(Cross-posted from The California Courage Campaign)
by Elliott D. Petty
This evening 500 hotel workers, community members and faith leaders will participate in a candlelight procession along Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport, beginning at the home of Margarita Uriostegui, a Radisson hotel worker who tragically died two days after the historic September 28th civil disobedience and in whose memory the fast is dedicated.
Eighteen hotel workers will be engaging in a seven-day water-only fast from December 6th to December 12th. These brave workers have chosen to go without food for a week to continue their struggle for a living wage and to honor the memory of Margarita Uriostegui, their late co-worker who symbolizes their struggle to earn the right to receive fair pay for their hard work.
Show them you support them by signing OUR PETITION today.
More over the flip…
Hotel workers on Century Boulevard work full time, sometimes more than one job, yet many of them are still living in poverty. As a result of the civil disobedience, the Los Angeles City Council passed a living wage ordinance for Century Boulevard hotel workers as a first step in lifting these workers out of poverty; the legislation was signed into law by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on November 27th.
The Century Boulevard hotels and other business groups are now seeking to repeal the law through a ballot referendum, jeopardizing the living wages of these workers and their hopes to provide a better life for their families.
Century Boulevard hotel workers earn 20% less than their counterparts in downtown L.A., and the nearby communities of Lennox, Inglewood and Hawthorne, where a large number of these workers live, suffer high rates of poverty, crime and overcrowding. One in four residents in these communities lives below the federal poverty line, a measure of extreme poverty, while more than 40% of children come from poor households. Median household income is 25% lower than in L.A. County as a whole.
Read more about the fast and how we can help secure the dream of a decent standard of living for each and every hotel worker HERE.
Fasters will sleep in front of the hotels every night as they endure hunger, thirst and cold weather to make their statement for a living wage for them and their families.
Its not too late.
Sign the Courage Campaign petition today and it will be hand-delivered to the fasters this Saturday, December 9th.