In the Los Angeles area, a temporary relief center set up to assist hotel and restaurant employees was deluged yesterday by workers who have lost their jobs in the sharp downturn experienced by the tourist industry following the terrorist attacks of September 11. Thousands of members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union have been laid off or put on short hours in the past month according to the president of HERE Local 11. Aid workers have indicated that as many as 15,000 hotel and restaurant workers in the Los Angeles area, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, may be forced to seek assistance---a number which the aid workers say they are completely unable to handle.
See NANCY CLEELAND, Los Angeles Times, October 10, 2001