After a three-day strike of 10,000 hotel workers in 24 hotels in eight cities across the U.S., most employees have returned to work, but continued picketing and other disruptions are possible. An estimated 700 hotel workers at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront are remaining on an open-ended strike.
Hotel workers with the Unite Here union walked off the job in Boston; Greenwich, Conn.; Honolulu; Kauai, Hawaii; San Diego; San Francisco; San Jose, Calif.; and Seattle. Strikes also were authorized for Baltimore; New Haven, Conn.; Oakland, Calif.; and Providence, R.I. The strike is only affecting hotels that are operated by the brand companies, a Unite Here spokesperson told Hotel Management, as third-party management companies are “not involved” in the labor dispute at this time.
“Strike issues including raises, workloads and COVID-era cuts have not been resolved,” Gwen Mills, international president of Unite Here, said in a statement. “During COVID, everyone suffered, but now the hotel industry is making record profits while workers and guests are left behind. Workers aren’t making enough to support their families, and many can no longer afford to live in the cities that they welcome guests to. Too many hotels still haven’t restored staffing or the services that guests deserve, like automatic daily housekeeping and roomservice, and painful workloads are breaking workers’ bodies. We won’t accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit by cutting their offerings to guests and abandoning their commitments to workers.”
Negotiations
“We've been in negotiations with Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton for months now," the Unite Here spokesperson said, noting that the negotiations have been organized city by city.
“Many people who stayed in hotels have noticed that many services that were suspended during COVID have not come back, and neither have staffing levels,” the spokesperson continued. “There's understaffing in virtually every department and hotel workers are saying their jobs are harder and more painful than they've ever been.”
Citing statistics from STR, the union argued that while room rates are at record highs and the U.S. hotel industry made more than $100 billion in gross operating profit in 2022, hotel staffing per occupied room was down 13 percent from 2019 to 2022.
The Unite Here spokesperson claimed that the interests of hotel workers, owners, operators and their guests are “very aligned” right now as the industry readjusts and owners and operators look to recuperate some of the losses they faced during the worst of the COVID downturn. But while eliminating room service, switching full-service dining to grab-and-go and ending automatic daily housekeeping have helped save money and increase profits, the spokesperson argued that the profits can come at the expense of workers and the guest experience. “We're fighting back against that.”
According to CNN, limited-duration strikes are a “relatively new strategy” for U.S. unions, but are common in some other countries, notably in Europe. The strategy is intended to help workers keep as many days of pay as possible during a contract negotiation.
A spokesperson for the American Hotel & Lodging Association said AHLA does not “participate in or comment on its members’ collective bargaining negotiations.”
Hotel Workers' Stories
Several workers shared statements with Unite Here about why they were participating in the strike.
“I’m on strike because I don’t want hotels to become the next airline industry,” said Christian Carbajal, a market attendant who has worked for 15 years at the Hilton Bayfront in San Diego. “I used to work in roomservice, but after COVID, they closed my department. Now I work in the grab-and-go market. Guests complain to me that they can no longer get a steak delivered up to the room, and the tips aren’t what they used to be. I’m making less than I used to, and now two families share my house because we can't afford the rent anymore. The hotels should respect our work and our guests.”
“I walked out today because we just cannot keep working paycheck to paycheck, not able to pay our bills,” said Jerome Roberts, a dishwasher at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor. “Going on strike is hard, but not nearly as hard as trying to get by on what we are getting paid. We told the bosses in our negotiations how much we are struggling right now but they didn’t care. We are on strike to make them pay.”
“I work four part-time jobs to survive,” said Concepción Marquez, a banquet server at the Signia by Hilton San Jose and Marriott San Jose for 21 years. “Going on strike is a huge sacrifice, but it’s something I have to do for my family. Right now, we don’t have health insurance because my employers won’t give me hours. We told the bosses in our negotiations how hard things are for us right now, but they didn’t care. The hotel only respects power, so it’s time to show them our strength.”
"Even when it’s busy I might not work, because after COVID the hotel started ‘holding’ checkout rooms, which is when they wait to clean these dirty rooms instead of calling in more housekeepers,” said Hannah Lin, housekeeper at Hilton San Francisco Union Square for 10 years. “When I first came to America it wasn’t like this at all. Now, it feels almost as if I lost the job. Going on strike is a huge sacrifice, but it’s something I have to do to win wages and job security that allow me to provide for my family. We told the bosses in our negotiations how hard things are for us right now, but they didn’t care. The hotel only respects power, so it’s time to show them our strength."
“I sleep with pain, I wake up with pain, I go to work with pain,” said Jianci Liang, housekeeper at Hilton Park Plaza in Boston for seven years. “Since we returned to work after COVID, there are about 20 fewer room attendants on the regular schedule. Without the proper staffing, my job is getting harder and harder. When the rooms are sold out, we have to cover the work of the missing people. I have no choice but to work, because it’s hard to save money or set aside funds for an emergency.”