Long Beach looking at increasing wages for airport, convention center concession workers

Long Beach Airport and Convention Center concession workers could be in line for raises soon after the City Council requested a modernization of the pay scale for those employees that could see their wages align with a recently adopted hotel wage increase. 

Councilmembers Suely Saro, Mary Zendejas and Joni Ricks-Oddie drafted the request for city management to look at options of raising those workers’ wages through a city ordinance. The skeleton of those increases could resemble the voter-approved Measure RW, which raised hotel workers’ wages to $23 per hour this month and will increase them to $29.50 per hour by 2028. 

A 2014 ordinance set the minimum wage for concession workers at the airport and convention center, which is $17.97 per hour as of this month. 

Saro said Tuesday that voters showed earlier this year that they supported economic justice and that the wages of workers at the airport and convention center concessions have not kept pace with the rising cost of living in the city. 

“This is about addressing fair wages for hotel workers and also ensuring that we extend these standards to other essential workers in our tourism industry,” Saro said. 

Unlike Measure RW, which required the city’s voters to approve the wage increases for workers at hotels with over 100 rooms in the city, raising the wages for workers at the airport and convention center could be done through a vote of the council.  The airport and convention center are city-controlled sites.

While most members of the council backed the request and said it was important to compensate workers who would serve as a face for the city during the 2028 Olympic events being held in the city, others were more cautious. 

Councilmember Kristina Duggan said she thought the council needed to move carefully and be thoughtful with the issue, noting that large hotels have different business models than smaller concession operators. Duggan said the council raising wages for these operators could put them in a position where they’ll have to cut costs. 

“I was in a different airport last week looking for a place to buy a water and there was a kiosk that was automated,” Duggan said. “I don’t want that for the Long Beach Airport. Some jobs in hospitably cannot be automated but we are seeing that growing trend of automation.”

Workers and labor organizers implored the council Tuesday to move forward with wage increases saying that the current rate of pay is not enough for workers to survive on. 

Sandra Rodriguez, who said she’s worked at an airport retailer for over ten years, said that if airport and convention center workers are viewed as integral to the success of the Olympics in four years then they deserve wages that reflect their importance. 

“It is incredibly difficult to support two people with the wages we’re receiving,” Rodriguez said. “We’re not asking for anything exorbitant, we’re merely asking to be able to provide for our families without having to constantly be asking how we’ll be able to make ends meet.” 

Many of the workers were wearing red Unite Here Local 11 shirts, which represents tens of thousands of hotel, airport and convention center workers. The union also successfully pushed the council to place Measure RW on the ballot in March. 

City staff are expected to return to the council with options for amending the 2014 ordinance that created the minimum wage scale for airport and convention center concession workers before the council votes to approve any increase in the coming months.