By ERNIE GOTTA
More than 10,000 union hotel workers are on strike in cities including San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Baltimore, San Jose, San Diego, Greenwich, Conn., and in Hawaii, disrupting the profits for the hotels on a busy Labor Day weekend. These members of UNITE HERE in the service sector are setting an important example for all workers; withholding their labor is the major weapon that working people have to force the bosses to meet their demands. More picket lines may follow in the coming days.
According to UNITE HERE: “The U.S. hotel industry made over $100 billion in gross operating profit in 2022, and hotel executives at Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott took home $596 million in total pay between 2020 and 2023. Meanwhile, U.S. hotel staffing per occupied room was down 13% from 2019 to 2022 as many hotels nationwide have kept COVID-era service cuts in place, including understaffing, ending automatic daily housekeeping, removing food and beverage options, and more.”
Prior to the pandemic UNITE HERE hotel workers were winning important concessions, defending women workers from sexual assault, and organizing non-union hotels. The 2018 UNITE HERE strike at Marriott hotels saw some 8000 room attendants, bar tenders, front desk agents, bell staff, and banquet workers walk off the job with the slogan “One job should be enough.” In San Francisco, for example, hotel workers won $4 an hour raises.
In Stamford, Conn., between 2017 and 2018, an organizing drive saw two hotels in New England’s second largest hotel market join UNITE HERE based on the strength of worker-to-worker organizing. In fact, it was the unionized workers now on strike at the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich that helped lead the organizing drive that fought bitter anti-union campaigns by the hotel bosses and in the end won serious increases in pay and improvement in health benefits. The COVID pandemic gave the hotel bosses a boost in trying to undue many of the hard fought gains. Ninety-eight percent of UNITE HERE’s 300,000 members were laid off due to the pandemic, and the bosses used that as a wedge to increase profits while worsening the working conditions.
Hotel workers have had enough and are raising new demands, backed by the willingness to withhold their labor in order to win. Daniela Campusano, a housekeeper at Hilton’s Hampton Inn & Homewood Suites Boston Seaport for 12 years, said, “I’m on strike because I need higher wages. I currently have two jobs, and I work about 65 hours a week. Everything is so expensive now—all my monthly bills have increased, and I need to earn more money so I can help my daughter pay for her university studies. One job should be enough.”
Similarly, Rebeca Laroque, a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich for 12 years stated, “I’m on strike because I need more wages, I need health insurance, and I need less rooms. I work so hard and come home exhausted at the end of the day, but I still don’t make enough money to pay my bills. Going on strike is a huge sacrifice, but it’s something I have to do because I need a better life for me and my two kids.”
“My job was always painful, but now it’s even worse,” said Consuelo Escorcia, a lobby attendant at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco, where workers voted to authorize a strike by 94% of voting members. “They used to staff six of us to clean the lobby and public bathrooms on each shift, but since COVID, we have only two or three. I’ve sacrificed so much for this job over the years. I had to have four surgeries in my hand and shoulder. But in return, the hotel has only made my job harder.”
Don’t cross UNITE HERE’s picket lines at: Fairmont Copley, Hilton Boston Park Plaza, Hilton Boston Logan, Hampton Inn/ Homewood Suites Seaport, Westin Seattle, Seattle Airport Hilton & Conference Center, Doubletree Seattle Airport, SeaTac Hilton, San Francisco Marriott Marquis, the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich, Conn., and anywhere you see a picket line!
Workers’ Voice stands in solidarity with these union hotel workers and their strike. We encourage all to turn out to the picket lines with coworkers, friends, and family. We also extend our solidarity to all hotel workers in negotiations and should more workers across the country go out on strike we’ll be there in solidarity too!
An earlier version of this article reported that only 4000 workers were on strike. This has been updated to 10,000, reflecting additional locals whose participation has now been reported.
