LOS ANGELES — More than 850,000 Americans applied for unemployment during the first week of December, a nearly 19% increase from the week before. Many of them work in hospitality, such as hotel worker Liliana Hernández. Laid off back in March, she's afraid current stay-at-home orders will make it impossible for her to get back to work.

"Today, I'm really worried because we are like only two weeks to end unemployment benefits," Hernández said as she scrolled through the want ads in her local newspaper. "We don't know when we are going to get any help from the government. They haven't signed any stimulus package for the worker's family."

What You Need To Know

  • UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing over 30,000 hospitality workers in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers, and airports

  • Only 10% of UNITE HERE Local 11 members are still working

  • Membership is predominantly women and people of color

  • Through October, the union's member testing positivity rate was 20%, three times higher than the county’s average

And with the state urging everyone to cancel all nonessential travel, Hernández is not confident it'll get better for her any time soon. With a son at home and her husband also out of work, she is worried they'll lose their home.

"We are worried about what is going to happen if we don't get that help," Hernández said. "And every family out of their home, the place where they live. We don't have money for food also."

Hernández applied for unemployment insurance and pandemic unemployment assistance, but her benefits will run out by the end of December. After that, she said she's on her own.

"I survive on unemployment help right now, and also I have to go every single week to the food banks," Hernández said.

Hernández is a member of the UNITE HERE Local 11, a union of hospitality workers with over 30,000 members. She said she is grateful to have access to healthcare and help filling out unemployment paperwork.

Kurt Petersen is co-president of the union, and he says only 10% of their members are currently working.

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"The latest order by the governor frankly really doesn't matter. There is no tourism in Los Angeles," Petersen said. "The hotels that are open are at 5% or 10% occupancy. There is no work, so it's like moving the chairs around the Titanic. We [have] sunk already."

More than anything, Hernández wants to return to her job at the Fairmont Miramar Santa Monica Hotel. After working there eight years, she believes the government needs to find a way to put skilled labor back to work.

"Most of the housekeepers, we are, we have high skills in cleaning and disinfecting," Hernández said. "They need to be creative in creating jobs that can help right now to the pandemic. I don't know. They can create something to put us at work again."