LAX in purple union shirts." width="1200" height="800" />LAX in purple union shirts." width="1200" height="800" />
When LA28 — the private organization tasked with organizing and raising billions for the 2028 Summer Olympics — campaigned for and eventually secured the Games for Los Angeles, they vowed the mega-event would “bring employment opportunities, economic benefit and pride to people across Los Angeles.”
A coalition of labor unions wants to ensure that roughly 36,000 L.A. tourism workers see some of that prosperity in the form of an “Olympic wage.”
At a rally outside L.A. City Hall on Tuesday, accompanied by some City Council members, a coalition representing workers at LAX, hotels and other tourism sectors renewed calls for an immediate boost in workers’ minimum wage to $25 an hour, with incremental increases to $30 an hour by 2028.
AdvertisementTourism workers “greet the world,” Estuardo Mazariegos, local co-director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Institute, said during the rally. “We need to make sure that our folks have the dignity, have the ability to live where they work.”
What do we want? An OLYMPIC WAGE! When do we want it? NOW! #TourismWorkersRisingLA motion aims to raise the wage for over 36,000 tourism workers to $25/hour immediately, $30/hour by the 2028 Olympics, and give workers access to quality health care. ❤️💜 pic.twitter.com/y8hiZr2TaT
— LAANE (@LAANE) July 30, 2024
‘We need this’
As the city’s tourism industry bounces back to near pre-pandemic levels, labor advocates say the Olympics could be a boon to corporations, while a bane to the low-wage workers who keep LAX, hotels and the rest of the city’s tourism engine running smoothly.
“It’s appalling to think that while the tourism industry has its future growth secured, our families are fighting to keep a roof over their heads,” Councilmember Curren Price said during the rally.
AdvertisementPrice co-wrote a motion in April 2023 proposing the pay increases, and a city report was commissioned later that year to analyze the economic impact of raising wages. It is expected to be released within two weeks, said Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso. But this lengthy timeline has frustrated labor groups.
“We were anticipating that this … would take maybe about three to four months, and we’re well beyond that,” Anton Farmby, vice president of SEIU United Service Workers West, told me this week. “We believe that the time is now.
“Here we are with a great opportunity to increase the living wage for these workers so that they can not only work in this city, but live in this city,” he added.
AdvertisementOne of those workers is Jovan Houston, a passenger service agent at LAX. She said her job is stressful and demanding — and she’s making just $19.78 an hour.
“It’s like a slap in the face to work so hard for so little pay,” she told me.
Houston said better wages would allow her to stop living paycheck to paycheck and spend more time with her family.
“Enough is enough,” she said. “We need this.”
The Hotel Assn. of Los Angeles, Asian American Hotel Owners Assn. and the California Hotel & Lodging Assn. first voiced opposition to the proposed wage increases in 2023, citing the ongoing pandemic recovery.
“It is proposals like these that have led to the city’s reputation as a difficult place to do business and to work,” spokesperson Peter Hillan told The Times last year.
Looking back to ’84 and looking forward
The 1984 Olympics in L.A. is generally seen as a success in economic terms, as the city is one of the few that made money from the Games rather than losing it. But the ’84 legacy also includes homeless sweeps and aggressive policing that critics say caused enduring harms to marginalized communities.
AdvertisementIn terms of labor, the organization behind 1984 was “super corporate, hyper private” and mostly shut out labor unions, said Mindy Chen, director of the Dolores Huerta Labor Institute and professor of labor studies at Los Angeles Trade-Tech College.
But the region has changed a lot since then, she said, and workers are too powerful to be ignored this time around.
“The difference is that now L.A. is a union town,” Chen said, a change made possible by a labor revitalization in the late 1980s and through the 1990s that’s now cemented.
And it’s noteworthy to her that labor leaders are among LA28’s committee and board members.
There could still be plenty of tension, she said, adding that Airbnb is one of LA28’s partners, which unionized hotel workers aren’t thrilled about. More than 15,000 of those workers participated in strikes in L.A. and Orange counties over the last year to secure better contracts.
AdvertisementSomething else Chen will be watching: Dozens of those hotel contracts are set to expire just before the 2028 Games.
“That’s forward thinking,” she said. “This gives [the union] a huge bargaining chip and leverage.”
Chen is optimistic that the city’s strong union presence will lead to “a collaborative approach” with Olympic organizers and result in “all the things that labor wants in terms of local hires, lasting benefits, union jobs.”
“When you bring labor to the table, labor is going to demand at the table,” she said.
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Ryan Fonseca, reporter
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Ryan Fonseca writes the Los Angeles Times’ Essential California newsletter. A lifelong SoCal native, he has worked in a diverse mix of newsrooms across L.A. County, including radio, documentary, print and television outlets. Most recently, he was an associate editor for LAist.com and KPCC-FM (89.3) public radio, covering transportation and mobility. He returns to The Times after previously working as an assistant web editor for Times Community News, where he helped manage the websites and social media presence of the Burbank Leader, Glendale News-Press and La Cañada Valley Sun. Fonseca studied journalism at Cal State Northridge, where he now teaches the next generation of journalists to develop their voice and digital skills.
