and part of the reason is that the union says that a lot of the employees, the workers cannot live in the areas where the hotels are, where they work. they re pointing to members who are having to commute two, three hours a day, just to get to where they work. and so they say this is making it extremely difficult for them. and i want you to listen to what one of the union members says about being an essential worker. during the pandemic, we were called essential workers. now there s no pandemic. employers think that we are not essential anymore, and they think that they can run without us, but we all know that s not true. and a person familiar with management plans has told us that the hotel s plan to stay home, that they offered a $2.50 increase. we are waiting to hear from both sides in terms of an update on those negotiations and those numbers. but there is this notion on the part of the hotels that it is l.a. city leaders who should be
scenes that are cooking and cleaning, and they have a number of demands. they re of course asking for higher wages and better pensions. specifically, they re asking for a $5 an hour increase. but they re also asking for better health benefits, for safer workloads, and they re also focused on a housing fund. part of the reason is that the union says that a lot of the employees, the workers cannot live in the areas where the hotels are, where they work. they re pointing to members who are having to commute two, three hours a day just to get to where they work. and so they say this is making it extremely difficult for them. i want you to listen to what one of the union members says about being an essential worker. during is pandemic, we were called essential workers. now there s no pandemic, employers think we are not essential anymore, and think they can run without us. we all know that s not true. reporter: a person familiar with management plans has told
increase, but they re also asking for better health benefits, for safer workloads, and they re also focused on a housing fund. and part of the reason is that the union says that a lot of the employees, the workers, cannot live in the areas where the hotels are, where they work. they re pointing to members who are having to commute two, three hours a day, just to get to where they work. and so they say this is making it extremely difficult for them. and i want you to listen to what one of the union members says about being an essential worker. during the pandemic, we were called essential workers. now there s no pandemic, employers think that we are not essential anymore, and they think that they can run without us, but we all know that s not true. reporter: and a person familiar with management plans has told us that the hotels plan to stay home. that they offered a $2.50 increase. we are waiting to hear from both sides in terms of an update on those negotiations and those
demands, which, of course, begins with higher wages. and they re asking specifically for a $5 increase an hour. they re also asking for safer essentially work. and they re also asking for better health benefits. and what they re saying here is that they would like to see a housing fund. and that s because of what you mentioned. they say a lot of the employees that work at these hotels cannot live nearby and have to commute maybe two hours to get to their places of work. and, so, a lot of these union members are just frustrated and say that more needs to be done here. i want you to listen to one of those employees that says she considers herself an essential worker. during the pandemic, we were called essential workers. now we re not essential anymore, and they think they can run without us, but we all know that s not true. reporter: and a person