LA Hotels Hiring Homeless Migrants; What Can Migrants Expect?

Several hotels in Los Angeles, the second-most populous city in the United States, are set to hire homeless migrants from the Skid Row neighborhood. Skid Row’s homeless migrants will receive employment and an opportunity to earn money. 

Many migrants have already been hired by several Los Angeles hotels. Some migrant workers are already working at the Four Points by Sheraton and Holiday Inn LAX.

Los Angeles hotels are hiring migrants to replace striking workers. Around 15,000 employees have gone on strike at about 60 hotels in Los Angeles. LA hotels adopted the strategy to replace those workers with homeless migrants. 

What can migrant workers expect?

Skid Row’s homeless migrants will be hired at about 60 hotels in Los Angeles. There is an opportunity for every migrant worker. Several people from one Skid Row homeless shelter have already been hired. 

Migrant workers will receive decent payment and food for their work at LA hotels. At hotels, migrant workers will work to make guests comfortable, including taking reservations, cleaning guest rooms, and maintaining the building.

Norelis Vargas, a migrant from Venezuela, told the media that she arrived in the U.S. about three months ago seeking asylum. She had been living with her husband and four children at a homeless shelter on Skid Row in Los Angeles. She desperately needed work and income to live safely with her family. She got a job opportunity at the Four Points by Sheraton. She said that she was happy to get the opportunity to earn money. 

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However, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón has launched a probe to analyze working conditions for migrants hired at hotels. George Gascón has expressed concern on potential wage theft and violations of child labor law.

Hotel workers on strike

Hotel workers are conducting strikes, seeking higher wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions. The hotel workers said that they do not earn enough salaries to afford housing near their workplaces.

Striking workers condemned the hotels’ move to hire migrants. They said that the hotels “had stooped to a new low.”

Last week, Joe Biden, the president of the United States, offered legal status to migrant families, separated during the tenure of former President Donald Trump. Biden pledged to reunite migrant families and praised collaborations with advocacy organizations to help migrant workers.