A massive "Community Wall of Support" was unveiled today at Olvera Street as leaders and residents rallied behind Los Angeles hotel workers at the beginning of Labor Day Weekend.

Nearly 3,000 hotel workers have been without a contract for several months. The workers are demanding better wages, benefits and working conditions, as well as a national voice that will enable them to move from poverty into the middle class.

Thousands of hotel workers in San Francisco are also without a contract, and the contract for thousands more in Washington, D.C. will expire September 15. Workers in all three cities are seeking a two-year contract that will align their contract expirations with workers in seven other cities.

California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez headlined the event. "In this country, if you work hard, you can make a better life for yourself and your family," said Nunez, the sponsor of a bill that would improve working conditions for hotel housekeepers. "That's not happening for hotel workers, who like millions of hard-working Americans find that poverty and abuse is the reward for their labor."

The bill has been passed by the Assembly and State Senate, and is awaiting action by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Community Wall of Support carries the names of thousands of Los Angeles residents who have pledged to back the hotel workers. Each of the names is accompanied by the name of a hotel worker. The Wall-which is divided into nine panels representing the nine hotels that form the Employers Council that has been negotiating with Local 11 of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE)/UNITE- will be used as symbol of community support at a series of events throughout Los Angels in the coming weeks.

The action was organized by the Los Angeles Coalition to Support Housekeepers, an alliance of more than two dozen community groups throughout Los Angeles.

Also speaking at today's event were Congresswoman Hilda Solis; Assemblymember Judy Chu; Ramona Ripston, Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California; John Perez, President of United Teachers of Los Angeles; Rev. Norman Copeland of Ward AME Church; San Fernando City Councilmember Nury Martinez; and Bonaventure Hotel housekeeper Aida Marmol.