heavy workloadsextended hours and that they were forced to work without breaks.
The migrants mentioned that they were not provided prior information about the amount of the hourly payment, although others said they would be paid $19 per hour.
A 17-year-old migrant student at Belmont High School told the LA Times that he missed two days of school to clean rooms at the Holiday Inn LAX, and that Both he and his mother, who also works there as a housekeeper, are paid through the Zelle banking app..
“We take these egregious allegations with the utmost seriousness,” said Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón.
“Abuse and exploitation of vulnerable workers will not be tolerated. “We will conduct a thorough investigation, working closely with Unite Here Local 11 and other stakeholders to ensure strict compliance with labor laws and protect the rights and dignity of all workers,” the prosecutor added.
Federal law allows asylum-seeking migrants and refugees to work in the United Statesand hotels have the right to hire replacement staff during the strike.
Unite Here Local 11 co-president Kurt Petersen told the LA Times that employers who hired asylum-seeking migrants they stooped to a new level by turning to a vulnerable group of workers to override employees who are striking to demand a living wage.
The attorney representing dozens of hotels in Southern California, Keith Grossman, asked how a hotel can realize if a person is homeless if they provide an address and show up unwashedclean and sober to work.
Keep reading: Second wave of strike begins by hundreds of hotel employees in Southern California
Grossman said the allegations brought forward by Unite Here Local 11 appear to be nothing more than a red herring.
Prosecutor Gascón expressed that the office in his charge Will take a closer look at hiring practices at hotels in Los Angeles and Santa Monica allegedly from homeless migrants, some of them who arrived in California on transports sent from Texas by Governor Greg Abbott.
“We urge people with relevant information to boldly come forward and share their experiences,” the DA’s Office said in a statement.
Prosecutors urged witnesses, hotel employees and others with knowledge of this case to contact the office’s Consumer Protection Division at 213-257-2540.
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