On the same day that a coalition of business owners delivered signatures aimed at overturning a recently approved $30-per-hour minimum wage for airport and hotel workers, the unions representing such employees urged the Los Angeles City Clerk to invalidate the referendum effort on allegations of “gross misconduct” by signature gatherers.
A coalition of local hospitality and tourism groups, known as the L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress, submitted more than 140,000 signatures from Los Angeles registered voters to the City Clerk’s Office on Friday for their referendum effort on the so-called “Olympic Wage.”
In May, the City Council and Mayor Karen Bass approved an ordinance to raise the minimum wage to $30 an hour for hotel and airport workers.
Interim City Clerk Petty Santos confirmed on Friday she received the signed petitions. Her office will conduct an initial review to determine whether the number of valid signatures meets the 92,998 required to place a referendum to overturn the ordinance on the June 2026 ballot.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will be responsible for verifying the signatures with registered voter information.
The Olympic Wage ordinance is “suspended and will not take effect while the petition is being reviewed,” Santos said.
According to the Alliance, the Los Angeles tourism industry already pays some of the highest wages in the country, and such a steep wage hike would likely cause business owners to lay off workers to meet the requirements of the ordinance or look at other measures to reduce costs.
“The Olympic Wage ordinance threatens the very existence of small businesses like ours. This isn’t just a challenge for employers — it’s a risk to the jobs of the very workers this ordinance is meant to help,” Gregory Plummer, CEO and managing partner of the Concord Collective, which operates dining locations at Los Angeles International Airport, said in a statement.
Federal policies, fire recovery, and other economic hardships have strained travel and tourism in Los Angeles, which industry leaders argue will only get worse with the wage increase.
“These new regulations will force so many of us to fight to keep our businesses alive, putting thousands of those jobs and our livelihoods in jeopardy,” Mark Beccaria, a partner of Hotel Angeleno in West Los Angeles, said in a statement.
American Hotel & Lodging Association President and CEO Rosanna Maietta, President and CEO Nella McOsker of the Central City Association, President & CEO Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Maria S. Salinas, and Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, backed the referendum effort.
It’s also been financed by airlines such as Delta and United and other companies.
Meanwhile, the Defend the Wage LA Coalition — which includes the Unite Here Local 11 SEIU-United Service Workers West unions, and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which describes itself as “an organizing and advocacy institution committed to economic, environmental and racial justice, who advocated for the wage increase — called on the City Clerk to “invalidate” the petition signatures.
The group alleged the referendum campaign misled voters by claiming the petition would raise wages when it sought to do the opposite.
In response to the referendum, union members began a campaign to inform voters about the petition and urged them not to sign it. They also opened a 24-hour hotline for Angelenos to call the labor group for signature revocation forms, if needed.
Unite Here Local 11 has submitted a complaint to California Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower about the alleged violations and gross misconduct, as well as with City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto. In their complaints, union representatives cited testimony they received from voters.
In one instance, a witness alleged that he was “violently assaulted and punched in the face by a referendum petition circulator,” Unite Here Local 11 said.
The union also alleged that the referendum campaign offered unhoused people cash in exchange for registering to vote and signing their petition.
“The greed of the airlines and hotels was only outdone by their deceit and desperation. The clerk should invalidate the petition,” Kurt Petersen co-president of Unite Here Local 11 and David Huerta president of SEIU-USWW said in a joint statement.
“They would rather spend millions of dollars deceiving voters than pay workers a living wage and quality healthcare, but we are proving once again that working class solidarity is more powerful than money,” they added.
More than 115,000 Los Angeles voters submitted forms to revoke their signatures on the referendum petitions after they learned what it would do, according to a statement from the unions, who did not offer further proof.
Hotel and airport workers have defended the wage increase, noting that it will help them pay for rent and groceries, cover medical bills and remain in the city they work in.
“When we spoke to our community, they understood us and saw through what the industry was trying to do,” Maria Rubio, a worker at Flying Food Group, an airline catering company that prepares and packages meals for international flights out of Los Angeles International Airport.
“Housing affordability is out of reach for so many working families across the region and their support means the world.”
Prompted by the referendum, union representatives filed four initiatives with the City Clerk, one of which aims to extend the $30-per-hour minimum wage to more workers across several industries.