Tuesday’s event attracts hundreds of supporters
Supporters of a mandated living wage in Santa Monica haven’t let last year’s loss at the polls keep them down.
About 200 priests, rabbis, community leaders and hotel workers met at First United Methodist Church Tuesday to voice their support for a living wage.
The Passover-themed event, titled “Worker Justice Seder,” was sponsored by a handful of labor and religious groups.
“We’re coming together as members of different groups to support low-wage workers in their search for economic justice,” said Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, which is an interfaith association of religious leaders throughout Los Angeles.
No proposed new legislation has been announced yet, though Salvatierra said living wage supporters are looking at several different options.
Danny Feingold, a spokesman for CLUE, confirmed the group is in the strategy phase of proposing a new law to the community.
Salvatierra said she hopes for the same kind of success at The Four Points Sheraton and the Doubletree hotels that workers have had at Loews Hotel. Loews managers agreed last year to allow employees to vote on unionization.
“Nothing substantive is going to happen until (the hotels) are organized,” she said. “That’s just our experience.”
Under the living wage measure that was narrowly defeated at the polls last fall, unionized hotels were exempt from paying the proposed living wage of $10.50 an hour or $12.25 an hour without health benefits.
Voters shot down the proposed law which would have mandated businesses that make more than $5 million in annual revenue and are located in a defined area of the city, called the coastal zone, to pay their employees $10.50 an hour or $12.50 without benefits.
“Nothing substantive is going happen until (the hotels) are organized. That’s just our experience.” — - REV. ALEXIA SALVATIERRA CLUE, executive director
Opponents of last year’s proposal said they will look closely at any new proposals and reiterated their promise to consider a living wage law that effects all businesses equally.
Last year’s measure was flawed because it unfairly targeted certain businesses, would have eliminated a lot of jobs and further burdened the city’s strained budget, said Tom Larmore, an outspoken opponent of the living wage.
“It’s all a package,” he added. Living wage opponents, particularly business owners, said during last year’s campaign that they shouldn’t be forced to pay their employees a higher wage because some workers at area hotels haven’t learned the English language and haven’t developed new skills in their perspective professions.
As the campaign for a living wage builds, labor organizers are stepping up their efforts to unionize the Sheraton and Doubletree hotels.
The local union filed charges this month with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming workers at the Sheraton have allegedly been subjected to threats, bribery and coercion from managers for participating in a pro-union rally in March.
Hotel representatives have denied the allegations and accused the union of misrepresenting the concerns of its employees.
Tuesday’s event was sponsored by CLUE, Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism, Progressive Jewish Alliance and the Jewish Labor Committee.
Community leaders, activists and local workers participated in the ceremony, which included traditional Jewish readings and Yiddish songs followed by a Passover dinner.
Carolina Gomez, a housekeeper at the Sheraton, addressed the crowd through an interpreter. She said she works long hours for low wages without benefits and struggles to support her children.
Gomez, who broke into tears as she spoke, said she is standing up to ask for help even though she believes the hotel will retaliate against her. She said she believes it is the only way the situation will improve.
“He doesn’t want to invest in his people,” she said of the hotel’s owner. “Please help us.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 17, 2003. Read the original PDF.