‘Willing to sacrifice it all’: Diplomat hotel workers in Hollywood nearing a strike

Julio Lopez saved for 30 years to buy a house in Miami Gardens in 2019 to raise his two children. For the past 17 years, he’s worked as a bellman at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, while doing construction work on the side.

After buying the home, he suddenly found himself unemployed for 14 months during the pandemic and his family was on the verge of losing the house. He’s back to work at the Diplomat, making $8.50 an hour plus tips, barely scraping by. Between his and his wife’s earnings, they don’t have a penny to spare after paying their monthly mortgage, other bills and buying groceries.

“We were an inch away from losing our home,” he said. “I’ve been working at the Diplomat for 17 years, this is my career. But when I pay my bills at the end of the month, it doesn’t add up. It’s that plain and simple.”

Lopez and 450 of his union co-workers at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Broward County are edging towards walking off the job, after months of unsuccessful attempts to forge a new contract with the hotel. The old five-year labor pact expired on Aug. 31.

On Sept. 2, 99% of union members voted to give union leadership the green light to call a strike, in case they couldn’t reach a new agreement with management. Labor and hotel management officials continue negotiations this week, and union leaders want a three-year contract.

A strike would be devastating for business at the 1,000-room Diplomat on Hollywood Beach, the second-largest hotel in South Florida after the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. Workers at the Diplomat are represented by Unite Here Local 355, a hospitality workers’ union. The union wants minimum hourly wages currently at $13.95 for non-tipped employees to go to $17, then to $20 by 2025. The workers also want protection from the company outsourcing jobs to non-union members.

“If 99% of our union is willing to go on strike, there’s something inherently very, very wrong,” said Lopez, a union steward. “We’re begging the owners for a reasonable contract, so that we can go back to business as usual, but if not, we have an imminent strike. We’re scared we’re about to lose our jobs and go without pay, but we’re willing to sacrifice it all.”

Brookfield Asset Management, owner of the Diplomat, declined to comment on contract negotiations.

Wendi Walsh, the secretary-treasurer for Unite Here Local 355, said that hotel management has reduced staff and cut corners on cleaning and operating hours in order to save on labor costs.

“These workers are at a breaking point. The economy has changed. Rents have skyrocketed in South Florida and we have members getting evicted,” Walsh said, explaining that many workers at the Diplomat, like Lopez, have worked there for over a decade and are loyal to the hotel. “These are low-wage workers who had no cushion during the pandemic; they went into debt and are trying to crawl out but the reality of today’s economy is pushing them down. So now is the moment.”

The Diplomat has a unique history in South Florida hospitality. For many years, the hotel was owned and operated by a union — the United Association, a plumbers and pipefitters union based in Annapolis, Maryland. In 2014, it was acquired by Brookfield Asset Management, a private equity group based in Toronto with $725 billion in assets.

The hotel’s strong ties to organized labor and its huge ballrooms have made it a gathering place for union conventions and meetings, as well as a Democratic Party political events.

But its corporate ownership and the labor strife are putting that longstanding customer base at risk. The Air Line Pilot’s Association, or ALPA, a union that represents 59,000 pilots across 35 airlines, is set to have a conference at the Diplomat in early October, but might switch to another location if the hotel’s contract issues haven’t been resolved.

“ALPA is aware of the situation at the Diplomat and is in direct, frequent contact with Unite Here’s national representatives to stay abreast of the latest developments,” the pilots’ union said in a statement. “We will not do anything to undermine a fellow union as they exercise their rights to collectively bargain.”

In addition to many of the Diplomat’s workers, services and hospitality workers in South Florida are struggling to afford the region’s rapidly increasing cost of living. That threatens to hurt the regional economy that depends on a vibrant tourism business.

While Florida’s minimum wage increased to $10 an hour last year, and will increase by a dollar a year until it reaches $15 hour in 2026, it’s not enough to be able to afford to live in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator, an adult with one child needs to make $35.34 an hour to be considered a “living wage” in Broward County.

“If we’re going to be a tourist region and an area known for its hotels, we need to recognize that these are real people who don’t just disappear into a closet after their shift,” said Walsh, of Unite Here Local 355. “It’s untenable.”