The special election to decide the fate of a hotel union initiative will be moved from September 12 to October 3, 2023. Various experts predict that if passed, the LA-style ballot measure will cost the City of Anaheim tens of millions in reduced tax revenues and the highest labor costs in the nation, as well as imposing enormous wage hikes and a crazy-quilt of work rules on every hotel and event center in Anaheim.
The ballot measure is sponsored by UNITE-HERE Local 11, a Los Angeles-based hotel workers union that has collective bargaining agreements with just five of the 160-plus hotels in Anaheim. UNITE-HERE has spent heavily to elect political allies to the Anaheim City Council.
At it’s June 13 meeting, the Anaheim City Council voted 5-2 to schedule the measure for a special election on September 12, but did not take that action in the form of an already-written resolution. However, the OC Registrar of Voters needs such a resolution in order to begin organizing the special election. The necessary resolution has been placed on the June 27 city council agenda, but the two-week delay means the special election will be moved to October 3.
The city council will also decide whether the city should submit an argument against the UNITE-HERE Local 11 ballot measure, and if so which councilmember will sign the ballot argument. State law defines a priority hierarchy for signers of ballot arguments, and councilmembers take precedence in a municipal ballot measure.
The ballot measure imposes a $25 an hour minimum wage and drastically reduces the number of hotel rooms a housekeeper can clean before triggering a $50 an hour wage for an entire 8-hour shift. The measure’s provisions would apply to every Anaheim hotel regardless of size and to “event centers” – the latter being so broadly defined that it includes massive venues like the Anaheim Convention Center and small recreation centers like Camelot Golfland and Linbrook Bowl.
The UNITE-HERE Local 11 measure cost the city’s budget $68 million annually within ten years of its passage by reducing tax revenues and inflating labor costs, according to City of Anaheim Finance Director Debbie Moreno.
Most hotels in Anaheim are independent, family-owned properties who lack the resources to comply with the overly-complex work rules contained in the ballot measure. They would be forced to lay off staff, cut benefits and reduce work hours in order to comply, or take hotel rooms out of circulation.
A similar Local 11-sponsored ordinance was adopted in Los Angeles. Among other negative impacts, several large hotels around Los Angeles International Airport have closed entire floors as a result of similar work rules.
