L.A. hotels hire migrants from Skid Row homeless shelter to replace striking workers

[Valdosta]

L.A. hotels hire migrants from Skid Row homeless shelter to replace striking workers
LA Times

...

Since more than 15,000 workers began intermittent strikes at about 60 Southern California hotels in early July, employers have been replacing those union members with managers and temporary workers recruited through apps, such as Instawork, staffing agencies and by other means. Vargas is among those from Skid Row’s migrant population who have been recruited in recent weeks to work at unionized hotels in Santa Monica and near Los Angeles International Airport where workers have gone on strike.

In addition to the Four Points by Sheraton hotel, migrants were hired at the Holiday Inn LAX and Le Meridien Delfina Santa Monica, according to interviews with migrants employed as temporary workers and organizers with Unite Here Local 11, the union representing striking hotel employees.


...

[ret5hd]

1. Huh...from trespasser/vagrant/bum to...

valued employee.

Don’t thank them when they give you your paycheck…count your hours and figure your pay ‘cause they’re gonna steal from you.

Steal it back.

[TomCADem]

2. Seems like divisive propaganda with focus on migrants

A lot of LA’s skid row population are NOT migrants. I can’t see hotel employers specifically looking for migrants among the homeless, particularly since there would likely be some language difficulties.

Suggesting that most of CA’s homeless are migrants is just buying into right wing racist stereotypes about the homeless.

The overwhelming majority of homeless people surveyed were locals, not migrants from far away.

[Valdosta]

3. Migrants or no, it's scabbing.

But if it is migrants, they are victims not perpetrators.

[quaint]

4. But if it is poor, unhoused Americans?

[Valdosta]

5. The same, of course. n/t

[TomCADem]

6. Labor Should Be In Solidarity With Immigrants, Not Scapegoat Them

It was a common tactic of management to try to play off racial and ethnic resentments to oppress workers. Now, you have “populist” conservatives attacking immigrants in an effort to win labor support only to pass anti-labor laws when elected.