Hospitality industry

A demonstration held last Thursday that temporarily shut down  part of Century Boulevard just west of Aviation Boulevard was not just  another demand by labor unions on behalf of workers in area hotels. It  was an example of the kind of convergence and coalition building that  progressives like Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Assembly Speaker-elect  Karen Bass talk about transforming Los Angeles.
The event featured  calls from African American leaders like Assemblyman Curren Price and  Inglewood/South Bay NAACP President Mitchell Williams to hire more  African Americans in the hospitality industry.
At the same time,  these officials called for improving the quality of the jobs in the  Century corridor hotels.
African Americans used to be a major part of  the hospitality workforce. According to statistics compiled by the  labor union Unite Here, in 1970 blacks represented 10 percent of the  workforce which was comparable to Latinos (nine percent native born and  12 percent foreign born). But by 1990 the figure had dropped to seven  percent for blacks while the number for foreign-born Latino workers  jumped to 43 percent; six percent for native-born Latinos and 13 percent  for Asians, up from 1 percent in 1970.
Today the number of black  workers is 5.5 percent, according Steven C. Pitts, of the Center for  Labor Research and Education at U.C. Berkeley. The data was included in a  report, Job Quality and Black Workers, he released in August 2007.
At  the same time, African Americans represent 9.2 percent of the overall  Los Angeles County workforce.
Practically speaking, that means that  at a hotel with a staff of 200 for example there are only two black  workers, said Donald Wilson, an organizer with Unite Here Local 11,  which is one of the main labor proponents locally behind the effort to  bring more African Americans into the industry.
The union is  supported by a coalition of community organizations such as the Los  Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and African American leaders  including Assemblyman Price, Inglewood Council Danny Tabor, Inglewood  School Board Member Trina Williams and Rev. Altagracia Perez of Clergy  and Laity United for Economic Justice.
What makes the push  particularly significant, noted Wilson of Unite Here, is that the union  membership, which is 70 percent Latino, has agreed that without  diversity language included in agreements, there will be no new contract  settlements. Since the hotel workers union launched the diversity  initiative a year and a half ago, Wilson said 23 Los Angeles are hotels  have signed on. Wilson said the first step in the process is for workers  to get the right to unionize.
He said this process is currently in  various phases at four of the Century Boulevard hotelsthe Sheraton  Gateway, the Radisson, the Four Points and the Westin.
The Los  Angeles fight to bring more African Americans into the hospitality  industry is part of a national drive with active campaigns happening in  Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.
At the same time, an attempt to  upgrade the quality of the jobs is one step closer to reality thanks to a  decision by the California Supreme Court, which last week voted to  uphold a living wage ordinance passed by the Los Angeles City Council in  February 2007. The law requires 12 hotels on Century Boulevard to pay  their workers a living wage of $10.34 per hour without employer provided  benefits and $9.39 for those with the health care.
Some hotel owners  and their advocates challenged the city ordinance in court in February  2007, and after reversals for both sides, the state supreme court  recently upheld the law.