Union Signs Agreement With 3 Hyatt Hotels

A union representing hundreds of maids, waiters, bellhops and other workers signed an agreement Monday with three Hyatt hotels in Los Angeles, ending a sometimes bitter 2 1/2-year dispute over wages and other benefits.

Officials of Local 11 of the AFL-CIO’s Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union said that employees voted 269 to 0 last week to ratify a three-year agreement with the Hyatt Regency, Hyatt on Sunset and Hyatt Wilshire hotels. The contract calls for raises ranging from 5 cents for most tipped workers to an average of 35 cents an hour for most workers who do not receive tips. It also makes the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday the eighth paid holiday per year for the more than 500 employees who are covered by the agreement.

Hotel workers have been without a union contract since early 1989.