Pressure is mounting against Aimbridge Hospitality and its private equity owner Advent International regarding escalating labor disputes at hotels in Southern California as UNITE HERE Local 11, the union for hospitality workers in Southern California, announced that Aimbridge hospitality faces a strike deadline of this upcoming Saturday to join its peer hotels in resolving labor disputes that have disrupted the Southern California hospitality industry since July.

Workers at the Sheraton Park Anaheim operated by Aimbridge walked out on strike again today as the company has failed to agree to a new collective bargaining agreement. Ten Southern California hotels have settled agreements that will provide living wages, affordable benefits and adequate staffing to workers, including four properties operated by Hilton that reached an agreement last weekend.

On October 23, 2023, the Los Angeles Times published an in-depth article reporting that several prominent Los Angeles hotels had brought in unhoused refugees from Venezuela and Colombia to replace their own workers during recent strikes. The article reported that the Los Angeles district attorney was concerned about “potential wage theft and violations of child labor law.”

At least two of the hotels that have brought in the unhoused migrants, the Holiday Inn LAX and Pasadena Hilton, are operated by Aimbridge Hospitality.

The Los Angeles Times reported that "one migrant worker, a 17-year-old student at Belmont High School who requested anonymity, said he skipped two days of school to clean rooms at the Holiday Inn LAX.” The article stated: “He and his mother, who secured work as a housekeeper at the Holiday Inn, received payment via banking app Zelle from an agency called Arya Staffing Services Inc. Aimbridge Hospitality did not respond to questions about whether staffing agencies it used had secured appropriate permits to employ minors.”

The Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon and the California Labor Commissioner have begun investigating potential labor abuses at Los Angeles hotels involving unhoused refugees. The $463 billion California Public Employees Retirement System, which has invested $2.9 billion in Advent, is in the process of engaging with the firm regarding issues with Aimbridge Hospitality.

UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona that work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers and airports.

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