Hotels in the sanctuary county of Los Angeles County, California, are reportedly replacing unionized employees, currently on strike, with newly arrived border crossers and illegal aliens. The report is credible enough that the District Attorney’s Office has opened an inquiry into the claims.
While hotel workers in Los Angeles are on strike, the union that represents them, Unite Here Local 11, is accusing hotels of replacing the striking workers with newly arrived border crossers and illegal aliens — specifically those living on Skid Row.
Most of the border crossers and illegal aliens recruited by the hotels to take low-wage work arrived in the United States — via the southern border — from Venezuela and Colombia.
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The Los Angeles Times reports:
Since more than 15,000 workers began intermittent strikes at about 60 Southern California hotels in early July, employers have been replacing those union members with managers and temporary workers recruited through apps, such as Instawork, staffing agencies and by other means. Vargas is among those from Skid Row’s migrant population who have been recruited in recent weeks to work at unionized hotels in Santa Monica and near Los Angeles International Airport where workers have gone on strike. [Emphasis added]
In addition to the Four Points by Sheraton hotel, migrants were hired at the Holiday Inn LAX and Le Meridien Delfina Santa Monica, according to interviews with migrants employed as temporary workers and organizers with Unite Here Local 11, the union representing striking hotel employees. [Emphasis added]
Unite Here organizer Hannah Peterson, who has been working with the migrants, said some hired at the Le Meridien Delfina were among hundreds of migrants Texas Gov. Greg Abbott shipped on buses to L.A. this year as a political stunt meant to harness anti-immigrant sentiment and deride “sanctuary” cities across the country. [Emphasis added]
The report has since garnered an investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which is now asking those involved to come forward to detail how they were recruited by the hotels.
“We take these egregious allegations with the utmost seriousness,” left-wing District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement. “The mistreatment of vulnerable workers and their exploitation will not be tolerated.”
California, the nation’s largest sanctuary state, is home to nearly five million illegal aliens and their U.S.-born children today.
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John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.