Grand Canyon Times

The Arizona Diamondbacks refused to change the team's hotel in Los Angeles, despite demands from a big-spending labor union that wanted the team to re-book due to an ongoing labor dispute. 

The Diamondbacks are staying in Los Angeles for the team's National League Division Series games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team was booked to stay at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where members of the Unite Here Local 11 labor union are picketing due to ongoing contract negotiations with the hotel.

The labor union, which earlier in the week had successfully pressured soccer team Inter Miami FC to re-book its hotel from the Fairmont Miramar, where the labor was also striking, said the Diamondbacks should do the same. 

“If Lionel Messi and Inter Miami can change their hotels to support workers, what’s stopping them (the Diamondbacks)?” said Unite Here Local 11 spokesman Maria Hernandez, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

The Diamondbacks released a statement saying, “Upon landing last night, we were made aware, through social media, of a labor dispute at our hotel. Unfortunately, due to the unique and demanding travel accommodations need to meet our team’s requirements as well as the large size of our travel party, we were unable to relocate." 

The labor union promoted a protest of the Diamondbacks in a post on X that referred to the major league baseball team as "sssssscabs."

Unite Here Local 11 represents Southern California and Arizona workers working in hotels, restaurants, airports and convention centers.

The union ended with only $1,651 in the bank at the end of 2022, despite collecting $13.97 million in dues from its 20,394 members and having $693,783 in cash at the beginning of that year, according to a U.S. Department of Labor disclosure. 

The big spending included “$2.67 million on politics and ‘gifts’ last year, targeting the Nov. 8, 2022 elections, including a losing Orange County minimum wage referendum, and Los Angeles’ mayoral race between Karen Bass and Rick Caruso,” reported Coachella Valley Times. 

That increased spending comes as Unite Here Local 11 members have been asked to pay more in dues to the union. Hotel workers with higher levels of seniority, for example,  pay the union $1,026 per year in dues, which is an increase of 68 percent over the past decade, the union reported.

Unite Here Local 11’s co-president, Ada Briceño, also is the chair of the Orange County Democratic Party. In 2003, when Briceño was chair of Unite Here Local 681, which merged with Local 11 in 2008, the union was sued by four members over “discrimination and illegal firing,” reported the Washington Free Beacon.

According to the 2003 lawsuit, “Briceño referred to non-Hispanic employees as 'gringos,' disparaged employees' work-related medical conditions, and terminated workers based on age, telling a union vice president ‘I’m going to fire these f—ing old ladies, and we can get someone else for less money,'” reported the Free Beacon.

The union lost the lawsuit and, according to the unsuccessful appeal, the jury awarded plaintiffs more than $700,000 in damages. 

Earlier this week, Unite Here Local 11 lost an initiative in Anaheim, Calif. "to impose a costly $25 per hour wage mandate on local convention centers, concert halls, stadiums, and sports arenas,” accordion to an editorial in the Orange County Register.

“Voters saw through the far-left talking points of union boss (and Orange County Democratic Party leader) Ada Briceño, which is something all cities and businesses should take to heart,” wrote the editorial board.