Hotel worker strike continues, expands

MORE THAN 5,000 hotel workers are now on strike in cities including Honolulu and San Francisco and more recently Seattle and Boston. They are demanding higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of COVID-era cuts, according to UNITE HERE.

Approximately 374 workers from the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport and Hilton Seattle Airport & Conference Center began a one-week strike on Oct. 12. Similarly, around 700 Omni Hotels & Resorts employees joined the strikes in Boston on Oct. 14, raising the city’s total to nearly 1,300, UNITE HERE said in a statement.

“Hotel workers are tired of working long hours while barely getting by. They keep walking out because hotel corporations like Hilton can afford to raise wages,” said Gwen Mills, UNITE HERE’s international president. “The industry is not only recovering from the pandemic but making record profits by cutting staff and guest services. Strikes will continue until Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott settle contracts that help our members recover too.”

The striking workers, all members of UNITE HERE, include housekeepers, front desk agents, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders and bellhops.

“I’m on strike so I can provide for my family. My last paycheck was $300 short for rent and I had to visit a food bank to get by,” said Pearl Johnson, a housekeeper at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport. “The job is so hard on my body that I come home too exhausted to cook for my daughter. It makes me feel like I’m falling short as a mom. It shouldn’t be this way—we need better.”

The Omni Parker House in Boston claims to be the longest continuously operating hotel in the U.S., the statement said.

“I’m on strike because I work two jobs to support my family,” said Yuri Yep, a restaurant server at Omni Parker House. “I’m always rushing and barely have time to see my kids. I’m missing out on my own life. It’s ridiculous to live like this when hotel companies are making record profits. They can afford what we’re asking and we’ll stay on strike until we win for our families.”

“Hotel workers can see through the hotel companies’ excuses,” said Mills. “Workers are done struggling every month while hotel companies like Omni, Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott make record profits. Hotel workers are in this fight for the long haul. Strikes will continue until the hotel corporations agree to contracts that have the wages, staffing and workloads we need.”

Meanwhile, workers in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island, recently ratified contracts at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich and Omni Providence Hotel, marking early victories in national disputes involving Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Omni.

Hilton said it is working toward a resolution to the strike.

“We remain committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements that are beneficial to both our valued team members and to our hotels,” a Hilton spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Approximately 40,000 union hotel workers across the U.S. and Canada are negotiating new contracts this year, fighting for wages that match rising living costs and a reversal of pandemic-era staffing cuts.

Despite record-high room rates and over $100 billion in gross operating profit for the U.S. hotel industry in 2022, workers say their wages remain insufficient, forcing many to take multiple jobs to make ends meet. The union also claims hotels used the pandemic to cut staff and guest services like daily housekeeping and room service. From 2019 to 2022, staffing per occupied room dropped 13 percent, leaving some workers unemployed and others overworked and stressed.

Earlier in October, striking workers in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island, ratified union contracts that include wage increases and healthcare.