In the ongoing struggle over a "living wage" for 3,500 maids, dishwashers, busboys and other workers at 13 hotels near the Los Angeles International Airport, 11 men and women broke their seven-day, water-only fast Dec. 12 --- on the same day a dozen other workers active in the grassroots campaign were fired by the new owner of the Four Points Sheraton LAX Hotel.

But then Onofre Gallegos, vice president of San Diego-based American Property Management Corporation, announced at a press conference two days later with city officials and labor leaders that the workers would be rehired with back pay. He also pledged to pay all employees the living wage --- $10.64 an hour without health insurance, $9.39 an hour with health insurance. The ordinance was passed last month by the City Council and is scheduled to take effect Dec. 30.

Gallegos also called on other LAX area hotel operators to drop their attempt to repeal the new living wage law for Century Boulevard hotel workers by gathering signatures to sponsor a referendum ballot that would overturn the city ordinance.

"I ask all my fellow hotel operators to abandon this effort to 'referendize' the living wage," he said. "You are on the wrong side of this issue. Get on board. I am embarrassed that my fellow hotels are trying to gather signatures to overturn this living wage. I am embarrassed that they don't feel it's important to provide a living wage to workers."

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, City Council members Janice Hahn, Bill Rosendahl, Jose Huizar, Ed Reyes, Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel along with Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo have all tried to resolve the escalating labor situation.

"This company and Mr. Gallegos have taken a courageous step and showed by example how businesses, elected officials, labor leaders and workers can come together to make Los Angeles a better city," said Vivian Rothstein, deputy director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. "Now it's time for the other LAX hotels to heed this call and drop their attempt to repeal the living wage law, which will lift hard-working men and women out of poverty."

At the early evening ending of the week-long fast, Mayor Villaraigosa pointed out that the "engine" of L.A.'s vibrant economy was its airport and the dedicated workers who provide food and lodging, along with first friendly faces to visitors. He praised the fasters, some of whom have worked in airport area hotels for 20 years at wages low enough to still put them at the federal poverty level.

"We want to honor work and say to the people who work in these hotels that they deserve health care and a decent wage that they can maintain a family on," he said, after serving grape juice to the nine women and two men, huddled under blankets and sleeping bags in a semi-circle on the sidewalk in front of the Westin Hotel on Century Boulevard.

"We're committed to supporting these new ordinances because they're the right thing to do in a city that honors work, a city that is vibrant, the economy is strong. We believe that when the tide rises all boats should rise with that tide."

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who sponsored the living wage law, told The Tidings she was really disappointed in the LAX hotel owners for fighting so hard against paying their employees a decent salary. When Los Angeles passed its first such ordinance in 1997, which required all entities doing business with the city to pay a living wage, many companies were "screaming and yelling" at predictions of dire consequences, she said.

The local economy would suddenly tank. Small business owners would move away. And thousands of jobs would be lost. In short, the sky was sure to fall. But the exact opposite happened, she said, with more new businesses coming into Los Angeles than ever before.

"I think the fasting was a very powerful statement," Hahn said. "I think it will help people in Los Angles to relate to them - to feel more sympathy towards them. I think this was a powerful message that Los Angeles will rally around. So if this goes to the ballot - and I have every feeling at this point that it might - I think Los Angeles will be on the side of the workers on this one."

Yazmin Ortiz of South L.A. fasted so that one day she can send her two-year-old boy and six-year-old girl to college to have a better American life. Right now she works as a parking lot cashier in the LAX Hilton Hotel, earning $9.30 an hour.

"It's a big thing because I'm thinking if we don't have a living wage our children are not going to have a future as adults," she explained. "With my salary, I cannot send my son and my daughter to college. I can't. The rent is going up. Food is getting expensive. And savings? I don't have any. So how can I send my kids to college?"

After a moment, the 24-year-old mother added, "What I'm hoping is for a living wage. It's already passed by the City Council and signed by Villaraigosa, the mayor. I mean, if big, big guys like that have already signed it, why are these people trying to make it a question mark to go to voters? That's not fair for nobody. So now we're trying to say: 'No! It's not right.'"