NEW REPORT: Unite Here Local 11 Failed Its Membership During the Pandemic

This week, Eyes on 11 released a 24-page report on how hotel worker union Unite Here Local 11 failed its membership during the pandemic.

You can read the full report here. A recent opinion piece in the Los Angeles Daily News highlights the reports findings.

Hospitality workers were some of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the industry starts to recover, our research outlines how Local 11:

• Imposed a dues increase on struggling members during the pandemic;

• Fought government aid for the hospitality industry and fought efforts to reopen hotels, even after safety measures were in place;

• Sent members to canvass in-person while simultaneously calling for a shutdown of the hotel industry in Los Angeles;

• Benefited from Paycheck Protection Program funding while criticizing hotels for receiving the same.

Local 11 has exited the pandemic weaker and more indebted than at any other point in recent history. Before the union can regrow its membership, it should be held accountable for its failure to protect its own rank and file.

The union may likes to boast about how much it’s done for hotel workers. But the evidence shows that when the union’s members needed it the most, Local 11 failed them. The union’s leaders should be ashamed of themselves for putting their own interests ahead of struggling workers.