City considers mandating ‘Olympic’ raises for airport, convention center workers

Dozens of low-wage workers clad in union-red tees roared or snapped their fingers in approval Tuesday night when the Long Beach City Council agreed to weigh the costs and benefits of mandating better pay for concession employees who staff the city’s airport and convention center.

With unanimous approval, Long Beach City Manager Tom Modica will return before the council sometime between August and September with several options and their expected cost for changing the pay structure for more than 200 workers — cooks, cashiers and attendants — who work for private operators the city hires to staff nine restaurants and shops at Long Beach Airport as well as the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center.

Among the options would be an “Olympic” wage standard that comes as the city prepares for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Long Beach is poised to host at least eight events , including two at a temporary aquatics center outside the Convention Center.

Workers — and several council members — made it clear they were aware the deal would set pay levels ahead of the Olympics, when tourists will flood the region.

“It’s important that we include our local communities and that they are not [an] afterthought, that the Olympics and all of this attention isn’t on the backs of workers but rather they are central to these efforts and are lifted up through the process,” said Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson.

More than a hundred workers and supporters, many holding signs that read “Tourism Workers Rising,” attended the council meeting Tuesday. Some told the council they’ve had to take on side gigs or move further outside Long Beach at the cost of longer commutes. In a city report prepared by the office of Councilmember Suely Saro, it’s estimated that some workers spend 80% of their income on housing.

Any approval would be the city’s first change to the worker’s pay structure since 2014. Under the current structure, workers start at $17.97, following a $1.42 cost-of-living increase in 2022. City officials compared that to the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Long Beach, which averaged $2,295 in February.

Meanwhile, concession workers at the airport are attending to 15% more fliers than the year prior. Two of the busiest months in LGB’s history came in March and again in May, with the latter seeing more than 189,000 departing passengers. And the Long Beach Convention Center has hosted 40% more events since 2019.

With a wage increase, city concession workers would join the ranks of West Coast dockworkers, California educators, Hollywood screenwriters and Detroit assemblers who have succeeded amid the back-to-back “Hot Labor Summers” in securing better pay and benefits in the past year. Locally, it comes as workers at The Westin Hotel in Downtown Long Beach continue negotiations on a new contract .

“Our members are the backbone of the Long Beach hospitality economy,” said Danielle Wilson, a research analyst with Unite Here Local 11, which represents the workers. “At this poverty wage, workers are getting pushed out to the furthest ends of the county and beyond,” Wilson said.

Workers made it clear they want the same allowance already afforded to local hotel workers through the passage of Measure RW in the March 5 Primary. The measure, which passed with 53% of the vote, raised the minimum market wage for hospitality workers at establishments with 100 or more rooms to $23 an hour, with language to climb an additional $6.50 over four years.

“This month, Measure RW, which passed in every council district, established an Olympics minimum wage for hotel workers,” Wilson said. “Tonight, we urge you to match this wage for concession workers.”

Councilmember Saro asked her colleagues to use Measure RW “as a model” when reviewing options, while Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie said she believes the council “should extend those standards” to those “vital sectors” in the city’s $1.7 billion tourism industry. Councilmember Al Austin made the point that many of these workers are the first and last face travelers to Long Beach will see, and that impression is paramount to Long Beach’s success.

“While our tourism sector thrives, people who make that success possible find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet,” Ricks-Oddie said.

While not opposed to a change, Councilmember Kristina Duggan said “some of these businesses have different revenue models than the larger hotels,” and that there may be “unintended consequences” when you apply the pay standards of one industry to another.

“I believe we cap their prices so we’re putting businesses in a position where they have to cut costs,” Duggan said. “We need to look at some of the unintended consequences of something like this.”

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