Striking Fairmont Miramar Hotel Workers Violently Assaulted by Private Security With Assistance of LAPD Officers
Officers and agents violently beat on striking hotel workers who walked out in solidarity with SAG/AFTRA and WGA striking workers
UNITE HERE Local 11 hotel workers in Los Angeles are currently on strike for better pay and working conditions. On August 5, the Local tweeted out a video of a violent assault by private security agents against workers on strike against the Fairmont Miramar hotel.
The local wrote: Today @FairmontMiramar security officers attacked striking workers at their hotel. Our members won’t give in to bully tactics at the negotiating table or the picket line. #SoCalHotelStrike
Over 15,000 hotel workers are on strike in Los Angeles.
The video shows officers with the Los Angeles Police Department assisting in the assaults and bullying by the private agents.
It is unclear what led to the assaults and no injuries were reported. But during times of elevated labor struggles throughout history, there are many examples of private security guards being hired by the government and the corporations they represent to put down labor strikes. The Pinkertons come to mind.
One of the most famous and earliest use of private thugs to put down labor uprisings was during the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado. The Colorado coalminers’ strike of 1913-14 is an example of both the brutality of the corporate barons and the militancy and solidarity of the workers.
In the strike of 1913-1914, workers were confronting not only the most powerful capitalist in the nation in John D. Rockefeller, Jr., but the violence of the state mobilized by Democratic Party Governor Elias Ammons. The strike began on September 23, 1913. On October 28, after miners successfully turned away a Colorado & Southern train full of thugs and ammunition, Governor Ammons agreed to dispatch 1,000 National Guardsmen under General John Chase. The militant labor confrontation ended in a massacre of thousands of striking miners, their families, and children.
This strike involves thousands of cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front-desk agents at 46 Los Angeles area hotels represented by Unite HERE Local 11 are walking the picket lines. They began striking in July.