The NBCUniversal campus, already a flashpoint for Hollywood’s ongoing labor unrest, as the writers and actors guilds have alleged picket-busting, is now the site of a new strike controversy.
This time, Unite Here Local 11, the Southern California hospitality union that’s also currently staging walkouts, is claiming that the Sheraton Universal is retaliating against its workers for protesting.
The firm and its billionaire real estate developer owner, Wei Huang, were sentenced earlier this year by a federal judge in a public corruption case involving the bribing of the former Los Angeles City Councilman José Huizar.
About 15,000 members — including housekeepers, dishwashers and bellmen — are pushing for higher wages as well as more affordable health insurance, a ban on discrimination based on immigration status and other considerations.
The WGA and SAG-AFTRA filed their own NLRB complaints against NBCUniversal in July over their belief that the studio had infringed on their members’ right to picket as well as their safety by obstructing the public sidewalk in front of the lot.
A city agency also cited the company for illegal sidewalk tree pruning, which the guilds believed was suspiciously timed to eliminate shade amid a summer heat wave.
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