Workers are picketing the Argent, Hilton, Crowne Plaza, and Mark Hopkins in a strike planned to last two weeks to hold back company attempts to cut health-care benefits, and to push for higher wages.

The hotel bosses have counterattacked by locking out 2,600 employees from the other 10 hotels that were also in contract negotiations, and using temporary agencies to replace union members in an effort to break the strike. The owners said October 5 they will continue the lockout at all 14 hotels after the two-week strike ends.

The 24-hour pickets have been upbeat and feisty, despite harassment from police. Strikers say a number of hotel guests have shown support for the union fight. The San Francisco Chronicle, on the other hand, reported that some guests threw urine and ice water on pickets.

Striker Roberto Marquez told Militant reporters, “It’s simple. We’re fighting to defend our rights. The reason we have any of these benefits is because of the past. We are fighting for the same thing now as we did then. But we shouldn’t have to be fighting, these things should be a right.”

The San Francisco Multi-Employers Group, which represents the 14 hotel owners, is demanding an increase in the health-insurance premium from the current $10 per month to $273 per month in the fifth year of the new contract. The bosses also aim to double the minimum number of hours worked per month needed to qualify for medical insurance—from about 40 hours to 80 hours per month. This would cut off more than 1,000 hotel workers from health benefits, say union officials.

Workers are also fighting for better pay. The bosses have offered a 20 cents an hour annual raise in a five-year contract to workers who do not receive tips, and 5 cents an hour for those who do. This is a pittance, considering how the cost of living is increasing, the strikers say.

Union members in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., are also disputing the hotel bosses contract offer, and all are pushing for an expiration date in 2006. This would match the contract date for hotel workers in other cities plus the state of Hawaii. In response, the hotel bosses have filed an unfair labor practice charge against the union with the National Labor Relations Board.

UNITE HERE Local 11 in Southern California held a rally of 1,200 in downtown Los Angeles October 5 to support the strikers in San Francisco.  
 
 
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