‘Taxing Greed to Pay for What We Need:’ LA Hotel Worker Union Hemorrhages Members

Last week marked the deadline for labor unions to file their 2025 LM-2’s, the report by labor unions that detail how they spent funds in the past year. LM-2’s are filed with the Office of Labor and Management Standards, and the reports aren’t good for one of California’s most aggressive labor unions, Unite Here Local 11, which the Globe has covered before.

Unite Here Local 11, the union behind the controversial $30 Los Angeles minimum wage, is losing members and increasing dues while simultaneously claiming their workers don’t make enough money to live comfortably in the Los Angeles region.

The union, which represents hospitality workers across Southern California, saw its membership drop by over 4% in 2025. Overall, its membership is down almost 30% in the past three years.

Why? The union’s leadership and their questionable track record may have played a role. Local 11 has faced damning allegations of discrimination and nepotism. Leaders also increased member dues by up to 24% in 2025 while they claim their workers aren’t paid enough to live comfortably.

The membership drop follows a memo from labor leaders, elected officials, and community members bringing attention to the union’s checkered history. Much of the memo references years of research into Local 11’s inner workings, documented by union watchdog, Eyes on 11.

“The labor movement is built on a simple, sacred promise: You don’t leave anyone behind. Yet over the past several years, we have watched with deep concern as UNITE HERE Local 11 has made choices that contradict the values of racial justice, worker-centered leadership, and community solidarity that our movement claims as its moral foundation.”

It also comes as the union pushes controversial policies across the state, including an “overpaid CEO” tax, a $30 minimum wage for hotel workers that has already resulted in a 6% job loss rate, and the state’s billionaires tax proposal.

The Los Angeles Times reported on the CEO tax in January:

The so-called Overpaid CEO Tax initiative was announced Wednesday at a rally outside Elon Musk’s Tesla Diner in West Hollywood, and featured union workers holding signs that read “Taxing greed to pay for what we need,” and a cartoon cutout of a boss carrying money bags and puffing a fat cigar.

“It’s high time the rich paid more taxes,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, which represents airport and hotel employees.

The Globe reported on the $30 minimum wage last May 2025:

In a 12-3 vote last week, the Los Angeles City Council approved a minimum wage hike for airport and hotel workers, with the goal of reaching $30 an hour by 2028 – in time for the Los Angeles hosted Olympics.

Following the $30 minimum wage increase, Los Angeles hotels cut 6% of jobs in wake of new wage law, KOMO News reported. So, just as with California’s fast food minimum wage increase to $20 per hour, thousands of fast food jobs were cut, as were hours.

The Globe has done extensive reporting on the proposed billionaire tax:

SEIU and Democrats are pushing a retroactive billionaire tax targeting the roughly 220 billionaires residing in California in 2025, ignoring that these individuals are the most financially mobile and can live anywhere. Expecting them to remain in the state as if they will happily and willingly hand over even more of their wealth surely must be facetious.

SEIU is sponsoring the “2026 Billionaires Tax Act.” The measure, recently listed on the Attorney General’s website, would impose a one-time 5% tax on individual wealth exceeding $1 billion, Marc Joffe wrote for the Globe this week. He explains the measure and more:

Although the tax would be levied based on 2026 net worth, it would apply to billionaires who resided in California in 2025, so theoretically it could not be avoided. Of course, billionaires are well equipped to defend themselves in court, so the constitutionality of this unprecedented tax will be rigorously tested.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez had very practical economic motivation behind her NO vote on the opportunistic $30 minimum wage, the Globe reported:

“This policy imposes a significant wage and health benefit increase overnight that will inevitably result in higher hotel rates, reduced hours for hotel workers, and job losses–not just in hotels, but across businesses that rely on tourism: restaurants, retail, attractions, and our struggling commercial corridors. Tying the wage increase to the 2028 Olympics may sound appealing, but the reality is that many of those events are happening outside city limits, yet this increase only impacts the City of Los Angeles making our hotels less competitive and undercutting our ability to attract tourists resulting in a loss of TOT, taxes and other economic impacts that the City will lose as we are facing a $1 billion deficit and laying off workers.

My concern remains that we are on a path to having the highest-paid unemployed workforce in the country, where wages go up, but job opportunities disappear because we failed to think through the economic impact on our small businesses, hotels, and the broader tourism sector.”

California is losing a taxpayer roughly every minute, and it is over ever-increasing taxes and labor union policies like the CEO tax, “Taxing greed to pay for what we need.”

As Eyes on 11 report, “Local 11 Is California’s Worst Union.” Bullhorns in the morning. Scare tactics. Intimidation. In recent years, UNITE HERE Local 11 has emerged as one of the country’s most controversial labor unions.

“Primarily representing hotel workers in Southern California, Local 11’s goal is to expand its membership rolls and increase dues revenue—by any means necessary.”

You can read more on the flings from the Center for Union Facts here.