SAN DIEGO — The first of May celebrates International Workers' Day, drawing millions throughout the world to the streets to demand fair pay and better work conditions.
Here in San Diego, hundreds of service workers, from cooks to janitors to hotel staffers, took part in the global demonstrations.
On this May Day, workers here are calling on the City of San Diego to mandate a minimum wage of $25 an hour for service workers. It's a move that would boost wages for thousands of employees at local hotels, the convention center, and event centers like Petco Park and Snapdragon Stadium.
Raising their signs and their voices, hundreds of San Diego's service workers marched through downtown San Diego, demanding a nearly 50% increase in the current city-wide minimum wage of $16.85 an hour.
Among the demonstrators was Juan Carlos, a cook at the Hilton Bayfront.
"We are fighting for janitors, we are fighting for hospitality workers, stagehands," he said. "All these people behind the scenes making it happen, making things happen for everyone," he said. "I think we should be compensated more for our work!"
Marching from Bayfront Park in front of the Hilton, through the streets to the Civic Center, many of these workers pointed to the recently-passed pay hike for California's fast food workers.
"If McDonalds workers can make $20 an hour and we bust our butts taking care of tables and taking care of customers, why can't we?" asked April Bushart, a single mom of three young kids who works at Petco Park's Lexus Club.
She said she struggles to make her $3600-a-month rent.
"I'm scraping just to pay my bills, my rent," she told CBS 8. "It's really hard, it really is."
"If those 'ricos' don't want to pay you, then they can clean those buildings themselves!" said Lorena Gonzalez, Chief Officer of the California Labor Federation, addressing hundreds of workers gathered at Civic Center Plaza on Wednesday.
"We know in San Diego the rent is too high and the wages are too low," Gonzalez told CBS 8.
She's hopeful that San Diego City Council will consider this proposed wage ordinance for $25 an hour for service workers.
"It is time that we really lift up these workers who all during the pandemic we called essential," she added. "We relied on them, they continued to do work, service workers, people who keep us happy, keep the tourism economy going, and it is time to pay them what they deserve."
While there's no definite timeline, now that this proposed ordinance has been drafted, workers said they are hopeful that San Diego City Council will consider it and vote on it as soon as possible.
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