Unite HERE Local 11 and the Los Angeles Hotel Employer’s Council will return to the bargaining table Monday for the first time since mid-December in hopes of hammering out an agreement to replace the six-year contract that expired April 15, 2004.

Since the sides last met union leaders have been mulling over an offer from hotels that calls for unspecified improvements in wages and benefits contained in the same five-year contract they originally demanded nearly a year ago.

Local 11, which represents 2,800 workers at nine L.A. hotels, wants a contract that will expire in 2006, lining up the expiration date with Unite HERE contracts in other major cities, creating a national bargaining unit.