THOUSANDS of hotel workers in southern California went on strike on Sunday, demanding higher pay and better benefits in what their union is calling the largest strike in its history.

Members of Unite Here employed as cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, porters and receptionists picketed outside major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as the summer tourist season opened.

Last month, members of the union’s Local 11 voted 96 per cent in favour of taking strike action. The union is seeking higher wages, improved healthcare benefits, greater pension contributions and less strenuous workloads.

Unite Here also wants to create a “hospitality workforce housing fund” to help workers deal with the soaring cost of living in greater Los Angeles. 

Many employees says that they spend hours commuting to work because they can’t afford to live near their jobs.

“Our members were devastated first by the pandemic and now by the greed of their bosses,” union co-president Kurt Petersen said in a statement. “The industry got bailouts while we got cuts.”

Contracts expired at midnight on Friday at more than 60 hotels, including some owned by major chains such as Marriott and Hilton. 

The strike affects about half of the 32,000 hospitality workers the union represents across southern California and Arizona.

Talks with a coalition of organisations representing more than 40 hotels are at a stalemate. 

The coalition accused union leaders of cancelling a scheduled bargaining session and refusing to come to the table. The hotels have offered wage increases of $2.50 (about £2) per hour in the first 12 months and $6.25 (£4.90) over four years, the group said.

In a statement on Sunday, the hotel coalition said: “The union has not budged from its opening demand two months ago of up to a 40 per cent wage increase and an over 28 per cent increase in benefit costs.”