Workers at hotels owned by RLJ Lodging Trust on both coasts walk off the job in effort to win wages and benefits that enable them to afford to raise families in the cities where they work
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In the shadow of the Hollywood Bowl, hotel workers at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Hollywood started a picket line at 6 AM local time today.
The 160-room hotel, owned by RLJ Lodging Trust and operated by Aimbridge Hospitality, expected high occupancy this weekend for one of the last Hollywood Bowl concerts of the year.
In Philadelphia, workers at the Wyndham Historic District hotel—also owned by RLJ Lodging Trust and operated by Aimbridge—walked off the job earlier today, just ahead of the Thanksgiving travel season.
“Whether we strike is up to the employers and how willing they are to pay us fairly for the work we do,” said Maria Christina Velasquez, a shop steward with UNITE HERE Local 11 and laundry attendant at the Hilton Garden Inn Hollywood since 2019. “We’re ready for anything.”
“Hotel workers like me go on strike to win raises that keep up with the rising cost of living, pensions, high quality union healthcare, and safe workloads,” said Brent Allen, a restaurant server and member of UNITE HERE Local 274 at the Wyndham Historic District since 2023. “We’re going to welcome millions of visitors to Philly in 2026, but most of us can’t pay our basic bills. We deserve to be able to live dignified lives but that can only happen if the hotel owner and operator pay us what we deserve.”
RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE: RLJ) owns a portfolio of nearly 100 hotels across 23 states and the District of Columbia. The company just this week announced a year-over-year drop in both revenue and net income. According to campaign filings, between July and September of this year, RLJ Lodging Trust donated $25,000 to the effort to defeat a $30 minimum wage for hospitality workers that the Los Angeles City Council passed in May.
Aimbridge hospitality operates hotels across the world under known brands like Hilton, Hyatt, and Windham. Aimbridge-operated properties were among the last to settle during the 2023–2024 Southern California Hotel Strike, the largest hotel strike in modern U.S. history.
UNITE HERE Local 11 is more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona who work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers, and airports.
UNITE HERE LOCAL 274 is 4,000 private-sector hotel and food service workers at stadiums, universities, cafeterias, and hotels throughout the Philadelphia region.
Both are affiliates of UNITE HERE, a labor union representing 300,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
PHOTOS AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.unitehere11.org/workers-at-aimbridge-operated-hotels-in-los-angeles-and-philadelphia-strike-during-event-filled-weekend-unite-here-reports/
Contacts
Rachel Sulkes | rsulkes@unitehere11.org | 602-327-4084
