Almost 10,000 hotel workers in 25 major hotels across the country went on strike, demanding higher wages and the reversal of COVID-era job cuts that have increased pressure on the existing staff.
This strike came as the contracts of more than 40,000 Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt hotel workers began to expire, and the workers were negotiating new contracts with higher pay and better working conditions.
The workers were supported by the labor union Unite Here, which announced the strike in cities including San Diego, San Francisco, Honolulu, Greenwich, Seattle, Boston, and others, with many more workers ready to go on strike in more regions nationwide.
The union claimed that the lack of staff in major hotel chains is burdening the current employees, who are always expected to do extra work to cover the staff shortage.
One Marriott’s Palace worker said that the hotel management demands that their staff provide five-star service with only three-star staff. Similarly, a dishwasher at Hilton, Jerome Roberts, noted that workers cannot live paycheck to paycheck and that their bosses are not listening to them, so workers have decided to “make them pay.”
Reportedly, Baltimore workers earning as little as $16.5 per hour want new contracts that pay at least $20 per hour, while Boston hotel workers demand a $10 an-hour increase. The negotiations for new contracts have been underway since May.
Gwen Mills, the president of Unite Here, said that hotels are simultaneously reducing their service quality and exploiting workers to increase their profit margins. These tactics from hotel companies have become a “new normal,” Mills added, and they are not acceptable to the workers.
The union argued that despite making up for the losses incurred by the pandemic, the hotels are reluctant to spend the money to hire more workers and shift the monetary benefits to the working class.
Unite Here workers have previously received favorable contracts after launching strikes in Los Angeles and Detroit.
Suppose the protests do not bring immediate results. In that case, the union also threatens to expand its strikes to other cities, which could impact 65 branches of Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt in 12 different US cities.
Meanwhile, hotels affected by the strike indicated that they had emergency plans and would negotiate a fair agreement with the union workers.
Michael D’Angelo from Hyatt’s labor relations department suggested that the company is adopting contingency plans to minimize the strike’s impact on its operations.
