About 40 Hollywood screenwriters have joined the hoteliers union's boycott of two Los Angeles hotels, the Cameo Beverly Hills by Hilton and the Beverly Hills Marriott.
The good place creator Mike Schur, Emily in Paris writer and co-executive producer Grant Sloss, The Simpsons writer and executive producer Ian Maxtone-Graham and Abbott Elementary School Among the writers who have joined the campaign, led by the Los Angeles area’s largest hospitality union, Unite Here Local 11, is producer and supervising writer Brittani Nichols. One day at a time co-showrunner Mike Royce, Stop and catch fire writer and executive producer Angelina Burnett and Horror stories in two sentences Writer Liz Alper also joined the boycott over Labor Day weekend.
Unite Here Local 11 began its campaign against the two Remington Hospitality-operated properties last month, after the Cameo’s existing union contract expired and the union and employer failed to reach an agreement. (The Cameo was formerly the Mr. C Beverly Hills.) In early August, the union also filed a wage theft complaint with the California Labor Commission, alleging that housekeepers were performing unpaid work before their shifts began and that workers were unable to take mandatory breaks due to the volume of work.
Meanwhile, Unite Here Local 11 is attempting to unionize the Beverly Hills Marriott and claims that management has “rejected the hotel's request that workers agree to a fair process in which they can choose whether to unionize in an environment of mutual respect and without interference from management.” The union is trying to get management to pledge to remain neutral during the union drive and to voluntarily recognize the group if a majority of workers sign union cards.
“We hope that the owners and management of these luxury hotels adjacent to Beverly Hills will change course and show their hardworking staff the respect they deserve,” reads a union petition explaining the boycott.
The Hollywood Reporter contacted Remington Hospitality for comment.
This isn’t the first time members of the Writers Guild of America and Unite Here Local 11 have supported each other during labor disputes. In 2023, WGA West supported a boycott of the hotel that served as the American Film Market headquarters during the event, while earlier that year Unite Here Local 11 supported the WGA strike and vowed that its members would not cross writers’ picket lines at hotels that served as filming locations.
Unite Here, a particularly active labor group with more than 32,000 members nationwide, launched its rotating strike over the Labor Day weekend at hotels across the country. More than 10,000 members struck at affected sites, including Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, Hyatt Regency Greenwich, The Royal Hawaiian, and Westin Seattle.