Striking hotel workers file complaint over alleged violence on picket line

By Cheri Mossburg, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) — Striking hotel workers in Southern California filed a complaint on Monday with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the hotels were “committing and/or condoning violence” after a fight on the picket line, their union announced.

Video shared by Unite Here 11 – a union representing dishwashers, room attendants, bellhops and others – shows a disturbance on a picket line outside a Santa Monica hotel on Saturday. The video shows people in suits scuffling with picketers, but it’s unclear who the people in suits are or what happened before the video started.

Officers from the Santa Monica Police Department were present, but CNN has not been able to determine if any report was filed.

Unite Here 11 said they filed a complaint over this and other “ugly episodes of violence on picket lines at hotels where workers have been on strike.”

CNN has requested comment from the Fairmont Miramar hotel where the videotaped incident took place, as well as the Collective Bargaining Group, which represents most of the hotels that employ unionized workers.

But Pete Hillan, a spokesperson for the California Hotel and Lodging Association, said that the workers are engaging in “increasingly aggressive actions” while on the picket lines, and accused union representatives of kicking over safety barriers.

“Union representatives are blaring sirens and alarms at odd hours that not only disturb the peace and neighboring residents but also clearly create a safety risk,” Hillan said.

Since declaring a strike in early July, hotel workers have been demonstrating periodically outside many different Southern California hotels amid demands of increased wages and better benefits.

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