Unionized hotel workers stepped up their campaign against the owners of nine upscale hotels in the Los Angeles area, calling Thursday for a boycott of the hotels until a drawn-out contract dispute is settled.

Labor leaders urged travelers to avoid the hotels -- which include the Sheraton Universal in the San Fernando Valley and hotels in downtown Los Angeles, West Los Angeles and West Hollywood -- until the hotel owners increase pay and benefits to nearly 3,000 workers.

"We are going to ask all of our unions, all of our allies in the political field ... to stay out of these hotels," said Miguel Contreras, the head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. "Do not attend any functions, no banquets. Stay out of these hotels. We are very serious about winning this fight."

The hotel owners are willing to bargain in good faith but have been stymied by the union's refusal to meet with them, said Fred Muir, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Hotel Employers Council.

Muir said the housekeepers, servers, cooks and other employees urging the boycott were hurting themselves by driving business away.

"We think their time is better spent coming back to the table rather than doing this."

The contract between the hotels and the union, Unite HERE Local 11, expired in April. Issues in the dispute include employer-paid health care and the length of the contract. National hotel union leaders are pushing for all contracts to expire in 2006 so that all unions can bargain as a team -- a proposal that hotel owners are resisting.

On Thursday, more than 100 union members and supporters chanted "Boycott now!" and picketed in front of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, one of the nine targets.

"There is concern about what the hotels are doing already -- they are using intimidation and pressure against their workers," said Maria Elena Durazo, the president of Unite HERE Local 11. "What can possibly be worse?"

Workers have voted to authorize a strike if contract talks collapse.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents the downtown area, said she and Mayor James Hahn have urged both sides to return to the bargaining table.

"There's a lot of money being made in downtown right now," Perry said. "I think there's enough to spread around (to workers)."

More News About the Los Angeles Hotel Workers' Struggle for a Fair Contract >>