Local 11 Raises Dues, Continues to Pay Family Members and Front Groups

Recently released financials for Unite Here Local 11 show union leadership continues to jack up the cost of union dues. Meanwhile, union leaders saw their salaries go up and family members of union officials continued to feature on the payroll, as did the union’s favorite front groups. 

The newly released LM-2 for Local 11 shows that the maximum dues for the union rose to $91 a month in 2023, up over six percent from the top end rate of $85.50 in 2022.

Unsurprisingly, some of this money has been spent benefitting Local 11’s family and friends. 

Once again making an appearance on the union’s finances is Susan Minato’s (co-president of Local 11) husband, Gregory Griffith. Griffith pocketed over $98,000 in 2023 and has now made nearly $750,000 for IT related services in a nine-year span.

Local 11 also donated $36,885 to Unite Here Local 19, a local whose business manager is Enrique Fernandez, the husband of Local 11 Co-President Ada Briceño.

Local 11 also sent $5,000 to Working Partnership USA, a group headed by Briceño’s daughter-in-law.

Co-President Kurt Petersen’s daughter is also benefiting as a result of her father’s position. For the third year in a row, Hannah Petersen received a pay increase. From 2022 to 2023, Petersen received a raise of  over nine percent and now makes nearly $70,000 a year.

LM-2 receipts also show that the union gave $50,000 to Kurt Petersen’s alma mater, Yale Law School. 

Local 11 appears to have also hired the son of Recording Secretary Martin G. Lopez as a probationary organizer in 2023.

Local 11 also continued to fund its front groups, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). The two groups were recently outed for harboring high ranking anti-Israel board members/employees but nonetheless received six figure donations from the union.

LAANE

CLUE

Local 11 also gave $10 thousand for “consulting” to former LAANE employee, William Smart Jr. Smart Jr. was quoted in the Hollywood Report as having brought Unite Here Local 11 and Chateau Marmont “together” for a union contract in Dec. 2022.