No Golden Globes Picket Line! Striking Hotel Workers & Beverly Hilton Reach A Deal Days Before Nominations Unveiled

Dominic Patten
·3 min read

Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars will not have to contemplate crossing a picket line at the Golden Globes next month.

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Less than 100 hours before nominations for January 7th 81st Golden Globes Awards are to be announced on Monday morning, UNITE HERE Local 11 and the Beverly Hilton have reached a tentative agreement. “Together, the iconic Beverly Hilton and its employees set the stage for the awards season, and we are delighted to be able to do so once again,” the hotel and the local said in a joint statement Friday evening.

Like many hotel workers across LA, the hundreds of housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers, and front desk workers at the iconic Tinseltown venue have been out on strike in the July 4th holiday.

“Hotel workers at the Beverly Hilton are eager to kick off the awards season now that Hollywood is back in full swing because they have a contract with a living wage,” Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11 told Deadline tonight.  “The Beverly Hilton is a leader in Beverly Hills, and we challenge the Fairmont Century Plaza and Beverly Wilshire to quickly follow suit.”

In a deal that includes big wage increases, self-described historic Equal Justice language, new healthcare packages, and pension increases, the Beverly Hilton is the first hotel in the ritzy jurisdiction to make a deal with the hotel workers. Owned by Alagem Capital Group chairman Beny Alagem since 2003 and a favorite of presidents and celebrities, the Beverly Hilton ran the risk of a major embarrassment for itself and the revamped Globes if picket lines greeted the gilded nominees, luminaries and other guests next month.

After years of scandal and controversy and a move from long time home NBC to CBS, the revitalized Globes sought to be the first major award show to be adrenalized from the end of the bitter WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and truly roll out the red carpet.

Coming off the long months of those now resolved scribes and actors’ strikes, in which the hotel workers were allies at many rallies and saw the guilds reciprocate, a conflict at the dick clark production run Globes had the potential to reignite labor battle grounds in Hollywood. More than a few WGA and actors guild members have been expressing their solidarity with UNITE HERE Local 11 and were planning to take up placards on the line with them on January 9th if no deal had been reached by then.

Now, that a deal has been reached, it’s back to the boozy Globes as normal, kinda.

In addition to the Globes, other awards shows set to be held at the Beverly Hilton over the next few months include the 2023 HRTS Foundation Gala (Dev 14), the rescheduled  American Cinematheque Awards Tribute To Helen Mirren (Feb 15), the Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Awards (Feb 18) and  the ICG Publicists Awards (March 8).

Downtown’s the Biltmore has already reached a pact for labor peace with UNITE HERE Local 11, as have the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites the Laguna Cliffs Marriott, Le Merigot Santa Monica and the Loews Hollywood Hotel.

FULL DISCLOSURE: dick clark productions is co-owned by Deadline’s parent company PMC.

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