Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has announced an investigation into allegations of migrant exploitation by local hotel chains.
Hotel workers across the city have been on strike since the beginning of summer in response to an increased cost of living. The DA’s office is looking into allegations that some of these hotel workers have since been replaced by migrant workers.
Unite Here Local 11, a union representing hotel workers, is fighting for higher wages and better working conditions in Southern California. The union asked Gascón to launch an investigation concerning the alleged exploitation of unhoused “refugees” during the strikes.
Sebastian, a refugee from Venezuela who declined to give his last name, said he was hired by a hotel.
“I entered a situation where I didn’t even know which agency was hiring me, how much I was going to earn, how many hours I was going to work, much less my rights as a worker,” he said in a statement released Monday.
The statement from Unite Here Local 11 also quoted Gascón on the potential exploitation.
“We take these egregious allegations with the utmost seriousness,” he said in the release. “The mistreatment of vulnerable workers and their exploitation will not be tolerated. We will conduct an exhaustive investigation with Unite Here Local 11… to ensure strict compliance with labor laws.”
Susan Minato, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, voiced concerns about working conditions.
“Workers all over the city have reached their breaking point,” Minato told reporters from the Los Angeles Daily News. “The travel and tourism industry exploited the pandemic and continue to rake in profits while their workers, the ones who actually make all this possible, are left living paycheck to paycheck, one emergency away from homelessness.”
Legislation that would have offered unemployment benefits to striking workers did progress through the state assembly, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed that legislation in September in an effort to provide unemployment benefits for workers on strike, citing the unacceptable cost to the budget.
Beyond California, there are signs of movement on the issue nationally.
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who is running for U.S. Senate, is working on legislation to ensure unemployment benefits nationwide to striking workers. Under his proposed Empowering Striking Workers Act of 2023, workers would be able to collect their pay after two weeks on strike, according to a draft of the bill viewed by the Los Angeles Times.