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Report makes case, arguments over hotel worker wages

For more than two decades, downtown Long Beach has continued to thrive, evident from its continually rising buildings and beautified historic landmarks, but closer studies of its tourism industry reveal some sectors may not be getting their piece of the lucrative pie.

A recent study conducted by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy for the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community, suggests that $750 million of taxpayer money contributed to the 18 percent of Long Beach residents living below the poverty line since the early 1980s.

The report, “A Tale of Two Cities: How Long Beach’s Investment in Downtown Tourism has Contributed to Poverty Next Door,” released Feb 4, states that hotels alone have accrued $114 million since 1983. Researchers also found hotel workers in Long Beach earn approximately 12 percent less than workers near the Los Angeles International Airport, and 27 percent less than those in downtown Los Angeles.

According to the report, in 2006 the average worker in the tourism, art and hospitality fields earned $19,000 a year, which is below the national poverty threshold for a family of four.

Cal State Long Beach sociology professor Gary Hytrek wrote an opinion piece in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, on Feb. 14, supporting the LAANE report. He urged the city to review wage and salary standards of hospitality workers.

While several professors in the sociology department, along with city council members are members of the coalition, Hytrek’s piece found opposition in Long Beach and on campus.

A Feb. 14 Press-Telegram editorial, “A report with an ‘F’,” rejected Hytrek’s claims that hospitality jobs are careers for many people, and that tourism has not generated an adequate return on taxpayer dollars. Instead, Press-Telegram writers said, “The report is full of holes.”

The Press-Telegram also said that hotel workers should be encouraged to get better job training at community colleges if they want to be successful.

“The study claims that the tourism industry is to blame for an increase in poverty, which is a weird point,” said the editorial. “The obvious reason for low pay for some hotel workers is that the jobs require few skills.”

Jasleene Kohli, the policy and research analyst for LAANE, said the editorial didn’t value the fact that the hotel industry has received so much money without giving back to the community.

Kohli said the claims made by the Press-Telegram editorial was more of an ideological difference than anything else because they had no substantive evidence to report.

Although investments and improvements successfully placed Long Beach as “one of the top 10 revived downtowns in the United States,” as listed by the Urban Land Institute, a non-profit research and education organization. LAANE claims that hotel workers are still left out of the picture.

A survey conducted by LAANE in 2007 indicated that more than 41 percent of workers utilize some form of public assistance to make ends meet.

“Jobs don’t have to be low paying,” Kohli said. “Manufacturing jobs used to be low paid. When workers organized, that’s when they became good jobs.”

LAANE recommends that Long Beach city legislators conduct a full audit of hotel leases and redevelopment agreements while the hotel industry leaders create a more open work environment where workers have the right to organize.

Critics of LAANE and its affiliates believe that workers need to assume more personal responsibility and work their way up the corporate ladder if they want to reach middle class status.

Representatives for Long Beach tourism and the Long Beach Hilton could not be reached.

Thursday a town hall meeting will take place in the Karl Anatol Center that will address issues the report brought up and allow the community to voice their opinions.

The full report of “A Tale of Two Cities” can be viewed in full at goodjobslongbeach.org

“Manufacturing jobs used to be low paid. When workers organized, that’s when they became good jobs.”

One Comment

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    Was the Press Telegram editorial written in Torrance or by a Daily Breeze employee staying at a Long Beach hotel? People in ‘crass’ houses….

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