“Some of you are sellouts to big corporations,” was the harsh public accusation by Eloísa Galindo, a labor activist, to the Los Angeles councilors prior to the vote where nine of them considered the possibility of reducing the so-called “Olympic salary.”
This salary had been obtained by the workers after several years of struggle, but is now threatened by the alleged blackmail of the tourism industry and airlines with a presence at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
“We have supported the fight for the Olympic salary for years; we understand what a decent salary is, the importance of health insurance and be able to pay for housing,” said Mrs. Galindo, who urged Angeleno politicians not to cause harm to families. “It is a shame that large corporations are threatening the city to damage its budget and that you harm the workers.”
The councilors Bob Blumenfield, Heather Hutt, John Lee, Tim McCosker, Adrin Nazarian, Imelda Padilla, Monica Rodriguez, Traci Park and City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson cast the votes to amend the Los Angeles administrative code to revise wages, health benefits, and wage waiver provisions for airport employees and hotel workers.
The recommendation approved Wednesday for action by the full Council would be that, beginning July 1, the average wage should be no less than $24.50 per hour; $25.50 in 2027; $27.50 in 2028; $28.50 in 2029 and $30.00 in 2030.
The same Los Angeles City Council had officially approved in May 2025 the “Olympic Salary” for tourism, hotel and airport workers, raising the minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2028. This increase would be lifeless, starting with $22.50/hour on July 1, 2025 and would reach $30/hour even before the Olympics.
The increases would be progressive annually by $2.50 until reaching $30 in 2028. The measure would apply to hotel employees (with 60 or more rooms) and certain LAX workers.
“For me it is blackmail,” said David Huerta, president of the SEIU-USWW.. “They say that there are still no negotiations. Let’s see if it’s true. In my point of view what they have done here is that [los concejales] They are complying more with the companies than with the worker and putting a worker in a situation where they leave here again. [la alcaldía] without that sense of justice.”
Boos to Mónica Rodríguez
Councilors Harris-Dawson and Lee are the authors of the motion to reduce workers’ salaries from the airport.
Harris-Dawson’s office told La Opinión: “The Council President is actively working with multiple partners to negotiate an agreement regarding the Living Wage Ordinance, and the Council will return to this matter at Tuesday’s meeting.”
However, There was no response as to whether the airlines are exerting pressure to perpetrate extortion against members of the City Council. of Los Angeles or if large corporations intend to destabilize the city budget unless the Council cuts the salaries of hotel and airport workers.
During the long session of the Municipal Council, Councilor Mónica Rodríguez was booed for proposing an amendment to reduce restaurant workers’ wages from $22.50 per hour to $17.00.
“We have already witnessed some very real repercussions derived directly from the current economic situation,” Rodríguez said when justifying his proposal. “And we cannot close our eyes to the impact of what is happening in these sectors.” [de la industria del turismo]which are affected by a policy that we adopted without having adequately dialogued with the companies that, in practice, would be harmed.”
He clarified that, in this context, no one intends to prevent people from having the opportunity to earn a decent wage in the city.
“However, What we must debate is the fate of those companies that will stop operating if we adopt policies without taking into account the implications that this entails. to maintain their activities within the city,” he said. “As you have already seen, multiple hotels have been forced to close their doors.”
She didn’t say how many or which ones.
A “poison” amendment
“Exempting employees from health coverage has been an aspect that has not been debated in any way, shape or circumstance, which I consider problematic,” criticized Councilor Hugo Soto Martínez. “It constitutes a poison pill and I request that this point be removed.”
In addition to Soto Martínez, who Supporting the workers’ struggle were councilors Eunisses Hernández, Katy Yaroslavsky, Nithya Rahman, Ysabel Jurado and Curren Designatewho amended his initial vote.
“I am the daughter of immigrants and grew up in a unionized household. I know what it means to see parents work exhausting jobs, sacrifice everything, and still struggle and struggle to make ends meet,” Hernandez testified.
The councilor stated that it is devastating when powerful people decide how workers should be paid and how they should be forced to absorb economic hardship while corporations continue to generate billions of dollars in profits.
“That’s why I vote against this amendment [eximir a los trabajadores de seguro de salud]. I was not elected to serve the interests of a fewand I cannot, in good conscience, allow corporate lobbyists to take away these workers’ hard-earned wages and health benefits; workers who organized for years to get a decent wage during the Olympic Games,” added Hernández.
Corporate plot?
Worker advocacy groups, including UNITE HERE Native 11 and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), They asked the city attorney, Hydee Feldstein Soto, to investigate “a corporate plot” by Delta and United Airlinesand the American Hotel & Lodging Affiliation to take the Los Angeles budget hostage in exchange for pay cuts for airport workers.
A chronology revealed by UNITE HERE to La Opinión reveals “a coordinated idea” to use the threat of an annual budget cut of 860 million dollars in order to force the reversal of the “Olympic Minimum Wage.”
The alleged “corporate shakedown” revolves around a ballot initiative to repeal the Los Angeles gross receipts tax (also known as the “corporate tax”).
According to the city’s own budget office, repeal would “deal an irreparable blow” to the Basic Fund, resulting in an average loss of $860 million annually for the first five years, threatening to lead to deep cuts in police, fire, sanitation and transport services.
“This isn’t lobbying; it’s extortion,” said Kurt Petersen, co-chair of UNITE HERE Native 11. “Corporations are threatening to blow up the city budget unless the Council cuts wages for hotel and airport workers. When the Council President himself says he has ‘a gun to his head,’ and a colleague calls it ‘really good blackmail,’ that’s the investigation.”
They ask for an investigation
Víctor Sánchez, from LAANE, said that Delta and United pay a negligible part – or none – of the tax on gross receipts.
“They did not launch this initiative to obtain tax relief, but to extort the Council and force it to cut workers’ salaries and health coverage of the tourism sector, and all of this just a month before Los Angeles hosts the World Cup,” he stated.
The letter sent to Feldstein Soto requests that he investigate whether corporate lobbyists have violated any provision of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, which prohibits promoting the introduction of municipal legislation with the purpose of orchestrating its subsequent rejection, or having engaged in actions that abuse the public trust or that undermine the right of every citizen to enjoy “a fair and equitable opportunity to participate in the governmental process.”
The letter was jointly signed by Jeremy Blasi, Basic Legal Advisor of UNITE HERE Native 11, and Sánchez, the executive director of LAANE. A copy of the letter was sent to all 15 members of the Los Angeles City Council.
Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA), an influential Southern California business advocacy group dedicated to promoting the economic interests and opportunities of its members, said “this is in no way blackmail.”
Negotiations will continue on Tuesday.
