Unionized hotel workers called for a boycott of nine upscale hotels in the Los Angeles area until a drawn-out contract dispute is settled.

Labor leaders asked travelers to avoid the hotels -- located in the San Fernando Valley, downtown Los Angeles, West Los Angeles and West Hollywood -- until the owners increase pay and benefits for 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, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. "Do not attend any functions, no banquets. ... We are very serious about winning this fight."

The hotel owners are willing to bargain in good faith, but the union has refused 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 pushing for the boycott were by driving business away and hurting their cause.

"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.

Among the issues in dispute are employer-paid health care and the contract's length. National hotel union leaders want all contracts to expire in 2006 so unions can bargain as a team. Hotel owners want to avoid that scenario.

More than 100 union members and supporters picketed Thursday in front of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, one of the nine hotels.

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